WWE: Kurt Angle on Retirement Match, Jim Johnston, NXT WarGames III, WrestleMania 35

Kurt Angle Comments on Facing Baron Corbin for His Retirement Match

Kurt Angle reflected on Instagram about Baron Corbin being named as his opponent for his retirement match at WrestleMania 35.

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My farewell match will be against Baron Corbin at Wrestlemania. I realize it’s not the most popular decision from a fan’s perspective… BUT I will make Corbin tap out on the biggest stage of them all…. and I Hope you can share this moment/accomplishment with me on April 7th. Baron is a legit tough guy. It won’t be easy but it never is. #itstrue #wrestlemania35 #wwe #wrestling

A post shared by Kurt Angle (@therealkurtangle) on Mar 18, 2019 at 9:01pm PDT

Jim Johnston Comments on His WWE Release

As noted before, legendary wrestling musical composer Jim Johnston was released by WWE in late 2017 after a lengthy career in the company.

A recent episode of the Total Engagement with Matt Koon podcast had Johnston as the guest and one of the topics discussed included his release from WWE and the reason why it happened.

“I was getting cut out. That was by design. Not necessarily Vince’s design, but other folks. It’s his company, he can do whatever the hell he wants with it. It isn’t like he owes me a job. I knew this was coming to an end and particularly maybe for the last year, I knew the writing was on the wall. This guy has pushed me out, but you know I was so discouraged by it all and I wasn’t doing what I want to do, which is to write great music and I am a worker. I don’t want a job where I don’t have to work. There wasn’t ever a millisecond where I thought, ‘Wow, isn’t this great? I’m really not doing that much music, but they’re continuing to pay me! Oh my God, what a great deal!’ It was awful. I hate that. I hated that feeling. I’ve got handcuffs on, I can’t contribute and I eventually told Vince that as well. I said, ‘this is not right.’ I also told him at the time, ‘hey, if you’re unhappy with me, fire me. Fire me right now. You can fire me right now. I’m taking the pressure off. Go ahead. Fire me.

I had my one meeting with Vince and ultimately nothing changed and then suddenly I got a meet and planner one day that I had a meeting in Vince’s office the next afternoon and I knew in an instant, ‘Okay tomorrow at four, I’m being fired,’ It was a scary time, but it was a very brief event because after he said his piece I was like, ‘okay’ and I stood up and left.”

NXT TakeOver: WarGames III Date Revealed

This year’s NXT WarGames event, NXT TakeOver: WarGames III, will be taking place on November 23rd at the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois, according to local advertising.

During last night’s episode of WWE RAW at the Allstate Arena, WWE aired an advertisement in the venue announcing that they will be returning in November and the dates for their Survivor Series 2019 weekend set of shows in the venue.

• November 22 – WWE SmackDown Live
• November 23 – WWE NXT TakeOver: WarGames III
• November 24 – WWE Survivor Series 2019
• November 25 – WWE RAW

WrestleMania 35 Card Update

As noted before, WWE officially announced two new matches for the card of next month’s WrestleMania 35 event in East Rutherford, New Jersey. These were a singles match of Kurt Angle vs. Baron Corbin and the return of the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported that there are “at least three more matches” yet to be officially announced for the event’s card.

In an update to WrestleMania 35 card’s status, Post Wrestling’s John Pollock reported that WWE currently has plans for four more matches to be added to the event’s card. These are a Women’s Battle Royal match, United States Championship match, SmackDown Women’s Championship match, and SmackDown Tag Team Championship match.