Fantastic Kurt Angle article

[Kurt Angle Mark 0]

Good Stuff from the Pittsburgh Gazette

 

Eight summers ago, Angle brought home wrestling gold

To say that his life has been lived on the go ever since would be an understatement (and painfully so).

Sunday, August 08, 2004

 

By Chico Harlan, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 

Look at my face," Kurt Angle says. This, he figures, is the sacrifice -- one of many. His head is bald, famous and abused, a cranial cutting board. "It looks like I've aged 15 years in the last five."

 

He points to a fleshy scar running past his brow. That's where Stone Cold Steve Austin stuck him once with a pointed razor, a prop for the bloodthirsty, and jerked the blade forward. Angle geysered blood that day. Another day, in another pro wrestling match, he smacked a concrete floor with a thud -- followed by church silence -- when a table, designed to break his fall, collapsed just as he landed on it. Angle couldn't move for 15 seconds. He needed days to regain his memory and lose the headaches. He continued with the match.

 

Angle can no longer hear with his left ear, drained of fluid 80 times. He has nerve damage in his face. He's had six knee surgeries and a broken neck. He's dislocated his shoulder and ripped ligaments in his ankle. In every way, he has followed the vagaries of an intractable desire -- it's lifted him up and broken him down, sometimes all at once.

 

The achievements, for Angle, are so elating: an Olympic gold medal in 1996 as an amateur wrestler, now a million-dollar income as a pro wrestling superstar. The anguish is so acute: days in hospitals, moments when he hears his wife worry he'll be in a wheelchair a decade from now. But this is a cosmic-size genetic experiment -- we've found a man whose interface lacks a stop button -- so Kurt Angle nods, takes the pain with the elation and keeps going harder than ever, never stopping ... never stopping ... never stopping.

 

The Kurt Angle of today is the natural progeny of a realized goal, an Olympic dream that required years of relentless, exhausting work. Angle trained maniacally, eight or nine hours every day, to wrestle in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. When he defeated Iran's Abbas Jadidi, the culmination of a dream he'd kept since age 5, Angle fell to the ground, weakened by tears and joy.

 

But an Olympian's life journey doesn't end when an athlete steps from the podium, medal around neck; no, quite the opposite. That's just when the journey begins. The desire to work, to achieve, still festers in present tense. And suddenly, that desire is divorced from its lifelong goal.

 

It's been eight years now since Atlanta, and Angle still pours an Olympian's effort into everything he does. That's why Pittsburgh's most famous Olympic champion is now known internationally as one of the top World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) superstars. It's a profession tailored perfectly for Angle's needs. He can still sweat, he can still succeed. He can still sacrifice.

 

The sacrifices are worth it. Many mornings, Angle still pinches himself -- his dream, the gold medal, is resting by his desk downstairs. So are replicas of two WWE title belts.

 

The sacrifices are not worth it. Many mornings, Angle, 35, struggles to rise from bed.

 

"When I was trying for the Olympics," Angle remembers, "I'd train so ferociously that some days I'd make myself sick. I did things I knew nobody else would do. Once I got to the point where I wanted to quit, that's when the real training started."

 

He'd squat 400-odd pounds 28 times ... after squatting 315 pounds 44 times and 225 pounds 73 times and 135 pounds 149 times ... after running six miles ... after running dozens of wind sprints while carrying his training partner over his back ... after charging up a hill, with added resistance, for 2 1/2 minutes.

 

He did this every day, for every muscle set in his body. He consumed 1,000 calories for breakfast. He set an alarm to eat meals during the night. He punched himself in the head when he thought of quitting, when his body screamed of fatigue. No, he'd mutter. Nothing could stop him.

 

"I kept a training log at home," Angle says, "and sometimes I go back and look at it and I'm just like, how did I do this? I think it probably contributed to how I feel now. When you train like that, some people think it keeps you young. But you're actually breaking your body down."

 

For what? At what cost? Every time Angle thought about the sacrifices, he thought more about his father, a man whose blood pumped with the same determination, a man who transferred toughness to his son not so much at the time of his boy's birth, but at the time of his own death. In 1985, David Angle, 55, fell from a construction site and landed on his head. The drop broke both of his shoulders and cracked his skull in three places. He then walked to the hospital with the injuries that would kill him.

