WWE Stars Past and Present React to the Removal of Wrestling from the Olympics

As expected, the news that the International Olympic Committee plans to remove wrestling from the 2020 Summer Olympics drew the ire of several current and former WWE superstars, many of whom have extensive amateur wrestling backgrounds.

WrestlingInc.com reports that many of them took to Twitter to air their frustration over the decision.

According to the report, Kurt Angle, who won wrestling gold at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, tweets that he was “shocked” by the decision, but he was hopeful that the decision could be reversed.

“Wrestling will Stay in Olympics,” Angle says in his tweet.

The report cites tweets from other superstars.

Alberto Del Rio, the current WWE World Heavyweight Champion, tweets, “Wrestling is been part of the Olympic Games since the beginning. It's a beautiful sport! But I guess shooting a gun or forcing a horse to jump over hedges is more of a sport than wrestling to the committee. This is not right!”

Del Rio’s ring announcer, Ricardo Rodriguez, also weighed in:

Big E. Langston, usually a quiet character at ringside, tweets that he thought the decision was “baffling. I learned life lessons on the mat that I'll never forget.”

Tyson Kidd, currently on the shelf rehabbing a knee injury, tweets that he could not “understand the thought process” behind removing wrestling from the Olympics.

According to the WrestlingInc.com report, Diamond Dallas Page tweeted that a Facebook page has been created to encourage reversal of the decision. In the tweet, he urges followers to “get this page going.”

Follow Bill Atkinson on Twitter at @BAtkinson1963.