Angle (2023)

[bunniefuu]

[Music]

kurt, how old are you?

Do you go to college?

Yes, I do.

I attend clarion university

about two hours north from here.

Now you're in the wrestling

team at clarion?

Yes, I am.

Do you also wrestle besides

chester clarion?

Yes, I do.

I represent the usa team in many

events.

I'm looking to wrestle in the

olympics.

[Music]

at the olympics, it is one

shot at most once every four

years, and for many once in a

lifetime.

Win here, it's forever.

Fall short, and the opportunity

may never be revisited.

I think I want kurt angle to

be remembered not for the

mistakes he's made but what he

was able to accomplish in his

lifetime.

Since I was a young kid, I

always wanted to do something

great.

[Music]

we were from pittsburgh, we

were the city of champions back

then, the steelers, pirates,

world series, super bowls.

Football was my first love.

Not wrestling, not baseball, nobasketball.

I excelled at all of them, bufootball was the one.

I like to be allstate in the

big 33 game.

I like to go on either penn

state, pitt, west virginia, or

rutgers as a linebacker.

Real competitive.

Kurt, he was set on being a

champion from the beginning.

Over in dormont, it was quite an

experience because we had a

crowded house.

Me and kurt were like the odd

two out because we're the

youngest.

Just put them on the floor.

We slept on the floor a lot of

times.

We didn't have a lot growing

up.

What we did have in common was

we liked sports, all of us, my

mother, father, my brothers, my

sister, myself.

If we were sitting at the dinner

table, we would strictly abousports.

It's what kept us together.

They played a lot of sports,

the angle boys.

Kurt, he was, he's good aeverything.

One of those guys that was jusa great athlete.

I think his brothers were too.

They were all tough guys.

You did not want to mess with

the angle boys, for sure.

Eric was a year and a half

older than me, had a bat of an

eye.

If you pissed him off, you were

going to get punched in the

face.

He flicked me in the back of the

ear and I threw a spoon at him

and he stood up and I stood up

and before I got up, he knocked

me out.

I mean, he knocked me out.

[Laughs]

I'm not telling that story.

We had these big boxing

gloves downstairs, 16-ounce,

they would go down there and box

for a little while.

They'd go at it, man.

They would go at it until one of

them started crying and run into

the other room.

He's like, "little sissy, geout here."

It was their gladiator game.

That's what I'd call it.

They got their entertainment ouof watching us beat each other

up.

I'd be the ref or someone

would to be the ref until one of

them cried.

Don't say nothing.

It was usually kurt.

[Laughs]

growing up in pittsburgh, my

brothers had a reputation of

being fighters.

Tough guys.

We had a hard time with the

police department in the area

where we lived because my

brothers were in so much

trouble.

No, hardly ever.

Yes.

Yes, we got in trouble here and

there, but kurt never got in

trouble.

Never.

Didn't cause my mom no grief.

None.

That's why she loved him.

She adored him.

That was her whole life.

Kurt was unreal.

The bond that them two had.

Le'anne was their sister who

was just really, really sweet.

Only girl in a house full of

tough boys.

Le'anne was a really good

sister.

She was the only girl in our

family.

My sister was my dad's princess.

She's the only one that my dad

ever hugged.

My father was in the service

for 25 years, master sergeant,

first class.

We got a lot of our discipline

from my father.

The guy was the most solid

mother -- you'd ever want to

meet.

People say getting shirt off

their back, -- them, this guy

would really do it.

He was that kind of guy.

He was a solid, solid man.

He knew that I was going to

be capable of doing something

great.

He seemed to know that early on,

at six, seven, eight years of

age.

He would wake me up early on

saturday mornings and say,

"you're going to a wrestling

tournament."

I was like, "I don't want to

go."

He said, "get dressed, you're

going."

The great thing about my dad,

though, he didn't pressure us.

He didn't tell us we had to be

good.

He just wanted us to give our

best.

He was my coach up until a

time in high school, and he felthat it was time that somebody

else taught me, and he became my

fan, my number one fan.

My dad was a very functional

alcoholic.

My brothers don't like to say

that.

They like to think of my father

as a very strong man thanothing had control over him,

but he drank all day.

It wasn't a lot.

It wasn't like he would drink a

case every two hours, he loved

his rum and gin and he drank istraight from a glass.

He had a few bottles up in the

cabinet.

I'd wake up early in the morning

and he would pull that rum down

and put two glasses and drink

them both and head to work.

I'd like to ask you abouyour family.

Your dad was dave angle?

Yes.

What did your dad do for a

living?

He was a construction

worker.

Now comes the tough part of

the questions.

Your dad the record will show

had an accident on august 27th,

do you remember where you were

when that happened?

Yes.

I was at football practice and

somebody came up to me, received

a phone call, one of my coaches,

and told me that my father was

in an accident and that he was

at mercy hospital and it wasn'serious at the time.

What happened was he weninto the cab to get his lunch

and when he stepped back, he

stepped on some rebar, lost his

balance, and went against the

guardrail and fell through it.

13 Feet on the back.

He hit his shoulder and his head

at the same time.

He actually broke his shoulder

and fractured his skull all the

way through like an egg.

How long did your dad live

from when he was injured until

when he died?

I think it was two and a

half

days.

Were you there at the end?

Yes, I was.

My mother had to make a

decision to either keep him on

or pull him off of the machine.

She decided that she wasn'going to let him just stay like

that.

I remember her getting on her

knees and before she gave the

doctor the permission to do it,

she begged my dad to come back.

She asked him, or she actually

told him if you come back, we

will make this work.

She said she'll be the wife thahe wanted her to be.

It just crushed me.

Then right before they pulled

the plug, my sister started

crying and she jumped on my dad.

She begged him not to go.

Ugh.

We pulled her off of him and

they pulled the plug and thawas it.

My dad was gone.

I just hated seeing my mother

like that.

Your mom told me something

about you praying before the

matches.

What would you tell us abouthat?

Before every match, I pray

and look up and think of my

father right before I wrestle

every match.