 

Angle had his first varsity football game at Mt. Lebanon a day later. Lord knows how many people told him not to play, but they didn't know. Pain, in whatever capacity -- even grief -- could become not just something to overcome, but something to work with. Angle stuck his arms around that belief and finished the game with 16 solo tackles, two touchdowns and an interception -- the best game he'd ever play. Nothing could stop him.

 

After graduating college at Clarion, Angle poured a young life of experiences into one outlet: the Olympics. The Games consumed his life, all of it, every drop, life itself was a sacrifice. But five months before Atlanta, Angle cracked two vertebrae and pulled four muscles in his neck. Two disks poked into his spinal cord, and the pain hurled violent tremors throughout his body.

 

One look, and doctors saw the endpoint for Angle's Olympic dreams. They brought him into an office and explained he needed six months to rest, no wrestling. He would risk paralysis by continuing. Angle ignored the warnings, found a painkiller called mepivacaine and kept on wrestling with more resoluteness than anybody else on the planet. Nothing could stop him.

 

"He never saw limits," manager and bodybuilder David Hawk says. "That's what made him successful. His pain tolerance is incredible. Not only can he live with pain, he can come out and smile and act like nothing's wrong. Once you can do that, you can do almost anything."

 

Pain joined Angle in so many successes, its meaning slowing twisted from a warning to a reassurance.

 

Here is pain.

 

Here is success.

 

Here is Kurt Angle, following both paths and hoping they run parallel.

 

Here is where it leads -- to a sofa in Angle's spacious Coraopolis estate, where Angle rests on an off day. He can use a rest. In mid-July, he spent two weeks in Japan. Days later, back in Pittsburgh, Angle, having whirled around the planet on a WWE tour this summer, needed a minute to recall where he'd last been.

 

Pro wrestling keeps Angle away from his family -- his wife, Karen, and his 20-month-old daughter, Kyra -- at least four days per week. His wrestling contract makes the life possible. His injuries make the life frightening.

 

"I don't think what he's doing to himself is worth it," Karen says.

 

Angle, for one, enjoys so much about his life. His playful daughter has softened his heart and improved his marriage. He has a pool in the backyard and a BMW in the driveway. His Herculean build -- "He's 6-foot, 240-pounds with a neck the size of a waist," WWE wrestler Edge says -- draws eternal attention. When Angle goes out for lunch at a restaurant just minutes from his house, he smiles and signs autographs for everybody who stops by his table.

 

After the Olympics, the spotlight offered a quick flicker, but Angle didn't want it to stop. He appeared on TV with Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien. His schedule choked with speaking engagements -- some days, Angle would make a half-dozen stops at schools across Pittsburgh. In four days after winning the gold medal, he slept one hour.

 

"I hate to say it," Angle says, "but I really do love the spotlight. I didn't want it to let up."

 

For a Pay-Per-View event Aug. 15 in Toronto, Angle will return from his latest neck injury, which has kept him from wrestling (but not traveling) most of the year. Someday, he'll likely need two of his vertebrae fused together. Such a procedure would end his wrestling career, but Angle hopes to continue at least another three years without surgery.

 

Though he's already one of the WWE's most recognizable stars, Angle believes that three more years in the ring will allow his wrestling persona to grow into a pop culture force, similar to that of The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Privately, Angle's engaging and friendly, but his wrestling character is a pretentious bad guy who preaches about his own superiority. In the wrestling domain, where heroes become anti-heroes, Angle's gold medal acts as a badge for his character's ego. Fans hate him, and that alone means popularity.

 

The character is WWE head Vince McMahon's brainchild, and it required some discomfort -- particularly for Angle's wife and mother, who struggled to accept Angle as a man whose entrance into every arena draws a cascade of boos and taunts. It required some discomfort for Angle, too. At least initially. In 1996, McMahon offered Angle a lavish contract to join the WWE. Angle brought the offer to his agent, Ralph Cindrich, who promptly ripped it up.

 

Friends in the small community of amateur wrestling hoped Angle could become a vanguard for the sport. Angle, like Cindrich, simply wondered if a foray into pro wrestling would damage his image. Two years later, after a failed stint as a local sports broadcaster, Angle reconsidered. He tried out, this time with a much smaller contract, and learned the pro wrestling technique like a speedreader.

 

"What I didn't realize at the time, pro wrestling is not the next level to amateur wrestling," Angle says. "It's just a totally different career path. That's all it is. I'm sorry, but put Triple H in the ring with me for two minutes and he'll get eaten alive."

 

At times, Angle's toughness breeds his agony. When WWE officials sense Angle is struggling with injuries, they've given up asking him if he's OK. He always says yes. Instead, they call his wife, Karen.

