Olympic gold medalist, USA Wrestling ambassador, motivational speaker and WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle is on a mission to pay it forward, specifically by helping raise funds for today’s US Olympic athletes. The Pop Break recently caught up with Angle to discuss his work with the USA Wrestling organization as well as his fundraising goal. In addition, Angle opened up about the process of making a movie about his Olympic careers, the toughest opponents of his amateur and pro wrestling career, his daughter’s early training in wrestling, rebuilding his life after injuries and addiction, possibly inducting Shelton Benjamin in the WWE Hall of Fame, his praise for “The Icon” Sting, and more!
Thank you for joining us! You’ve had a long history with USA Wrestling, where you now reside as an ambassador. What are some contributions that you’re most proud of in relation to USA Wrestling?
Kurt Angle: I would have to say all my accomplishments that I had. Winning the Junior Nationals in high school, winning the NCAA championships. In college, I won the World Championships and the Olympic gold medal, and I’m considered only one out of [four] people to ever do those four. And they’re the four big ones. I’m very honored to be able to be in that category.
In 2006, you were named the greatest shoot wrestler of all time by USA Wrestling. Looking back, who were some other competitors you think that you wrestled that were similar to you? What do you think have been your greatest opponents in the shoot wrestling style?
KA: Well, I had a lot of tough opponents. There are a bunch of them. Bill Scherr, Kirk Trost, Dan Shay, but two that are in particular because they did a lot outside of amateur wrestling. One is Mark Coleman. He was a UFC champion. The other one is Mark Kerr. He was Pride Fighting Champion, and now they’re doing a movie about him. I believe Dwayne Johnson is playing Mark Kerr in a movie called Smashing Machine. So those two are my toughest rivals. We were beating each other back and forth, and I was able to beat them for the ’95 world team and for the Olympic team in 1996. I was more fortunate than they were.
If you were to have a movie made about your career, who would you like to see portray you?
KA: Well, ironically, we are working on it right now. I am having a movie coming out about my life story. We have not picked the cast yet. I can’t really tell you who. Alright, the one that we’re looking at, possibly for me is a very talented actor from Canada. His name is Gabe LaBelle, He’s done some really good movies. I like his look and I think that he could probably portray me, but right now, we haven’t decided entirely who we want the cast to be. I do have our directors on board — Ian and Eshom Nelms, who are former amateur wrestlers, but they’ve done incredible movies. They’ve directed movies like Fatman starring Mel Gibson and Red Right Hand starring Orlando Bloom. So they’re very, very talented actors. They’re going to be doing my movies. I’m really excited about this. We are now getting the fundraising investors right now, and then we’re going to pick the cast. The script is almost done, so I’m really excited about bringing this to the world. It’s going to be about my Olympic story, not my pro wrestling story, but my Olympic story. I’m really excited about it.
How involved do you expect to be along this filming process? Are they going to let you have some say in the process?
KA: Yes, and that’s why I picked the directors, because they were allowing me to have a say in what goes in the movie and what doesn’t. I had somebody beforehand that wanted to make this a TV show and they wanted to go multiple seasons, but they wanted to do a lot of stuff that was going to bring back some edgy stuff in the past from my family. I didn’t want them, my family, to have to live through that again, so we decided not to make it a TV show. We decided to make it a movie and so I’m happy that we’re doing that.
We’re talking about your amateur wrestling background, where now you are an ambassador for USA Wrestling, so tell us more about your current role and how you were approached for it.
KA: My daughter started wrestling at seven years old. She’s now eight and she’s really good; she’s picking up on it. She’s taking the same footsteps as her dad, walking in her dad’s footsteps, which makes me really excited because she’s the youngest of my kids. I was the youngest of our kids. I had six kids when I grew up, and now I have six kids that are growing up. So she reminds me a lot of myself.
The reason I got involved in USA Wrestling was because the girls Olympic wrestling team was doing extremely good. They won four medals in the last Olympics. They’re dominating. The thing about our athletes is, I don’t know if you know this or anyone else knows this, but many countries like Russia and China and many other countries, they pay their Olympic athletes to train and compete full time. Their athletes are taken care of. They don’t have to get jobs; they don’t have to make a living. They just have to focus on training and competition and nothing else.