It gives me a little extra

motivation for what he did for

me throughout my life, and I

dedicate stuff to him,

everything I do.

It helps me to do better.

My father passed away on a

wednesday, and that was the

first week of school.

I decided to play football thaweek.

I wanted to do something special

for my dad knowing that he would

want me to play.

I really didn't want to play,

but it just felt like somebody

was tugging at me that was

telling me, get up.

Keep moving.

That's what kept going in my

head, keep moving, just keep

moving.

I remember my coach, we had a

quick prayer right before the

game and he said something aboumy dad that made me feel really

good.

I went out there and i--

something just switched, a lighswitch went off in me.

I had a game that you don'normally have.

It wasn't just spectacular, iwas beyond unbelievable.

It was perfect.

I had two touchdowns as a full

back, I had 14 solo tackles, two

fumble recoveries, an

interception.

Get your hands up, get your

hands up.

This game was like

everything

that could go right for me did.

It just blew my mind.

I had some spectacular games

after that, but nothing close to

that, and I did it for my dad, I

did it for my father.

I did it because that's what he

wanted me to do, that's the

player he wanted me to be, and I

always wanted to make him proud.

In high school, I was really

great football player, but the

wrestling started outweighing

the football.

The high school coach, coach

lamprinakos, pulled me aside and

said, "listen, I haven't had a

wrestler like you in 20 years.

You're going to be state

champion."

I was going to be the one thadominated the weight class, and

I did, I dominated.

I went on that summer to wrestle

in the junior nationals in

freestyle wrestling.

It was my third time going and

my first time that I won.

I was considered the national

champion in high school before I

ended up going to college.

We recruited him out of

mounlebanon high school.

He was blessed with quickness

and talent.

Coach bubb was a genius.

He is the reason I went to

clarion.

He was a drill sergeant.

He got in that room, he worked

hard.

It's all you had to do, you had

to work hard.

He was the one that gave the

extra time, the commitment to

the weight room and the practice

room.

Of course, the finer you hone

your skills in our sport, the

better you're going to be.

I was beating guys that were

olympians.

It was crazy.

I was a 19-year-old kid and I'm

beating all these greaathletes.

The trend in heavyweighwrestling, in collegiate

wrestling were these great big

huge guys, and then comes along

kurt who's a little bit shorter

than that, walking around 220,

230 pounds.

He was that first kind of new

breed of heavyweight that's

athletic that can sh**t greashots, and then just waltzing

around seeing who was going to

trip who first.

He amazed me a lot of the

times.

Staying in it till the very end

and winning with someone that he

shouldn't have beat.

His match with sylvester terkay

in the ncaa finals his senior

year is an epic match.

I was a national champion in

over half my wins were by

pinfall.

That was my thing.

I pinned a lot of people.

Rock hard, 260 pounds greek

god looking man.

A lot of the smaller

heavyweights I pretty much jussmashed them.

I grabbed them, I piled through

them, I pinned them.

Started out winning big

prestigious tournaments and

that's how we started to build

toward a little bit of my

rivalry with kurt.

Welcome back to the marriotin oklahoma city, as kurt angle

is set for his heavyweight match

against sylvester terkay.

Kurt's up here looking aand

then sylvester's down here.

This was a david and goliath

story all the way.

Kurt's 5'10", this guy is 6'6".

Kurt's 200 pounds.

This guy's 275.

The first three minutes, the

match was dead even.

He knocked me down, flattened me

out.

I thought he's going to pin me.

He's going to turn me and pin

me.

I was a big tall lanky guy

and here's the guy that's a lomore stockier, compact, he was

kind of hard to get a hold of.

There's a minute left.

It came down to who was going to

get the first take down.

I think that I wanted to try

and set up my shot, and as I did

that, he hit his I'll call ihis best move.

He had this little duck

under, faked it, and gone to

sylvester's right.

Then when he countered, he

switched off the left side.

He shoots one way.

He pulled one foot back, this

foot is open.

Sylvester reacted to the

fake

and he ducked off what we call

the weak side.

He was able to hit that on

me.

There was around 13 seconds lefand that's what I call was

kyle's the k*ller, so to speak.

It was like a falling

timber.

He went down and kurt rode him

about three, four seconds and

cut him loose.

Technician against just a

big

burly dude.

The technician won.

A lot of people thought imight be my night, so it didn'quite work out that way.

He's the national champion.

Doesn't get any better than

that.

It's a very small group of guys

that are in that elite class of

wrestlers in the college ranks.

It was the smartest match I

ever wrestled.

It showed that I was ready for

the next level.

I was on my way to the olympic

level.

I just graduated college.

I knew I had four years to

prepare for the olympics, and I

was doing everything I could.

I still didn't figure myself

out.

In other words, I didn't figure

out what my strengths were and

my weaknesses as an olympic

wrestler.

In 1993 and 1994, I ended up

being the number two guy on the

olympic team, the world team.

He does.

That will take care of it.

That ends the match with a

minute and six left in this

sudden death overtime.

Kurt angle is still down.

My confidence was crushed.

I didn't know why, so I decided

to figure out what I needed to

do to win.

I had the ability to go to a

state-of-the-art, nothing better

than this facility called

foxcatcher.

Foxcatcher was a facility in

philadelphia, pennsylvania.

It was owned by john du pont,

and he wanted to get involved in

wrestling for a long time.

He got a hold of usa wrestling,

started funding them every year,

then he started his own club and

he recruited the best of the

best.

My name's dave schultz.

My involvement here afoxcatcher is as an athlete, I

train here, I work with du pont.

Dave schultz was the

recruiter.

Dave was really good at spotting

talent and everybody wanted to

be there to work with dave.

Kurt angle went and trained

at foxcatcher because dave

schultz could help him, and how

many other people that went to

foxcatcher or went around dave

because dave could help them.

Dave schultz who I consider

as the greatest wrestler of all

time.

He learned seven differenlanguages so he could learn the

sport of wrestling from a

universal standpoint.