 

The injuries rush at him mercilessly. One night in Nashville, Angle, awakened by his ringing cell phone, jumped from his bed and collided with a hotel room bureau. He needed stitches in his forearm once the bleeding subsided.

 

When healthy, Angle travels 240 days a year, a blaze of different hotels and different cities. His neck provides constant worry. So do three more years in a business where injuries are practically mandatory.

 

"The only time I'm 100 percent is right before a match, with the adrenaline and everything," Angle says. "But after that, I'm right back down to the bottom again. It sucks, because if I want to play with Kyra" -- as Angle talks, his daughter plays on the living room floor -- "sometimes I just can't do it."

 

His wife, sitting beside him, continues. "If he gets to the point where he really can't play with her, that will be it. No matter what you have in your house, no matter how good your life is, you can't give that up. If that's what happens, that's when I'll put my foot down and make him stop."

 

She glances at her husband. Pain converges with gain, and this is where they lead -- one road, traveled wearily.

 

Angle smiles, driven by instinct. This is the inevitable answer.

 

"I'll never stop," he says.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

That was the fucking awesome.

 

Good lord, that's the perfect storyline that the WWE is too scared to do, and probably rightly so. But dammit, if I didn't love Kurt Angle after reading that.

[algrim 0]

I didn'tknow Angle was partailly deaf. That sucks. Makes you respect him even more.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

I'm sure he'd love to reach 5 time mark as WWE Champion before the year is over. I just hope he doesn't kill himself in the process.

[Ultra Violence 0]

Thankyou Kurt.

[Promoter 0]

Does Angle have some kind of beef with Triple H? He always takes potshots at the guy in legit media interviews. I remember comments about Triple H hogging the spotlight on raw and about how much Triple H can fans take. Triple H made comments on air about Angle being a paper champion in 2003.

[Guest Eugene`]

He brings up the deafness story in his book. When he first started out, Vince would shout out things for him to say in his left headpiece, and Kurt didn't hear it. When Kurt got backstage, Vince was irate. Kurt says they now have special headsets designed for him so that he can hear.

[Copper Feel 0]

its strange that angle would take potshots at hhh as in his book he had nothing but praise for hunter.

[The Mandarin 0]

Yeah, Steve Austin is partly deaf, too.

 

Anyways, Kurt Angle is a sad case. I pity the guy (for all the injuries he's got), but I have nothing but respect for his abilities and determination. He's a true hero.

[Guest wildpegasus]

He'd squat 400-odd pounds 28 times ... after squatting 315 pounds 44 times and 225 pounds 73 times and 135 pounds 149 times ... after running six miles ... after running dozens of wind sprints while carrying his training partner over his back ... after charging up a hill, with added resistance, for 2 1/2 minutes.

Man, that's impressive.

[iliketurtles 0]

Angle is a phenom. He's one guy everyone should look at as the ultimate wrestler.

[Dark Age 0]

He'd squat 400-odd pounds 28 times ... after squatting 315 pounds 44 times and 225 pounds 73 times and 135 pounds 149 times ... after running six miles ... after running dozens of wind sprints while carrying his training partner over his back ... after charging up a hill, with added resistance, for 2 1/2 minutes.

Man, that's impressive.

I can do TWICE that amount!

[Twisted Intestine 0]

its strange that angle would take potshots at hhh as in his book he had nothing but praise for hunter.

What potshots?

 

All he said that in an amateur wrestling match he would squash HHH in 2 minutes..

 

That's actually more of a compliment, as he said it in a manner that "HHH can squash me in the WWE, but put him on a mat with me and I'll squash him in 2 minutes"

 

Which is true, and I'm sure HHH would agree.

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

He brings up the deafness story in his book. When he first started out, Vince would shout out things for him to say in his left headpiece, and Kurt didn't hear it. When Kurt got backstage, Vince was irate. Kurt says they now have special headsets designed for him so that he can hear.

When do wrestlers wear earpieces? I know I've seen plenty of refs wear them.

 

This article makes me sad.

 

Thanks Kurt and good luck. Too bad you're on Smackdown.

[Promoter 0]

its strange that angle would take potshots at hhh as in his book he had nothing but praise for hunter.

What potshots?

 

All he said that in an amateur wrestling match he would squash HHH in 2 minutes..

