Like most sports these days, professional wrestlers have a life in the business after their in-ring careers are over. Former competitors have transitioned to backstage producer roles for decades, and upon the launch of the WWE Performance Center in 2013, dozens of coaching and advising roles opened up for ex-wrestlers.
For WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle, producing was a byproduct of both. After returning to the company in 2017, Kurt Angle was elected into the WWE Hall of Fame and became an on-screen authority figure shortly after. It was long professed that Angle would eventually wrestle for WWE again, but that return match wouldn't come for many months. By the time he was active again, Angle's health gave him roughly just one year of part-time matches.
Angle's retirement is largely panned by fans, as many felt his career did not end on the high note it could have. Much of that was due to his retirement match itself, as many, including Angle himself, pushed for John Cena to be his final opponent. In the years since, Angle has briefly flirted with wrestling once more but has always come back to the conclusion that his body cannot do it anymore.