Undertaker, Kurt Angle will no longer appear at Starrcast II

The Undertaker and Kurt Angle will not be appearing at Starrcast II in May after all.

Pro wrestling giveth, but the WWE, apparently, taketh away.

In February, it was confirmed that The Undertaker would be appearing at Starrcast II, the pro wrestling fan and podcast convention organized by Conrad Thompson and planned around All Elite Wrestling’s Double or Nothing event on May 25 in Las Vegas. And, following the announcement that his retirement from the WWE was imminent, AEW executive vice president Cody broke the news that Kurt Angle would also be appearing at Starrcast.

But on Tuesday, Thompson, in speaking to Sports Illustrated‘s Justin Barrasso, revealed that neither Undertaker nor Angle would be appearing and that it’s pressure from the WWE that is to blame. Thompson said, “The announcement [about The Undertaker’s appearance] went wide and viral. I was told it had gotten WWE’s attention and that Vince McMahon texted The Undertaker about the appearance. ’Taker’s representation, which is a company called Get Engaged, called to tell me, ‘WWE says he can’t do it.'”

A friend of Thompson’s reached out to WWE chairman and CEO, Vince McMahon, and McMahon’s tack was that, “The Undertaker shouldn’t be doing personal appearances outside of WWE.”

This is not surprising when it comes to The Undertaker, given that Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio reported earlier in April that The Undertaker had signed a new deal with the WWE, in part because the WWE wanted to limit and/or control his ability to make public appearances in character for other companies or entities. Starrcast would certainly apply in that case.

Thompson made a counter-offer to the WWE: “I suggested Vince McMahon, Hunter, or Stephanie McMahon. And I said I would donate 100 percent of the proceeds to Conor’s Cure and match the donation personally, which would turn a negative into a positive for everyone involved,” Thompson said to SI. That was a no-go; his next move is to try to get another WWE legend, Shawn Michaels, to take Undertaker’s place. As of now, there’s no word if that will work out.

There was no additional information about why Angle is no longer appearing, but it seems like a similar situation is in play: pressure from the WWE offices to keep their talent (or, in Angle’s case, recently-retired talent) from working in conjunction of anything they consider competition. Even though, as has been stressed by Thompson, Cody and others, that Starrcast II is certainly AEW-adjacent, but not an official AEW event.

Said Thompson,

"“I offered to book everyone ‘through the office.’. I wanted to play by the rules but I felt like I already had, since each of these guys were actively marketing themselves for outside appearances via booking agents or their own social media. I have checked in daily for a week now and nothing is changing … I had an agreement in place with the talent. Without exception, I dealt directly with the talent or their management, they set their terms, and I complied. First class travel accommodations were made and marketing was done. Now, thanks to the influence of WWE, the performers are missing out on substantial income and the fans are being punished.”"

Of course, the WWE doesn’t care about “punishing” wrestling fans when those fans’ dollars are headed in a non-WWE direction. Clearly, they think that having their talent (or key former talents) associated with Starrcast is in some way damaging to their business or undesirable. While it’s difficult to say why this hard-line approach is at all necessary on the WWE’s part, it also falls well in line with the many attempts to protect their own company. And exerting random control over their wrestlers — whom we all know are not employees but independent contractors — has long been a feature and not a bug of the promotion.

Still, Starrcast figures to draw a lot of fan attention in May, and numerous other big names in the business have already signed on for appearances and other events. While The Undertaker and Angle would have both been major attractions, their absences won’t have too large a net effect on whether the event is a success.