For the most part, our Olympic athletes, they have to get jobs, and they have to train around their work schedule. That doesn’t fare very well as an Olympic athlete, because if they’re working eight to ten hours a day, they’re only going to be able to train two, three, four hours, tops. And that doesn’t fare well for an Olympic athlete. So I’m here to raise money for USA Wrestling so our athletes don’t have to get jobs, they can make ends meet, and they only have to focus on training and competition for the next four years. That’s why I’m an ambassador for USA Wrestling is to help raise money for these athletes so they don’t have to get jobs.
How can we help you raise money for the Olympic athletes?
KA: USA Wrestling made a special link just for me. It’s called KurtAngle.org. Go to KurtAngle.org, donate whatever money you want. It could be a one-time donation or multiple donations, but it will go to good use because these athletes are really going to need it.
You said your daughter was eight years old starting to do wrestling. Did she watch your stuff and then get inspired, or did you give her a little nudge to get her into it?
KA: I went through the ringer. I tried my 13-year-old daughter, didn’t work out. I tried my 11-year-old daughter, she didn’t work out, but this one’s working out. My second daughter, Sophia, went to one practice, and she cried the whole time. I knew it wasn’t for her, so I didn’t want to put her through that misery. But Nikoletta is special. She likes doing it. She loves training, trains with her cousin Luke. My brother Eric is actually training my daughter. I don’t want to be the trainer. Because if I train her, I’m going to be a little mean to her sometimes. I want her to come to daddy and hug her. I tell her everything’s going to be okay. My brother Eric, he tells my daughter Nikoletta, ‘Listen, there’s a difference between Uncle Eric and Coach Eric. Uncle Eric loves you very much, but Coach Eric’s going to be a little hard on you.’ So she knows how to separate the two, but at least I don’t have to be the bad guy. I can be the one that comforts her at the end of the workout. I like being the lovable dad and let my brother Eric train her. It’s working out extremely well.
What has been her studying material probably outside of yourself?
KA: There are a lot of great athletes today. Helen Maroulis, Olympic medalist. I think she has won probably six Olympic and World medals. Kylie Welker, there are so many incredible female athletes out there that my daughter can look up to. Her favorite is Helen Maroulis. That’s who she’s watching now. She’s studying her stuff. And so she doesn’t have to study her dad’s stuff. She has more up to date wrestling that she can follow. Helen Maroulis is her favorite.
A big part of your amateur wrestling came when you won an Olympic gold medal with a broken freakin’ neck at the 1996 Summer Olympics. You’ve said physically you got through it with multiple shots of Novocaine, which would wear off and it would be excruciating. But from a mental aspect, how did you get through it? What mental strategies did you employ through your journey trying to get through a broken neck?
KA: It was tough. It was very stressful. I was told by one doctor, I’m done. And I couldn’t wrestle anymore, that you’re finished. You could possibly be paralyzed. You could possibly die if you land on your head. It really put a lot of pressure on myself, but I had support from my family, my four brothers, my sister, and my mother. My father passed away when I was younger, but I had such a great support system, and they were always telling me, ‘Hey, listen, you know what? Go in there and focus on just competition.’ Because I really couldn’t train after I broke my neck, so I had to just wait around and wait for the Olympic trials to come up.
Then the doctor would travel with me and he would stick me with 12 different shots of Novocaine, five minutes before each one of my matches. And then I’d go out there and compete, then I’d win my match, and then I would wait an hour and I’d be in excruciating pain. I have to do the process over and over again. So the Olympic trials, in the Olympics, it was the toughest thing I ever had to do. To overcome having a broken neck and having to compete with it, that was really stressful. And when I finally did it, it was like, ‘Oh, wow, I can relax now.’ I got so emotional after I won the Olympic gold medal because I thought at one point in time it was going to be impossible. I was told that I couldn’t wrestle anymore, that my broken neck was going to end my career. To be able to continue on and be able to accomplish that, meant the world to me.
Going back to those brief moments where you thought your career might have been over, what was going through your mind? What did you envision as a possible alternative to yourself?