He not only did it all, he would

train with you.

I remember the first time I

wrestled dave, he was 40, 50

pounds lighter than me.

He beat the -- out of me.

He thought kurt was as hard

working an individual in

wrestling as he had ever seen.

I could just see kurt really

respected dave and dave really

respected kurt for the work thahe was putting in, so I think

dave was a mentor and of course

a good friend.

He had such an impact in my

career, because when I looked ahim, he was everything I wanted

to be.

He loved wrestling, he loved

teaching it, he loved competing.

He was the best coach I ever

had.

Dave schultz was the kind of

coach that could pick aparopponents, and working with

dave, he showed me so many

different ways to beat people.

We would watch wrestlers like

mark coleman, mark kerr, kirk

trost, dan chaid, and they were

bigger guys.

They were quick, they were

strong, but they slowed the pace

down, and they would slow me

down so I would go at their

pace.

I realized, watching film, thai wasn't picking up the pace and

putting the pressure on them.

I decided, if I was going to do

this, I'm going to have to take

my conditioning level to a level

where it's never been before.

Those other boys were a

little bit older, real defensive

wrestlers, who weren't in real

good shape.

He just decided to take their

wind away from them and get in

super tip-top shape like a

lightweight would be in.

I didn't have to be faster,

bigger, or stronger.

If I didn't get tired, I was

going to win.

That's what I did.

I did what you call exhaustraining.

I trained till I was exhausted

and that's when the training

started.

Kurt angle set his goals

real

high.

He didn't believe he couldn't do

anything.

He didn't have a limit that he

thought he couldn't achieve.

He believed in himself more

probably than most people did.

He was determined to be a

world champion.

He was determined to be an

olympic champion.

He lived it.

He breathed it and he slept it.

My schedule every day was--

this is how crazy it was.

I'd do a 6-mile run and I would

do it in about 38 minutes.

When I got done, I would do 10

200-yard hill sprints with

somebody on my back.

Then when I got done with that,

I would do 10 without anyone on

my back.

Then I would run home, get on

the airdyne, and I would sprinand go idle for an hour.

I'd see the story about him

running up the hill over mounlevel with a guy on his

shoulders like this.

On his shoulders like a log like

this.

After my morning session, I

would do the afternoon session.

I would warm up and do an hour

of technique, and I would

wrestle for probably for two

hours.

He would drill four or five

guys.

They'd take turns.

He would never stop.

He'd get a fresh guy, they'd

keep jumping in.

He wouldn't stop for half an

hour.

I would have three of them

rotating on me, 3-minute

periods, and I would do that for

about 30 minutes.

Then I would take a break and do

it again.

These guys that want to be

olympic champions, they're

obsessed.

They won't stop.

With kurt, we had to watch him

because he'd overwork.

He would work too hard.

In the evening, I would do

all my plyometrics and weightraining.

When I would lift weights, iwasn't about maxing out a bunch

of weight or hitting a bunch of

repetitions.

It was about how tired I can gemy body.

I seen him with 315 on his

back do like 65 times.

315 Pounds is a lot of weight.

We worked a little bit more

like mules and kurt worked a

little bit more like a

racehorse.

There was a purpose for why he

was doing the training that he

was doing.

I would train every day, 3

times a day for 28 and a half

days a month out of 30 days.

I did that consistently for two

years.

I did not stop.

It was 10 hours a day, almosevery single day.

He was one of the

best-conditioned athletes in the

world.

Had to be.

The way he worked out and

trained, he had to be.

Nobody worked out like kurt.

Nobody.

That's why he's a champion.

He lived here with me and I

never seen him.

He would come in to eat and run

back out, change his clothes and

different clothes.

He'd go wrestle for two hours,

then he come back, change, go to

work out at the gym for two more

hours, come back, go jump rope.

He runs these hills over here.

He puts everything into

everything he does.

I guess not because I'm

bragging, but I'm trying to say

that when he does something, he

does it the best.

That man right there, kurangle of the usa, is getting seto wrestle for the championship

and he's not thinking about the

olympic games.

In fact, there is only one thing

on his mind tonight at the omni.

The world championship's

right now.

Like I said before, I'm nogoing to think about anything

else.

This is as big as the olympics.

It's just not olympic year and

I'm going to give everything

I've got to win this title.

Arawat sabejew was the world

champion from 1994.

He also pinned me in 38 seconds

3 years prior.

He was good.

Kurt angle wrestling for his

first-ever world championship

against the defending world

champ, arawat sabejew of

germany.

Sabejew has the leg, moves

in

and tries to pick up the

takedown.

Angle scrambles.

It's not done yet.

No takedown.

Sabejew has a hold on that leg.

Angle counters.

Reverses.

Sabejew turned run around by

kurt angle.

I took him into overtime.

As the overtime started getting

longer and longer, and further

into it, he was getting really

tired.

Sabejew now claims he's goan injury.

I had a new weapon, exhaustraining and it was working.

I was sticking and moving.

I was getting him out of

position.

He was so tired.

He kept asking for injury

timeouts.

He's faking injuries and I knew

I had him.

Way back to the middle, some

suspense.

I think sabejew knows in his

heart, and he does.

[Crowd cheers]

27-year-old kurt angle from

pittsburgh, pennsylvania.

Get used to that name because he

is just now emerging on the

world scene and has just now

captured his first-ever world

freestyle wrestling title.

This sport is the toughessport in the world.

I don't regret one minute of it.

It's hard.

You work harder than any other

sport, and when you win, you

might not get the money like

those football players or

basketball players or baseball,

but you get a lot more in here.

That's what I love about this

sport.

The victory against arawasabejew put me on the map.

It let everybody in the world

know that there was a serious

contender for the olympic gold

in 1996.

Kurt, you're on a new

mountain.

What is your new horizon?

Oh, olympics next year.

Win the olympics, retire.

When dave saw me wrestle there

after coaching me the prior

year, he knew that I was going

to win a gold medal.

He knew before I did, and he

wanted to be a part of it.

