Kurt Angle on Life After Wrestling: “I’m In Extreme Pain All Day Long”

Wrestling is a sport filled with tough men. They don’t come much tougher than Kurt Angle. A decorated amateur wrestler and gold medal-winning Olympian before he made the move over to professional wrestling. Now he is a well-respected podcaster, whose passion for the sport is still as bright as ever.

His career in the sport at both amateur and professional wrestling levels spanned over forty years. It’s well documented that he wrestled in the Olympics with a broken neck, but further to that, he amassed a number of injuries and bumps during his career.

Talking during a recent Q&A on AddFreeShows.com about the toll wrestling took on his body, Angle said “I’m so banged up now. I sacrificed a lot of my body in professional wrestling and amateur wrestling. I have to blame both sports, not just one. I’m paying for it now.”

Kurt Angle suffered several neck injuries during his career, to name but one body part that suffered during his career. Wrestlers both amateur and professional put their bodies through much more than it is designed to endure. The effects of this are felt long after their in-ring careers have ended.

Kurt Angle was ‘retired’ by Baron Corbin at Wrestlemania 35, yet even now, his body is still making him pay for those years of fame.

“I’m in extreme pain all day long. I do maintenance on my body all day, I do my neck traction. I have a thing called the Iron Neck, where it trains your neck. Then I have anti-gravity machine rollers. I stretch. I do a lot of weight training.”

The constant injuries and abuse a wrestler puts their body through in their career is no secret. You will be hard pushed to find a retired wrestler who does not struggle with aches and pains. Kurt Angle is brutally aware of the dangers not only of wrestling but of the dangerous side-effects of wrestling.

“I had a painkiller problem, and I kicked that eight years ago. Not having painkillers anymore is really difficult, but I’m never going back to those, nor do I want to.”

Kurt Angle is 52 years old and has himself in great condition as he continues to care for his injured body. His story, his message, is not one of regret, but one that should serve as a reminder to any fan. Wrestling is not for the faint-hearted. It is as real as it comes. Fame and notoriety can fade, but the pain is a constant reminder of everything that has been experienced.