KA: I knew that I could wait four years and do it over again. But the crazy thing about that is, who knows who’s going to be there four years from now? There could be an athlete that was so good that could dominate everybody in the weight class, including me, so there was no guarantee I was going to make the Olympic team [at] the next Olympics. So knowing that this Olympics, I had to focus on this in 1996 and do everything I could to make sure I could compete, that was my only opportunity. At least that’s what I told myself, is this is your only Olympics, you need to focus on this and see it through to the end. And that’s what I did.
You’ve carried forth a champion’s mentality. In kayfabe, we call it the three I’s — intensity, integrity, and intelligence. You’ve overcome so many personal obstacles, going through the Olympic trials with a broken neck. You’ve also been very public about your addiction that you’ve now overcome. Does the three I’s mentality carry over to real life, or can you discuss how you rebuilt your real daily life?
KA: I went to the WWE after the Olympics and I had a stellar career there, but I broke my neck four more times in WWE. Every time I broke it, I had surgery. The first time I broke it [in WWE], the second time overall, I was introduced to painkillers by a doctor. And when he gave me the painkillers, I really liked them a lot. They really masked the pain in my neck. I couldn’t feel the pain anymore. But not only that, but they gave me like a euphoric feeling. I really liked them a little too much. The thing with painkillers, and the doctors don’t tell you this, but after a while, one doesn’t work anymore. Your body builds a tolerance, so you start taking two, then two led to four, four led to eight. Before I knew it, I was taking 65 extra Vicodin in a day. I was out of control. I was getting injured quite a bit, which didn’t help with the painkiller problem. And so I remember at one point in time, I was getting ready for the biggest match of my career. It was going to be a one-hour Iron Man match against Brock Lesnar. It was going to air on SmackDown on WWE television. I was at an untelevised show the night before a house show, and I just got done wrestling. My brother Eric called me and said, ‘Listen, your sister LeAnne just died of a heroin overdose,’ and man, that crushed me.
I remember going back to my hotel room, checking into my room, looking up at the ceiling. I took 25 painkillers; I threw them in my mouth and chewed them up and swallowed them. And I didn’t want to feel any pain. I was absolutely wrecked from my sister dying. I didn’t wake up until 4:00 in the afternoon the next day. WWE was trying to get a hold of me all day long to tell me I didn’t have to show up for TV, I could go home and plan the funeral for my sister. And I remember looking up at the ceiling again. I asked my sister LeAnne, ‘LeAnne, what do you want me to do?’ And all I could hear is ‘Do it for me, do it for me,’ so I went and wrestled. And what’s crazy is it was the greatest match of my career.
I don’t know what it is, but I’ve always been able to overcome adversity at the craziest times and this was no different. I did it in my sister’s memory. It’s crazy, but eventually I ended up going to rehab. The reason why I went is because my wife gave me an ultimatum. She said either it’s me and the kids or it’s your addiction. And I chose my wife and kids over my addiction. It wasn’t easy. It was really hard because I really loved my addiction. But I chose them over my addiction. I’ve been clean and sober for 14 years now.
Congratulations on that. That’s such a milestone accomplishment. You’ve been very public and open about it, so I commend you for that. I hope you know that you’re a huge inspiration to a lot of people out there, and we are so proud of you for getting through all of that.
KA: That’s why I speak publicly about it. I want to help people. I want people to know that there’s something at the end, that you can get there and you can get clean. You can be better and you can be cured from addiction. Don’t get me wrong, you’re an addict the rest of your life. You know you can’t go back to them, but there is hope. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.Â
Overall, what lessons or advice do you hope to pass on to today’s generations? What do you speak about generally in your motivational speeches?Â
KA: I speak about never giving up. When you love something and you are into it, go all the way in. You don’t just go half-ass, you go full go and you go forward and don’t ever give up on anything. I remember I was injured 90% of the time when I was wrestling, but I won 98% of those matches. It made me realize that no matter how badly I was injured, I always had a shot at winning, and that breeds confidence. And that in turn breeds success. That’s what I speak about in my speeches is to go full tilt and don’t look back. Just keep going forward.
What motivates you now to go through everyday life and to also stay clean?
