10 WWE Superstars Who Went AWOL After WrestleMania
3. Kurt Angle
Though widely reported online in the weeks leading up to the event, WWE had chosen to hide Kurt Angle's hazardous physical fragility ahead of his WrestleMania 19 title match with Brock Lesnar.
Staring down the barrel of neck surgery, Kurt was preparing to undergo an experimental operation to repair his frazzled frame, but elected to put Lesnar over in a physically draining encounter at the 'Showcase of the Immortals' all the same.
Due to the assumed knowledge from a large portion of the wrestling audience, WWE had actually teased the match weeks earlier and pulled a bait-and-switch when Kurt employed his brother Eric as a lookalike to lure Brock into a cheap defeat.
However, Kurt's determination to carry his end of the WrestleMania main event prevailed, and under the most delicate of circumstances, he got through the match to fall to Brock after three F5s and a memorably botched shooting star press.
Following their proper match at the 'Show of Shows', former heel Angle left television without appearing again until his ludicrously quick return from surgery in June.
The response to his return was thunderous, with Kurt working the remainder of the year as a highly respected babyface after his brave effort at WrestleMania and lightening-quick rehabilitation.