A lot of people would say, "I'm

not going to help him out.

Why should I help him out?

What'd he ever do for me?"

For dave, it wasn't about whayou did for him.

It was about giving back.

The standoff between a swateam and the heir to a fortune

continues tonight.

Swat team still surround the

du pont mansion outside

philadelphia.

Police negotiators have been

calling du pont approximately

once every hour.

Eccentric millionaire with

an

avid interest in olympic sports

and g*ns.

A 14,000 square foofoxcatcher training center on

his estate and recruited olympic

caliber wrestlers, some of whom,

like schultz, lived on the

estate.

I was going to head down to

duquesne university to have a

practice with their heavy

weights because I was in

pittsburgh at the time.

Before I left, I left dave a

message around 1:00 pm that I

was coming to the farm the nexday and I wanted to let him know

I was going to be in there to

train with him.

I left him a message and then I

went down to practice, and

literally three hours later, I

saw on cnn that dave was shoand k*lled.

No one is sure or saying why

john du pont would have k*lled

dave schultz, america's best befor olympic gold in wrestling

and a coach at du pont's

foxcatcher training center.

While the two were close, they

were often at odds.

Dave would tell john whawas

on his mind.

If something was bugging him,

he'd say, "hey, du point, you

can't do that."

Dave and I would have a loof conversations.

In november before he was

k*lled, he said, "I'm going to

get out soon, but I got things.

Things are okay down there and

safe.

All the rumors that you hear

about john with g*ns and john

being crazy, it's not as bad as

people say."

Then three months later, he shodave.

I don't know that anybody will

ever know why.

That's the sad part.

Schultz, who won a gold

medal

in the 1984 summer olympics,

lived with his family in a home

on the estate.

It is at that home that police

say du point drove up and shoschultz in the driveway.

He screamed so loud.

By the time I got to the door,

dave was down in the snow and

john shot him in the back.

Then I went over to turn dave

over and try to do cpr, but he

was crushed.

When I touched him, it was jussoft.

I just put his head in my lap

and told him I loved him.

He died very quickly.

Dave was one of my besfriends, and I just want him to

know that I love him and I care

a lot about his family, nancy

and the kids.

I just pray to god that they're

going to be okay.

Dave will be missed so much

by his family, friends, and the

wrestling community around the

world.

After dave was k*lled, there was

this gap because it was january

and the olympic trials were in

june.

Right?

All the funding come from this

guy.

We have probably, I don't know,

17 to 20 elite-level athletes

who are counting on at least a

stipend every month.

I called foxcatcher and told

their attorneys to take me off

the payroll.

I couldn't take blood money, and

nancy schultz heard about that.

Nancy called me right away and

she said, "well, I'm starting a

wrestling club because I got a

bunch of companies that have

called me that want to sponsor

you guys, so I'm going to starthe dave schultz wrestling club.

Would you like to be the firsmember?"

[Chuckles]

I was like,

"wow. Me?"

I said yes.

Kurt was the first one to

say, "I'm going to wrestle for

the dave schultz wrestling

club."

It was a huge turning point for

me.

It showed me that he respected

dave's memory and that he had

some faith in me and who is

helping me to put together the

program.

Kurt stood up immediately and

said, "let's wrestle for the

dave schultz wrestling club in

dave's honor."

[Music]

well, in 1996 at the us

open, that was the beginning

stages of the olympic trials.

Given everything thahappened certainly there was a

void with dave gone.

A rift in the national team.

I was having a fantastic

tournament.

I was dominating my weighclass.

I would score my opponents by

dozens of points.

I got to the semi-finals and I

had a wrestler that was pretty

tough named jason loukides.

We were wrestling and I dug for

an under hook, get my arm under

his armpit, and he hit me with

this arm throw.

As he threw me with an arm

throw, I went to put my hand up

to block the ground so I

wouldn't roll over my back.

I couldn't get my hand over in

time, so I put my head up to

stop me from landing on my back.

I landed right down on my face.

All I heard was a bunch of

cracking and crunching in my

neck.

I knew I did something.

Right when I landed, jason, the

wrestler, was trying to

gut-wrench me to roll me over

again because he knew I was

hurt.

I would've done the same thing

to him.

That's part of the sport.

[Whistle blowing]

when I got up, I couldn'feel my arms.

That's when I realized it was a

lot worse than I thought.

It was just the beginning of the

match, and not only that, but I

gave the points up.

Now, I'm losing 3-0.

I get back in there, and I

couldn't do anything.

I had no strength.

My neck was k*lling me.

I knew something was wrong and I

kept thinking about my neck.

I just couldn't get back into

the focus on the match and whai had to do to win.

Come on, kurt.

You got to want it.

Let's go.

Little by little, I was

scoring a couple of points here

and there, and I believe with

about 20 seconds left, I scored

my fifth point.

Hey.

Good job.

It got me into the finals.

The problem was I didn't know

how bad my neck was injured.

[Whistle blowing]

I went over to the trainer

and I told him what happened.

I was having a lot of pain in my

lower neck.

The trainer told me to get down,

lay down on my back, and he

starts cracking my neck.

Every time they cracked it, a

sharp pain would go down my

spine or down my arms.

I said, "whoa, whoa.

There's something wrong here.

I don't think you should be

cracking my neck."

We knew he wasn't right, buhis neck's this big.

I had no idea his neck was thabad.

Eight hours after thamatch,

the semi-final match with jason

loukides, I had the final match

against kerry mccoy.

Kerry mccoy is an animal

himself.

He's one of the best wrestlers

we've ever had in his own right.

I don't think I can do this.

How about I'll just take a break

here and I'll go home?

I'll take second place and I'll

go to the olympic trials as the

second-place wrestler.

Now, the problem with that is if

you don't win the us open,

you're not in the finals of the

olympic trials.

In other words, if you win the

us open, you go to the finals of

the trials.

All the other placed winners

underneath wrestle each other

and the winner of that gets to

wrestle the winner from the us

open.

