Kurt Angle (Photo by Albert L. Ortega/WireImage)

One of the most legendary athletes in the history of both amateur and professional wrestling, Kurt Angle has been a world class competitor for over 25 years.

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Now 48, the 1996 Olympic Games gold medalist and multi-time WWE Champion recently returned to WWE after a decade long absence, and has settled well into his new role as Raw General Manager.

Despite his legendary success, Angle has battled personal problems for much of his life. A severe addiction to painkillers resulted in four arrests for driving under the influence, while he came close to death on many occasions.

Now happy, clean and sober, Angle has created the AngleStrong recovery management app to help addicts stay clean after rehab, and he spoke to Metro Sport about his new venture, his addictions, and who he would like to face in his wrestling return.




At which point did you become aware that you had a drug addiction?

I was in denial for about eight years. I was getting in trouble too, at one point I had four DUIs in five years, and it was just bad judgement and bad decisions. It was one big blur

Then I realised I wasn’t a role model anymore, which was something very important to me. My wife approached me after my fourth stint in jail and she was tired of me passing out in the early evening on the rare times I was home.

Do you know anyone struggling from addiction? You're not alone. Go to https://t.co/8dyeVrjrIJ to sign up… https://t.co/3rRmkcKNtN — Kurt Angle (@RealKurtAngle) June 6, 2017

I went to get help because my wife was going to leave me. She’s a strong woman and she didn’t want to live like that. I didn’t realise I was that bad, but when you have an addiction you don’t know the damage you can do to other people, all you care about is the drugs.

You wonder how you’re going to get them daily. It consumes your life.

How self aware were you at the time about the issues you had? There was a lot of speculation around the wrestling business at the time regarding your drug problems.

I wasn’t a real big fan of social media at the time, so I didn’t know or care what people thought about me, but I heard the rumour that I was on death watch.

Although I almost did many times, I don’t think that I ever thought I would end my own life.

For me, I didn’t know what other people were thinking, and I think a lot of addicts feel that way. As long as they’re high or getting the drugs, they feel that they’re functioning properly.

It gets to a point when you’re an addict that you just take drugs to feel normal, it’s not about the high, you just don’t want to go through withdrawal.

The feeling of highness and euphoria wears off because your body builds a tolerance to it.

I was taking one pill a day, and then two, four, eight and before I knew it I was spending $3,000 a month on painkillers because I was taking 65 extra strength Vicodin a day.

The reason I had to take that amount was so that I wouldn’t feel withdrawal.

Opiates are the worst drugs of them all, and once your body builds that tolerance, you just have to keep taking more and more, and it doesn’t stop until you overdose.



You mentioned that you came close to death a number of times. When you experienced that, was it accidental or intentional?

It was all accidental. You have to remember I was fortunate, I had money and I had a family. There are a lot of people who lose everything, and they become not only depressed, but that they don’t have anything to live for.

I didn’t get to that point, and the reason is because I was still able to function with my job, and still able to do the things I had to do to provide for my family.

There was a point when TNA should have fired me, but they didn’t, so I continued on with my habits because I didn’t get reprimanded.

It wasn’t until the fourth DUI happened that things changed, and the crazy thing is that all four of those cases either got thrown out or reduced to a lesser charge.

I should have gotten nailed for at least one of them but I didn’t, so TNA didn’t have to reprimand me.

You wrestled a lot of great matches in TNA, but could they have done more to help you?

They didn’t see me high. I took what I had to take during the day to keep me from having withdrawal, so I was very normal then, but the evening was when I would take lots of it and also drink lots of alcohol in my hotel room.


My worst came when I got isolated and was in my own little world. The reason I had the DUIs is because we traveled so much, and I took chances and I drank alcohol while I was driving. It was a terrible decision, but when you’re knee deep in addiction and taking the pills, you end up just thinking you’ll be fine.

As far as my job, my wrestling couldn’t have been better. Whether I did or didn’t take the pills, my performance was always five star, because I didn’t get high during the day.

How impactful has your wrestling style been on your injuries and addictions?

I always will be a very physical wrestler, but when I broke my neck several times, the reason it kept breaking was because I kept rushing to be back in the ring.

That was my decision, and back then I would get my own doctor to clear me. WWE doesn’t do that any more, they have their own doctors that clear you to wrestle.

When I had surgery on my neck in 2003, I kept pounding my doctor saying ‘listen, it’s been four weeks I know I’m ready, clear me.’

And the doctor would say that we needed to wait a few months, and I’d be insistent saying I was fine, and then I’d be cleared. So I’d go back with my neck not being 100% healed, with WWE not knowing that I was still healing from the injury.


I broke my neck four times in two and a half years, but in reality it was the same injury being redone over and over again because I never let it heal.

What happened when the injury kept reoccurring?

The fourth time I broke my neck in 2006 was when Vince McMahon told me not only he wanted me to take time off, but he wanted me to go to rehab because he knew something was going on.

