Kurt Angle would have liked to run it back with Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 22 in 2006.
Kurt Angle and Shawn Michaels wrestled for the first time at WWE WrestleMania 21 in 2005. Angle would win the first encounter and set up a rivalry that would play out over several matches in 2005, culminating with a 30-minute Iron Man Match at WWE Raw: Homecoming in 2005.
Within the first week of 2006, an injury to Batista forced Kurt Angle to be moved over to WWE Friday Night SmackDown, where he would become the WWE World Heavyweight Champion for the last time by winning a Battle Royal.
Ultimately, Kurt Angle went on to defend the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 22 against both Rey Mysterio and Randy Orton, while Shawn Michaels went on to face Vince McMahon in a Street Fight that became the first step in the reuniting of D-Generation X.
Speaking about that fateful first couple of weeks in 2006 on the latest episode of his podcast, Kurt Angle noted that there were no significant talks of what he would have done at the 2006 WrestleMania in Chicago had he not been moved over to SmackDown. However, if he had his choice, he would have liked one more WrestleMania match with "Mr. WrestleMania," Shawn Michaels.
"I'm not quite sure, but my guess was a repeat against Shawn Michaels," said Kurt. "We were doing a lot of on and off. Shawn and I were working together all year long, since 2005 at WrestleMania. All through that year, all 2005, in the beginning of 2006, I was still working with Shawn and John Cena, but I would imagine it would be a program either with John Cena or Shawn Michaels."
Kurt later added that if he had his personal choice of opponent at WrestleMania at the Allstate Arena, it would have been another match with HBK.
"We were doing a lot of work together, and I would have been really excited about that. To work with Shawn again would have been the match that I would have picked for WrestleMania, definitely. To be able to wrestle Shawn a second time at WrestleMania, that would have been incredible."
WrestleMania 22 would be Kurt Angle's last WrestleMania before he returned to WWE in 2017 and competed at WrestleMania 34 in 2018, wrestling Triple H and Stephanie McMahon alongside Ronda Rousey. Angle ultimately retired at WrestleMania 35 after a loss to Baron Corbin.
Shawn Michaels never wrestled Kurt Angle after 2006; after his retirement in 2010, he only came back for one more match. A tag team match in Saudi Arabia with a reported major payoff. In response to Shawn Michaels' reported payoff, Kurt Angle stated that he would take $3 million to wrestle in Saudi Arabia regardless of his physical condition. Read more here.
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