That's how the olympic trials

works.

Winning the us open, so

important.

It takes a whole tournament ouof your path because it takes

you out of this mini-tournament.

[Music]

the coach said, "listen, do

you want to go through thacrazy a*s tournament where

you're going to have to wrestle

all these guys and then you're

going to be exhausted and your

neck might not be healed up and

then you're going to have to

wrestle the us open champion?"

I kept telling them I don'think I can wrestle.

[Music]

I believe my brother, mark,

was around.

He kept saying, "shut up.

You're wrestling."

[Music]

I couldn't do anything.

All I did was pummel with him.

I tried to tie him up.

I was digging underhooks.

All I did was pushed him around

the mat, got him called for

stalling.

He was trying to wrestle me.

I was trying to not wrestle him.

Kurt's decision to lay iall

on the line, regardless of his

own health, serious things, even

more serious because of whahappened to him, but it's thadraw of becoming olympic

champion.

That's so strong.

They'll literally do anything

necessary.

They'll do anything.

[Music]

the us open is a wonderful

thing to win, but when you're

thinking about winning a gold

medal for your country, it's

just part of it.

I was more concerned about the

olympic trials.

Although, I had a month to think

about it, I was more concerned

would this heal by then.

Whatever it is.

Hopefully, it's not too bad, buwould I be ready?

[Music]

after the tournament, I wento a chiropractor.

He took an x-ray of my neck.

He said, "you know you have four

broken vertebrae, right?

Two of your discs are sticking

directly into your spinal cord.

You're in a position where you

can do some real damage to your

body like paralysis."

I went to two other doctors here

in pittsburgh and I told them I

had to be ready in, I believe,

four weeks for the olympic

trials.

He looked at the x-ray and he

looked at me, he said, "you're

not doing it.

If you go out there and you

wrestle and you land on your

head again, you probably won'live."

I was at a loss for words.

I was trying to think of what I

could do.

I called bruce burnett of usa

wrestling.

I called him and said, "listen,

I have a really severe neck

injury and I know you've done

this before where guys have been

injured and you pushed back the

date of their trials.

I need another month or two."

He straight up said, "you're nogetting it."

I knew then I didn't have an

option.

I had to be ready.

I decided I was going to go up

to edinboro to train with bruce

baumgartner.

Right when bruce locked up with

me, a sharp pain in my neck wenright down my arms.

I dropped to my knees.

I was in the worst pain in the

world.

It was unbearable.

Finally, I met with two doctors,

julian bailes and dr. Maroon.

These guys dealt with

professional athletes all the

time.

My concern is always

neurological.

Is there potential danger to the

brain or the spinal cord?

I think he's quite safe in tharegard.

You still look at him.

His neck is like this.

You have to have a neck to break

it.

He has no neck.

They had a different method.

Before I wrestled each time in

the olympic trials, they were

going to have a doctor there

present and he was going to

stick me in the neck with 12

different shots of a type of

novocain to numb my neck.

Make the olympic team,

compete in the olympics,

represent your country, medal,

I'd take novocain.

Feeling the novocain and

feeling how it made me

completely pain-free, it gave me

confidence when I got to the

olympic trials, this might work

out.

Maybe you could've got there

in '96, but you might not gethere in 2000.

Carpe diem, seize the day.

He was going to get what he had

trained for.

I couldn't train wrestling.

I could lift weights.

I could run and sprint and do my

plyometrics, but I couldn'wrestle.

My neck's practice was going to

be my first round of the olympic

trials.

I just never considered

quitting, never considered

giving up because of my neck

injury.

There was no pause.

It was, "what do I need to do to

get back in the game?"

I did that.

Nobody was going to stop me.

The problem was everybody knew I

broke my neck.

My opponent in the olympic

trials already knew my neck was

broken.

Dan chaid was tough.

He was a fighter.

He was more of a brawler type of

wrestler.

I like dan as a person, but when

he got on that mat, he was

either going to hurt you or you

were never going to forget his

name.

[Music]

dan chaid wanted to be a

world olympic champion too and

that's a guy that will take

advantage of an injury.

I wasn't sure who would win.

You would think that they

wouldn't be fond of each other.

Somebody's dreams are going to

be crushed.

I got injured every time I

wrestled him.

I knew how dan was and I knew

what I had in front of me in the

olympic trials.

He was going to try to hurt my

neck.

Having neck pain and not knowing

how much damage I was doing to

my body and having the

uncertainty of that, and then

getting stuck in the neck with

12 shots of novocaine and then

going out, not feeling it, imakes you think, is this worth

it?

Is it worth it to numb that up,

knowing how damaged it is and

how I could end up being

paralyzed or even dead if I land

wrong?

Time will only tell and only

kurt can tell if that was worth

it or not in his life's path and

life's dreams, and life's

development.

It doesn't surprise me thahe did what he needed to do to

put himself back on the mat, to

compete, to make that olympic

team, because that was his

dream, that was his goal.

It was known from the minute he

hit the senior circuit until he

won that I'm here to be the besin the world.

Dan chaid was a bully.

He liked to inflict pain and

that's what he was going to try

to do to me.

The first thing he did is he

went right for my neck.

Put both of his hands around my

back of my neck and was holding

me down trying to inflict pain.

He come out and he was

trying

to take advantage of kurt's

injury.

He comes out and he just starts

clubbing on the back of his

head.

I couldn't feel it.

It wasn't working.

His mindset was, go for the

neck, go for the neck.

Every time he did, he lefhimself open.

The guy thought he would try to

get me to quit by trying to

re-injure my neck.

The whole game plan backfired on

him and it benefited me.

I just made the olympic team by

beating dan chaid.

I had a solid performance.

I thought it was as good as I

could have wrestled, even

without the broken neck, even if

I was healthy, it was good.

It was something that built my

confidence, that made me realize

maybe you're more ready than you

think you are.

Welcome to atlanta's olympic

stadium for the opening ceremony

of these centennial olympic

games.