I was hiding the situation from WWE and he could tell there was a difference in me. That’s when he gave me the ultimatum to take some time off and go to rehab. I said no, and that I wanted to quit because I didn’t want to stop taking the drugs.

Vince McMahon did not want to fire me or let me go by any means, but at the same time I didn’t want to end my addiction, and I knew that’s what he wanted.

He gave me the release after I told him I wanted out of the company.

How did the road to recovery begin? What did you do to get clean?

I went to rehab, but I didn’t really have a method. Very seldom does one trip to rehab keep you clean for the rest of your life, and 95% of people that go to rehab relapse.

I’ve had tough days since where I thought that I’d love to start using again, but once I got clean I realised that I almost lost my family and I was eventually going to lose my job.

AngleStrong

At rehab there was so much structure, everything was laid out and it was so easy to stay clean in there. Once you go through detox it’s easy, you do yoga, have breakfast, workout, and then you go to bed and get eight hours rest every night.

Your AngleStrong app was created in order to help people once they’re out of rehab. Why did you feel the need to make it?

The problem with rehab is that once you get out, the structure is gone and you’re on your own in the real world facing the same challenged you faced before.That’s why almost everybody relapses.

I got really concerned about why people kept relapsing and I wanted to make a difference. That’s why we created the AngleStrong app. It gives you the structure you need to keep people in check and hold yourself accountable.

The app is great because you sign up, fill in the profile and answer the questions every day. If you don’t answer every day or don’t check in, the people you rely on as your lifelines will be notified.

It holds hold you accountable because if you’re not following the app and doing everything it tells you to do, your lifelines are notified and they’re going to come find you.

We made the app GPS enabled so that if you do relapse, we will find you and go looking for you. There are a lot of cool things about the app that I love, but the main thing was it gives structure after rehab.

That’s why I wanted to do something, especially considering the opiate problem.

What is it about strong painkillers which causes so many addiction problems?

Painkillers are the same thing as heroin. The only reason I didn’t take heroin is because I had money. If I had lost all my money, heroin is a hell of a lot cheaper than painkillers.

I’m no different to any heroin addict.

You returned to WWE in April after over a ten year absence. How different is the company now from when you left?

I can tell you that it is a completely different world today. They cater to the athletes so much, from diet to exercise, including at the buildings.

When I was there before we only had one meal between one and three PM, and if you missed it too bad, but now they’re healthy food at the building until the late evening.

The athletes get drug tested at least four to 12 times a year to make sure they’re clean, and they have a wellness policy where they have to take physicals every year to make sure they can wrestle.

If you bang up your knee and you’re not sure if you’re hurt but you want to go wrestle, you can’t. They’re being more safe than sorry and that’s incredible.

You’re now firmly back within the company, where you’re currently playing the General Manager of Raw where you’ve just begun an intriguing storyline. How does that feel?

I always wanted to end my career in WWE, but I knew it would take a lot of hard work to come back. I also knew how valuable Kurt Angle was, but at the same time if you have all those DUIs, you’re not going be looked at.

For WWE to even talk to me I had to get clean for four years, and I understand that they’re going to continue to monitor and drug test me to make sure I do stay clean.

I’m okay with that, but I also know I bring a lot of value to the company. It’s kinda nice to start this program, and however it ends up, whether I wrestle or not it’ll be good.

You must have some dream opponents in mind if you do get back in the ring?

There are a lot of great athletes in WWE right now so I’m not going to be too choosy. I’d love to go another round with Brock Lesnar or Triple H or even John Cena again, but there is a lot of talent I really enjoy watching.

AJ Styles and Seth Rollins, Cesaro, Sheamus, I love Rusev and I’d love to get my hands on Finn Balor. We’ll see what happens. I don’t know how long Kurt Angle will last, but I’m going to go as long as I can as long as I stay healthy.

I’m not here to do a one-off and ride off into the sunset, I’m here to help contribute to the company, whether it be one, two or five years.

We have to end this by asking about Finn Balor as you mentioned him there. What is it about him that makes you want to wrestle him so much?

I’ve known Finn for ten years because I was wrestling over in Japan when he was there. I remember him as this young kid with a Justin Bieber style haircut with the hair spinning all over his head.

When I came back to WWE, I didn’t even know he was the same person. He said hi to me a couple of months ago and I just said hi back and walked past him. He was like ‘you don’t remember me do you?’ and I was like you’re the kid from Japan!

Finn Balor (Picture: WWE)

What he’s been able to do over the past ten years is incredible, not just wrestling in the junior division in Japan to the heavyweight division, but bringing this character to life.

Finn Balor, the Demon. He has transcended himself to being one of the most popular wrestlers in the world, and I remember him as a cruiserweight in Japan. You can’t believe how blown away I am by him.

I know that he was main eventing a lot of shows in Japan before he came to the United States, and he went through the Dojo camp over there.

Wrestling Japanese style which is very stiff and he was able to survive it.

He’s on top of the world, one of the top three guys right now and he’s just started. Being able to do a program with him would be awesome.

I’m sure he dreamed of wrestling me back then, now I’m dreaming of wrestling him.

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