 

That's actually more of a compliment, as he said it in a manner that "HHH can squash me in the WWE, but put him on a mat with me and I'll squash him in 2 minutes"

 

Which is true, and I'm sure HHH would agree.

There is an interview that I'm sure is in the archives of the LAW where Angle takes potshots at Triple H for how much airtime he gets on raw. Angle saying what he said in this interview undermines Triple H's worth in wwe world. Why does he say this only about Triple H about squashing him in 2 minutes. He would do that with 99% of the roster, but yet he called out Triple H. I just think Angle does it on purpose. Angle wants to come out of this thing as a legend in the breath of a Flair or Hart(which may explain why he challenged him). Triple H is his threat to this goal being the top heel(recent rumours Angle wants to be smackdown's Triple H). If anything it's something for net fans to create another HHH conspiracy .

[Neil-o-Mac 0]

Yeah, Steve Austin is partly deaf, too.

So, does that explain 'WHAT?' then?

[jester 0]

David Angle, 55, fell from a construction site and landed on his head. The drop broke both of his shoulders and cracked his skull in three places. He then walked to the hospital with the injuries that would kill him.

 

 

Holy.

 

Shit.

 

No wonder Kurt refuses to quit, even though the Grim Reaper is waving frantically at him.

[ANKLELOCK 0]

So the entire Angle family is superhuman?

[DerangedHermit 0]

David Angle, 55, fell from a construction site and landed on his head. The drop broke both of his shoulders and cracked his skull in three places. He then walked to the hospital with the injuries that would kill him.

 

 

Holy.

 

Shit.

 

No wonder Kurt refuses to quit, even though the Grim Reaper is waving frantically at him.

The sad thing is, Kurt seems to be doing the same thing. One day, he's going to wrestle despite his injuries, and he'll end up like Dynamite Kid - or worse.

[The Mandarin 0]

What's really scary is that Kurt Angle's family has a history of heart problems and 15 (or more) of them have already died from it, including his sister.

[Kizzo 0]

Kurt Angle is truly the man......

[Guest JoeyStyles]

its strange that angle would take potshots at hhh as in his book he had nothing but praise for hunter.

What potshots?

 

All he said that in an amateur wrestling match he would squash HHH in 2 minutes..

 

That's actually more of a compliment, as he said it in a manner that "HHH can squash me in the WWE, but put him on a mat with me and I'll squash him in 2 minutes"

 

Which is true, and I'm sure HHH would agree.

There is an interview that I'm sure is in the archives of the LAW where Angle takes potshots at Triple H for how much airtime he gets on raw. Angle saying what he said in this interview undermines Triple H's worth in wwe world. Why does he say this only about Triple H about squashing him in 2 minutes. He would do that with 99% of the roster, but yet he called out Triple H. I just think Angle does it on purpose. Angle wants to come out of this thing as a legend in the breath of a Flair or Hart(which may explain why he challenged him). Triple H is his threat to this goal being the top heel(recent rumours Angle wants to be smackdown's Triple H). If anything it's something for net fans to create another HHH conspiracy .

The sad thing is he wants to play politics backstage just like Trips according to some sources.

[Kaertos 0]

It's things like this that make you realize the cost in pain and quality of life every wrestler pays to entertain us. Some pay more, some get lucky and pay a little less, but everyone gets hurt. I remember reading somewhere that the Hardys started referring to it as "punching the bump card". Everyone gets a certain amount of punches before something bad happens. They all know it is inevitable.

 

And that is why I have a hard time existing alongside many (not all, I don't want to generalize, but there are a lot) Smarks that say things like "so-and-so sucks and he should die." or "I wish they'd get hurt so I wouldn't have to see them wrestle anymore."

 

Yeah, so I may not be Bradshaw's biggest fan recently, and I don't miss Rikishi really. But I respect every wrestler that puts all of that on the line to entertain me. How can you not?

[benoit4hor 0]

They had the Big Show pretend to injure him in a pretty similiar fashion to his father's death.

[Promoter 0]

The stuff these guys put their bodies through makes me angry when people knock them off as just "fakes". Angle actually stated this in another interview up here with another radio station that the U.S. fans don't have the same kind of respect for the sport as international fans because most in the US just dismiss the whole thing as fake. I understand his concern, but I think his boss had a lot to play in that attitude with the insulting storylines. I guess it's a tough spot as they don't get respected from entertainment or sport.