Everybody wants to win the

olympics on the day of the

olympics, but you have to wanto win the olympics every single

day when you wake up leading up

to the olympics.

Every single time, every single

one of those decisions come up,

you have to choose the olympics

over everything else.

Going into atlanta, he was

mentally prepared to win a gold

medal, and that was his only

vision.

He wouldn't let falling off the

cliff enter his head.

It was always focused on the

gold medal going around his

neck.

I declare open the gates of

atlanta, celebrating the 26th

olympian of the modern era.

I believe one of the

greatesolympic teams ever in 1996.

Obviously, we were all still

heartbroken over dave.

Boy, we wish dave could have

been here.

When I walked in for the

opening ceremonies, the place

went crazy.

I was like, "wow.

They know who I am?

This is crazy."

I'm like, "yes, all right."

I'm waving and they're getting

louder and louder.

I look behind me and the damn

dream team just snuck in behind

us.

It was a humbling experience to

think the fans were cheering for

me and it was the boys in the

back.

It was actually pretty funny.

It was actually pretty funny.

Everybody that wrestled kurknew that his neck was hurt and

don't think for one second thatheir coaches wouldn't like,

"look, if you get in a clinch,

you need to crank him."

He was aware that people were

trying to take him out.

My neck was still broken up

until the olympics.

I'd have a lot of pain in there,

but it usually stayed in the

neck.

It wasn't running down my arms

anymore.

I felt more confident abouwhere I was at that time, how my

neck was feeling, and I fellike this is about as ready as I

will be.

I remember my first match being

against mongolia.

He was going to be quite a

force.

I was leading 2-0 and we went to

overtime.

I got registered for two more

points and I won 4-0 overtime.

[Crowd cheers]

a cuban, a seven-foot tall cuban

monster.

I knew he was going to give me a

hard time because he was a big

dude.

We went 0-0 regulation, 0-0

overtime until 5 seconds left.

I took him down overtime.

I won 1-0 double overtime from

the cuban.

The next round, I had a russian,

I dug for an underhook and he

knew I was going to do it.

Right when I did that, he hit me

with a fireman's carry.

Now it's down 3-0 against a

russian.

I'm like, "oh, god."

You never want to go down three

points to a russian because

they're going to keep good

positioning and they're going to

stall the rest of the match and

win.

A couple of minutes went by, I

took him down, I turned him.

Angle.

He's going to get it.

It's a tied match.

I tied the match three to

three.

Right when I turned him, he puhis hands on his face like this.

I said, "holy --.

He's going to give up."

We went back in the middle and I

took him down 5 seconds later,

won 4-3.

[Music]

he scores another takedown.

A super job by kurt angle to

hang on to that-

I didn'have to have a pretty

performance.

I just wanted the gold any way I

could get it.

The gold medal represents being

the best of the best.

The gold medal represents thathere's nobody better than you

on this planet.

I didn't want money.

I didn't want fame.

I wanted that gold medal.

If I have that gold medal around

my neck, my life is fine.

Kurt had to wrestle probably

at that point the most famous

iranian of all time, abbas

jadidi.

Abbas jadidi, who I believe

even including me, was by far

the best wrestler in the weighclass.

He won the worlds in 1993.

He got suspended for two years

for an ill*gal substance.

He dominated everybody.

This guy was unbeatable.

Their national sport in iran

is wrestling.

When you're stepping on the mawith an iranian, you better be

ready.

Kurt, he was the underdog.

For sure, he was the underdog.

The only chance of beating

him was not to out technique

him.

It was to get him tired.

I just remember him being

relaxed, focused, confident, and

just ready to go to w*r.

I remember being really hard

fought and it was just a battle.

An all-out attack for the entire

match by kurt.

There was so little scoring.

It was like a fast chess match

out there.

We had a couple of takedowns

where he almost took me down ouof bounds.

I almost took him down.

I feel a pop in my groin,

probably a partial tear.

It was horrible because now I'm

like, "oh, god, not my groin

now."

Abbas jadidi now gets me down

and he's going for a leg lace,

and that means he was wrapping

my legs together to spin me over

onto my back.

Well, as he was doing that, I

didn't have any strength in my

groin.

It was k*lling me.

I had to give up a point.

[Music]

he knew that it felt pretty

easy, so he tried it again, and

I was like, "screw it.

I'm going to use all my strength

to make sure I don't get turned,

and if it pops, it pops."

He went again and he almost had

me turned.

I just roughed it out and

straightened my legs and stayed

on my stomach and he gave up.

I was like, "thank god."

Now he took a nice little slick

shot and I was able to shift my

weight over on him, and I

knocked him on his hip and spun

behind him and took him down.

[Crowd cheers]

I'm like, wow.

That was a pretty slick

takedown."

I didn't even think about what I

did.

It was just strictly instinct.

Tactically, strategically,

kurt wrestled well.

The later the match went, the

better he got, the faster he

got.

Kurt was nonstop and jadidi was

stalling the whole time, the

whole time.

Just getting to catch your

wind for another five, maybe

seven seconds, you revitalize a

little bit.

If they would have made him come

back to the middle, there would

have been a point where he broke

him down.

He could've did whatever he

wanted to him.

This guy could not get up

off

the mat.

This is a world-class athlete

that kurt just punked and he

can't get up off the mat going

like this.

[Music]

kurt angle look like a

freaking gymnast.

You talk about wrestling and the

battle of two wills.

Here's a guy underneath a guy

hands behind his legs, driving

like a clydesdale into him, and

here's kurt angle, captain

freaking america with his hands

sprawling, blocking, back arch,

head to the ceiling.

It was amazing.

Now we're in overtime.

It's one to one and he's getting

really tired, and the little

voice in my head said, you need

to do something.

You have to take him down.

I shot a little single to one

side and I knocked abbas down

onto his butt.

I got both of his legs and I had

the takedown.

One ref gave me a point, the

other two didn't give me it yet.

They're waiting for me to move

up on to his hips a little

higher.

If they don't give me it,

they'll at least award me ibecause the match was dead even.

