Kurt Angle Talks Addiction To Pain Killers, Vince McMahon Asking Him To Go To Rehab, Getting Help
As noted, 2017 Hall Of Fame inductee Kurt Angle recently joined Marc Malusis and Maggie Gray on The Moose & Maggie Show on CBS Sports Radio to discuss his induction and look back on his career in the industry. Here are some highlights:
Making the jump from Olympic wrestling to Sports Entertainment:
"I really don't know, I know that when I started training to the day I got on TV was only one year. It was exactly on year, that never happens. I knew that when I started on TV I still didn't know what I was doing. The wrestlers I wrestled with kind of walked me through the matches, so I learned how to follow because I let people lead me and I trusted them, I became a good leader. About two and a half years into my pro wrestling career I was leading and calling the matches, structuring the matches, I was a good student. Because I kept studying from the best guys like The Rock, Triple H, Stone Cold, Undertaker, I learned very quickly."
The grind of the life of a professional wrestler:
"I wrestled almost seven years in the WWE, two of those years I was out with injury with my neck. I broke my neck four times in a two and a half year span, so a bit of bad luck. But the schedule back then was a lot more brutal than it is now, and thank god because I don't think anyone should be going through the schedules we were in the early 2000's. The Attitude Era. We were on the road over 300 days a year, so you're right it was constant, it was a grind, and it ultimately led me to ask for my release from the company unfortunately in 2006. My body couldn't handle it and I also started getting a heavy addiction to pain killers and felt like a heavy liability to the company, and I didn't want to do that to Vince, didn't want to do anything detrimental to my health that would end my life. So I felt like I needed to get out at that time, Vince was okay with it, he actually encouraged me to go to rehab, but I didn't go at that point in time. I wish I would have."
If he was on the brink of losing his life at that point in his career:
"Well yeah I was doing some heavy stuff and it wasn't just pain killers. The early 2000's we didn't have a drug policy like they do now. They have an incredible policy and I commend them on that cause people don't do that kind of stuff now. There were a couple of days where I didn't wake up until the evening, I slept 24 hours a day, I took too many pills. I knew I was at a point in my life where I needed to make a choice, and it wasn't so much the WWE that made it worst but it didn't help that I was gonna be traveling that much so I did what I had to do."
When he knew it was time to clean his life up and go to rehab:
"When you're an addict taking 65 extra strength vicodin a day you're in denial. I went another eight years before I went to rehab, I did get my pain killer issue contained but I started getting anxiety because I broke my neck four times in two and a half years so I started taking Xanax, along with morphine when I got off the vicodin. I was taking those two and the new company I worked for, Impact Wrestling, everyone there drank after the shows and it was a normal routine. So I started drinking alcohol, mixing all three, led me to a really bad place in my life. I had four DUIs in five years. Four DUIs when my wife basically gave the the choice, and said she'd either leave me or I go to rehab."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Moose & Maggie Show with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: CBS Sports Radio