KA: I had a lot of tragedy in my life, deaths of my father, in high school when I was young. My Olympic coach getting killed six months before the Olympics. My sister LeAnne died from a heroin overdose. I had a lot of things I had to overcome. I’ve always dedicated everything I did to them, especially Dave Schultz. I lost Dave Schultz six months before the Olympics, and two months later, I broke my neck. I didn’t think it was possible for me to win an Olympic gold medal at that point in time. But I stuck with it, I stayed focused, and I allowed my doctors to do what they had to treat me for the Olympics. I dedicated my athletic career to my father and Dave Schultz, my wrestling coach. That really helped. It gave me an extra push inside, spiritually, that I knew they were there fighting with me. That’s why I really do believe I won the Olympic gold medal.
Keep having that good support system.
KA: My family traveled everywhere. They went everywhere to watch me. I was able to raise money to make sure my family, because we didn’t have a lot growing up, I was able to raise money, enough money to get my family to travel to the Olympic trials, the World trials, the World Championships, the Olympics. They were everywhere. They went to the US Open, everything. So they were always there.
The crazy thing is, every time I was warming up for a match, I was in the warmup area and nobody’s allowed there, but my brothers always got down there. I don’t know how they did it, but they always snuck in and they got me ready. They would slap me in the face and say, ‘You gotta get ready, man.’ There were times where I was doubting myself and my brothers could see that. They were like, ‘Not today, Kurt, don’t do this. Don’t doubt yourself now. You’re going to go out there and you’re going to give everything that you have.’ So my brothers were my extra source of strength. They always knew when I was questioning myself and they made sure I didn’t. And that’s why I had such a great support system.
To bring it back to the three I’s, specifically the first one, intensity, who would you say are some of your most intense or toughest opponents from your professional wrestling career?
KA: In WWE, I would say Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, The Rock, ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, Undertaker, [and] Brock Lesnar. TNA, I would say AJ Styles and Samoa Joe and Sting. I had some really great matches in my career. Even Shawn Michaels, I had my best WrestleMania match with Shawn Michaels, that was WrestleMania 21.
You mentioned Sting. He, like you, has joined the retired era of his career. What are some of your favorite memories with Sting?
KA: Oh Sting, he was so talented, such a great athlete and such a great leader. Sting is in the top five of all time for the fans most favorite character. He’s always been a big superstar. He eventually went to WWE, I think only for [a few matches], but Sting had such an incredible career in WCW and TNA. And for him to be able to wrestle in his 60s, he went to AEW as well, and I just have a lot of respect for him and everybody does. Everybody that’s in the business loves Sting and has the utmost respect for him. I love the guy. I think he’s one of the most giving wrestlers I’ve ever been in the ring with. He’s never been about himself. It’s always been about the match, and that’s what I love about him.
You talk about giving. During one point in your career, you gave to some up-and-coming talents in WWE, one of them being Shelton Benjamin. He recently said that you would be the number one candidate to induct him into the WWE Hall of Fame if he was given that opportunity someday. How was your experience working with Shelton? And if this occasion comes up, would you accept the honor of inducting him?
KA: I would be honored to induct him. Shelton is the best athlete I’ve ever seen in the wrestling ring. This guy could do so many incredible things. What’s crazy is he can jump up on the top rope and walk around the four corners and not fall. He could go around all four ropes and four corners without falling. He was just an incredible athlete, the best athlete I’ve ever seen — him and Brock Lesnar. Brock, for his size, being 300 pounds, great, incredible athlete, but Shelton Benjamin, the best athlete of all time in professional wrestling. He will [join the WWE Hall of Fame], and I will be inducting him. If he asks me to, I will induct him.
It is the season of thanks. Thanksgiving is coming up, so in that spirit, can you tell me three things that you’re grateful for in your life right now?
KA: I’m grateful for my family, my beautiful wife and six kids. I’m grateful that I’m able to have an impact on everybody from my wrestling career and to be able to speak to them today and talk about my career and having all the fans that I have, I have such incredible fans. And lastly, I’m grateful to be able to have this movie come out about my career. I’m really excited about this. I always wanted to get into acting, but I never thought they’d ever do a movie about me. It’s such an honor to know that there are directors out there and producers that are interested in doing this for me. To tell my story is just incredible. To be able to do that is so amazing. So I’m so grateful for that.
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- Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/RealKurtAngle
- KurtAngleBrand.com
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