[Dark Age 0]

It's things like this that make you realize the cost in pain and quality of life every wrestler pays to entertain us. Some pay more, some get lucky and pay a little less, but everyone gets hurt. I remember reading somewhere that the Hardys started referring to it as "punching the bump card". Everyone gets a certain amount of punches before something bad happens. They all know it is inevitable.

 

And that is why I have a hard time existing alongside many (not all, I don't want to generalize, but there are a lot) Smarks that say things like "so-and-so sucks and he should die." or "I wish they'd get hurt so I wouldn't have to see them wrestle anymore."

 

Yeah, so I may not be Bradshaw's biggest fan recently, and I don't miss Rikishi really. But I respect every wrestler that puts all of that on the line to entertain me. How can you not?

Some call these men the greatest entertainers on Earth

Flying without wings,

Defying physical limitation

Yes, this is entertainment,

But the hazards are great

So no matter where you are,

Whatever you do,

Please, don't try this at home

 

I dunno what's lamer. The fact I just typed that out, or the fact that I know the words.

 

Seriously, though, you're right. It's also why I hate 'Who should be fired' threads.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

But I respect every wrestler that puts all of that on the line to entertain me. How can you not?

 

They suck. Jeez, it's not hard to figure out. If you're not good at what you do and are not improving (and you shouldn't be on TV to begin with), you're worthless and wasting my -and everyone elses- time. Wrestlers _choose_ this way of life, so they don't get a "Get out of Suck Free" card just cause they hurt. Ultimately, they work MAYBE 10 minutes a night - 40 minutes a week - while everyone else works 40 hours a week for probably lesser pay. Is it tough on them? Sure, but they probably wouldn't have it any other way because wrestlers are wired differently than everyone else. Like _any_ profession, if you aren't good you shouldn't be doing it. You may not like or understand that, but lemme just say this: I respect the ones who work hard, get hurt, and do it well *even more* because I actually have that standard.

[Promoter 0]

RRR, I agree completely mang! That is why I have issues with the brand extension's excuse of giving people opportunity. Yeah, who really wants to see guys green as hell trying to improve their craft. The wwe should just be the best of the best, but too bad they got to fill up time and waste OUR time with the crap like the Diva search(what happened with giving wretlers time to shine). That's another topic though.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

The DIVA search is innovative and captivating. Those women work hard maintaining their looks and bodies and have been going out each and every monday night to provide quality -and sexy- entertainment. They have to shave their legs, pluck their eye brows, throw up their meals, count their calories, tape their tits, and shake their ass every single week. I respect every DIVA that puts all of that on the line to entertain me. How can you not?

 

[Guest Ggeo]

They suck. Jeez, it's not hard to figure out. If you're not good at what you do and are not improving (and you shouldn't be on TV to begin with), you're worthless and wasting my -and everyone elses- time. Wrestlers _choose_ this way of life, so they don't get a "Get out of Suck Free" card just cause they hurt. Ultimately, they work MAYBE 10 minutes a night - 40 minutes a week - while everyone else works 40 hours a week for probably lesser pay. Is it tough on them? Sure, but they probably wouldn't have it any other way because wrestlers are wired differently than everyone else. Like _any_ profession, if you aren't good you shouldn't be doing it. You may not like or understand that, but lemme just say this: I respect the ones who work hard, get hurt, and do it well *even more* because I actually have that standard.

 

What the hell? Is this some kind of joke? A recent smackdown house show alone has a 45 minute match with JBL against the Undertaker and of course that's just for that one house show. Where is this MAYBE 10 minutes a night - 40 minutes a week crap coming from? Apparently you only count the amount of time the wrestlers are actually in the ring and wrestling as work, which is a wholly inaccurate equivocation. That of course doesn't take into account the amount of time the wrestlers prepare their matches by going over spots with the other wrestlers and whoever is their referee, the time needed for them to work out their bodies, any time they spent training otherwise, rehearsing for segments especially so if they need to talk, driving/flying to where they need to go (which is much much more than the average person in the universal workforce needs to do in general), doing appearances for the company like autograph signings, and a hundred other things that I haven't even mentioned or don't know about. All of that counts as work.

 

Just look at the schedule Lance Storm used to have when he talked about it on his website. He was certainly working at his job for more than 40 hours a week and he was "just" a mid-carder. The amount of work hours is far more for someone like Triple H or Chris Benoit. All of this doesn't take into account them working through injuries (although this isn't as bad as it used to be) on a regular basis while still working and rarely taking days off unless absolutely necessary despite the large amount of pain they have to go through.