Black Widow
04-25-2009, 10:01 AM
By DAVID HILTBRAND
PHILADELPHIA — Pro wrestler Kurt Angle is sitting outside the studio after a radio interview, mashing out e-mails on a BlackBerry with his thick thumbs.
Squeezed into a pinstripe formal business suit, the hulking 215-pound athlete looks like a bulldog in a sailor’s costume. One thing’s for sure: The garment isn’t off the rack.
“I’m listed at 6-feet-2,” he says in his deep ashcan voice. “Everyone in wrestling is four inches shorter than the program says they are.”
In case you hadn’t noticed, professional wrestling is outsized. It’s also overdemanding.
As the Johnny Pin Lately of the sport, Total Nonstop Action, the circuit Angle wrestles for, has to hustle even harder to gain ground on the dominant WWE.
That means taping weekly cable matches at its Orlando, Fla., studio (Thursdays at 9 p.m. on Spike TV), staging three untelevised programs a week in smaller towns, and turning out a monthly pay-per-view event.
As the TNA’s marquee talent and biggest draw, Angle is called upon to take part in all of it.
“It’s very grueling,” he says. “There’s no time off. We don’t have an off-season. That’s why it’s so difficult on wrestlers. That’s why they break down physically.
“They try to rotate them in and out so nobody gets burned out,” he says. “Except for me.”
Taking your lumps is a big part of the job description for Angle and his brawling brethren. The tricky part is figuring out how many you can take.
“I’m getting too old for this,” he concedes. “I’m 40 and I’ve got 32 years of wrestling, quote unquote, amateur and pro, under my belt,” he says, giving his victory digits a workout.
It’s the first part of that r sum , the amateur designation, that sets Angle apart. He was a singularly distinguished heavyweight at both the collegiate and international levels. Angle won two NCAA titles before taking the world championship and the Olympic gold medal in consecutive years in 1995 and 1996.
Growing up in Pittsburgh with four older brothers, Angle bear-hugged the sport at age 8 and never relinquished his grip. His father, Dave, was always there to cheer him on until he died in a construction accident when Angle was 16.
After winning the state title as a Mt. Lebanon High School senior, Angle was offered a scholarship to wrestling powerhouse Oklahoma State, but he wanted to stay in Pennsylvania and enrolled at Clarion University.
Soon after his 1996 Olympic win over Iranian heavyweight Abbas Jadidi (you can see the match on YouTube), Angle retired from the sport.
“I was done,” he explains. “I just wanted to get out. I was tired of the training.”
After trying his hand at a couple of professions, Angle discovered his second calling.
“I turned on ‘Raw’ in 1998 and watched Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mick Foley and The Rock and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s kind of cool. I could do that,’SDRq he says. “I called the WWE and they said, ‘Why don’t you come up and try out?’SDRq
vindy.com
PHILADELPHIA — Pro wrestler Kurt Angle is sitting outside the studio after a radio interview, mashing out e-mails on a BlackBerry with his thick thumbs.
Squeezed into a pinstripe formal business suit, the hulking 215-pound athlete looks like a bulldog in a sailor’s costume. One thing’s for sure: The garment isn’t off the rack.
“I’m listed at 6-feet-2,” he says in his deep ashcan voice. “Everyone in wrestling is four inches shorter than the program says they are.”
In case you hadn’t noticed, professional wrestling is outsized. It’s also overdemanding.
As the Johnny Pin Lately of the sport, Total Nonstop Action, the circuit Angle wrestles for, has to hustle even harder to gain ground on the dominant WWE.
That means taping weekly cable matches at its Orlando, Fla., studio (Thursdays at 9 p.m. on Spike TV), staging three untelevised programs a week in smaller towns, and turning out a monthly pay-per-view event.
As the TNA’s marquee talent and biggest draw, Angle is called upon to take part in all of it.
“It’s very grueling,” he says. “There’s no time off. We don’t have an off-season. That’s why it’s so difficult on wrestlers. That’s why they break down physically.
“They try to rotate them in and out so nobody gets burned out,” he says. “Except for me.”
Taking your lumps is a big part of the job description for Angle and his brawling brethren. The tricky part is figuring out how many you can take.
“I’m getting too old for this,” he concedes. “I’m 40 and I’ve got 32 years of wrestling, quote unquote, amateur and pro, under my belt,” he says, giving his victory digits a workout.
It’s the first part of that r sum , the amateur designation, that sets Angle apart. He was a singularly distinguished heavyweight at both the collegiate and international levels. Angle won two NCAA titles before taking the world championship and the Olympic gold medal in consecutive years in 1995 and 1996.
Growing up in Pittsburgh with four older brothers, Angle bear-hugged the sport at age 8 and never relinquished his grip. His father, Dave, was always there to cheer him on until he died in a construction accident when Angle was 16.
After winning the state title as a Mt. Lebanon High School senior, Angle was offered a scholarship to wrestling powerhouse Oklahoma State, but he wanted to stay in Pennsylvania and enrolled at Clarion University.
Soon after his 1996 Olympic win over Iranian heavyweight Abbas Jadidi (you can see the match on YouTube), Angle retired from the sport.
“I was done,” he explains. “I just wanted to get out. I was tired of the training.”
After trying his hand at a couple of professions, Angle discovered his second calling.
“I turned on ‘Raw’ in 1998 and watched Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mick Foley and The Rock and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s kind of cool. I could do that,’SDRq he says. “I called the WWE and they said, ‘Why don’t you come up and try out?’SDRq
vindy.com