The way that it was a ref's

decision, it looked like icould've went either way.

Kurt's mom very nervous.

Sometimes she leaves.

She gets so nervous and anxious,

but she's going to stay here for

this one.

This is as tight as it can

possibly get.

It is now in the hands of the

referee, mat judge, mat chairman

to make a decision.

Kurt angle was the more

aggressive at the end of this

match, jeff.

My heart went down to my

stomach.

First thing I thought was, four

more years.

After this, four more years

because I can't just stop at a

silver.

What will be the outcome?

They can't decide.

There it is.

Kurt angle.

Kurt angle of the united states.

[Music]

first thing I thought about,

got on my knees and I thanked

god, and I thought about my dad

and I thought about dave

schultz.

How proud they would have been

of me.

Man, dave would've-- he would've

run out that mat and lifted me

up on his shoulders.

What a tough year.

Dave gets k*lled and foxcatcher

breaks down, and you don't have

a club, and then nancy schultz

gives you dave's schultz

wrestling club.

Everything that we went through

that year, my broken neck, and

all this work you put in, it's

done.

You don't have to worry anymore.

You don't have to stress

anymore.

No more waking up at 4:00 am, no

more staying till one o'clock in

the morning at the weight room,

no more training like a mad man

in the wrestling room.

It was done.

I planned for this for so long.

No, not just the past two months

or the past year, or two, or

four, but ever since I was a

kid.

When I finally dropped to my

knees and realized I won,

there's nothing but joy.

It was my dad and dave, and

thank you lord for letting me

stick through all of this and

still come out on top.

It was incredible.

What can you say about this

moment?

I worked for this moment all

my life.

I can't believe it happened.

It's the best feeling I've ever

had.

I thank god.

I saw you kneel on the maand pray.

Were you talking to your dad?

Yes, my dad's always with

me.

Dave schultz, my uncle fred, my

grandmother.

They were all together pulling

for me, rooting for me up there,

and I know it came down to that.

I knew they were with me.

I wasn't sure if I won.

This is the best thing that's

ever happened to me.

I can't believe this.

All I wanted to do is win a

world championship and an

olympic gold medal, and I did

them both.

If I died tonight, I'd be the

happiest man in the world.

I love you, mom.

I did that one for you.

[Music]

[music]

please welcome kurt angle.

Now, I understand you giving

that to your mom, though, huh?

Yes, I figured she deserved

this more than I did.

She's done so much for me.

She raised me from when I was

just a kid.

You know what's funny abouthat?

My mom too.

What are the odds?

To be honest, nobody's going

off to win olympics to like be a

millionaire.

No one ever thinks that, but you

at least think that you should

have a path for a career for the

rest of your life.

Usually, people just end up with

an olympic medal on one hand and

their -- in the other.

When you win something or

you're awarded something thayou dreamed about since you were

a kid, and you felt like there

was nothing else more importanthan that, and you finally

accomplish it, you wake up the

next day and you say, "what am I

going to do now?"

It has been said thaanything can happen here in the

world wrestling --, bunow more than ever truer words

have never been spoken.

This is a conscious effort on

our part to open the creative

envelope, so to speak, in order

to entertain you in a more

contemporary manner.

Even though we call ourselves

sports entertainment, because of

the athleticism involved, the

keyword in that phrase is

entertainment.

You mentioned to me earlier

that vince mcmahon from the

world wrestling -- has

in fact contacted kurt angle.

If vince mcmahon were to give

you a phone call tomorrow and

say, "kurt, I'll tell you what,

I'll give you a three-year deal

worth $2.5, $3 million to become

a world wrestling --

performer."

Would you consider it?

I think I'd say no.

One, due to the fact that I am a

wrestler, a true wrestler, an

olympic champion wrestler.

My first thoughts as an olympic

gold medalist was don't do it.

I started watching these guys

and they were doing some of the

most athletic things I've ever

seen.

We've seen a lot up there.

Over the top.

Aj, second rope.

Oh, man.

Look at this.

Oh, god.

What athleticism.

Shelton landing on his feet.

Look out.

Whoa.

There was a wrestler on

there

that really caught my interest.

His name was "stone cold" steve

austin.

He's not supposed to be ouhere.

If you think the rock is a

sorry sell out --, give me a

hell yeah.

[Crowd yells "hell yeah"]

that's exactly what I

thought.

There's nothing like when

you're in the entertainmenbusiness grabbing a crowd and

having them hook, line and

sinker, and you were dictating

to them you're doing something

and getting a response and

they're buying into your story.

It's intoxicating.

It's so uplifting, it's so

powerful.

If you can bottle that stuff and

sell it, you'd be a billionaire.

I loved his character.

He was a lot of fun to watch,

and why am I so bitter abouthese guys making all this

money?

Why don't I try it?

The only olympic gold

medalist to ever grace a wwe

ring.

I remember seeing this guy

and I'm thinking, okay.

He's a good-looking guy, greaphysique, you know the tenacity,

stud athlete with a big a*s

neck.

All of a sudden, this guy shows

up and I'm thinking, now can he

make the transition?

You see, kurt angle, this

isn't the olympics.

You're not facing the romanians,

you're not facing the

bulgarians, you're facing the

rock, the brahma bull, a man who

has no quit.

A man who has no fear.

Kurt angle, bring your gold

medals.

He approached our process

without ego.

He'd won a gold medal in the

olympics and came in with all

this cachet and all this

incredible accomplishment behind

him.

He came in again with greahumility and said, "I just wanto learn.

I'm going back to day one for me

and check your ego at the door."

He is a blue-chipper, no

doubt about that.

It's my first match, my

debuin wwe.

The fans didn't really care

about the match.

They were chanting boring and

this match sucks.

Kurt angle went and won a

gold medal at the olympic games

that summer, and of course,

angle, as we said, was

successful.

Vince mcmahon told me to go

outside, grab the microphone,

and tell these fans you do noboo an olympic champion.

I was like, "holy --."

Here's this guy.

He's so squeaky clean that you

could see with the right spin on

it he could be very arrogant.

I'm better than you.

You do not boo an olympic

gold medalist.

I'm the best in the world.

I came here for you.

You do not boo me.

The fans responded, and they

started booing me even more.

It was the birth of the heel

kurt angle.

I've seen so many amateur

wrestlers come along,

legitimately tough guys, thacould never get it.

So many guys come from the

amateur ranks and, because of

the ego involved, can't stand

being on the bottom or shining a

guy up.

Kurt was able to get through all

that.

From the psychology of

wrestling to the technique to

being a character to being

entertaining, it just all came

to me very quickly.

At that time, the company

had

not gone public yet.

It was still a mom-and-pop

company that flew under the

radar in many respects.

It was like the wild wild west.

It was -- crazy and it was

awesome.

The king of the ring set.

Good god almighty.

Oh, not again.

Oh, my god.

[Music]

I love the attitude era.

I thought it was one of the

greatest periods in the history

of the business.

It was full-tilt, full-speed

ahead, make no apologies, push

the envelope.

At that time, I was running

around going, "if you smell whathe rock is cooking."

Steve austin was like middle

fingers, drinking his beers.

It was the attitude era.

Kurt came along at a time where

he was trying to find his niche

and just clicked.

I stand before you tonighas

an olympic champion.

Take those metals, turn

those

-- sideways, and stick them

right up your olympic a*s.

My first gimmick in wwe was

the olympic hero.

I was the person with the three

I's, intensity, integrity, and

intelligence.

It was a fun gimmick.

It was comical.

You want to go toe to toe with

me?

To quote the popular singer

shakira, "whenever, wherever."

Kurt brought to the table

this naivety, this innocent I

love milk, man, I love cookies

and the american way and I fighfor freedom and my country and I

believe in good.

Audiences loved him.

They loved to love him and cheer

him.

They also loved to hate him.

Your chances at winning the

title in front of these sleazy

hometown losers just went from

slim to none.

What do you think about that?

What kurt allowed to take

place because he had the talento pull it off was kurt could do

anything.

He could be serious, he could be

funny.

That's why I'm glad I'm here

in this town because if there

was ever a town that can relate

to losing, it's detroit,

michigan.

What?

[Crowd boos]

oh, boy.

It's true.

Kurt got comfortable in his

own skin and started doing these

just hilarious things that you

wouldn't expect from an olympic

gold medalist.

Look out.

Oh, man, come on.

You can't do that.

[Bell rings]

mae young attacking kurangle.

For god's sakes.

For the love of god.

Oh, my gosh.

What kind of human being has

kurt angle become?

I was a bad guy.

A heel, and I did a lot of

preaching.

It was a lot of fun.

The fans hated my guts.

I would like to talk to you

tonight about something thagives your olympic hero greajoy.

The joy of celibacy.

People tell me today, "kurt, I

hated your guts back then."

I got on people's nerves.

That's how bad it was.

I noticed that the city of

chicago is a little short on

winners, and a little worn on

fat sweaty pigs.

[Crowd boos]

it's true.

It's damn true.

I remember walking through

the airport one morning, and I

think I had a hangover.

I looked over and I saw this

little bitty cowboy hat.

I said, "man, kurt would look

amazing in that hat because he's

got this 22-inch neck."

His neck is like a cobra.

I was in the cub scouts, the

webelos, boy scouts, I did them

all.

What do you mean you did

them

all?

The build-up to all of our

matches were always fun because

I would talk -- to him.

I probably know what's differenabout you.

Somebody got a haircut.

He would try and talk -- to me,

but he was one of these guys

when he talks --, his character

talks --, he was just off by a

couple of steps.

. I want you to remember one

thing, you're a boy in a man's

world and I'm a man who loves to

play with boys.

What the?

No, wait a minute.

Shut up.

Kurt just wanted to

entertain.

He just wanted to entertain the

crowd and if that meant him

being the badass and spraying

milk on everybody.

Milk a mania is running

wild.

Rallying the 20,000, 25,000,

30,000 people to chant "you

suck".

Then the b side and also the

most important side was the

promise of an amazing match.

Look out.

Oh, god.

Look out.

One of the matches that I

remember the most, it was a cage

match.

Kurt gets on the top of thacage and does a moonsault.

He's going to escape, kurangle's going to escape.

It's over.

You got to be kidding me.

Oh, my god.

My god, angle went for

everything.

That guy will go to the end

of the world to put on a damn

good match.

As I'm sitting there, I'm

thinking holy --.

Pardon my language, you -- is

crushing it.

He had a natural propensity

to be a pro wrestler.

It just came to him.

He was like a savant, a genius

at this stuff.

I became a better

technician,

I became better at psychology.

I got into my zone, I got into

my craft where I knew what I had

to do.

A lot of people have said tha"steve cold" steve austin and

myself were one of the greatesmatches of all time asummerslam.

Angle with the moonsault.

Oh, my god.

To me, what I was doing in

that match was the true

personification of trying to be

a badass piece of --.

The stunner that came out of

nowhere.

Stunner.

Kurt had great chemistry,

nojust with me.

He had great chemistry with

basically anybody he stepped

foot in the ring with.

That's how good he was.

Eddie guerrero matches,

shawn

michaels matches, brock lesnar,

edge, 2006 no way out againsundertaker.

Look at this.

Watch out.

Chokeslam.

Gosh.

Angle slam.

Oh, my god.

The match I had with him,

with a big man and the story we

were able to tell, even with the

submission trade offs, was

unreal.

Check it out now, chokeslam.

The other match was shawn

michaels, 2005 wrestlemania.

Shawn michaels.

Shawn michaels-like maneuver.

Look out.

That's a guy that I've never

gotten in a ring with before.

The chemistry we had was unreal.

No, no.

Look out.

Oh, my god.

No, no, no.

Angle slam off the top.

Those matches were what made

me the best in the business

during those years.

He was just meant to

wrestle,

whether it's competitively or

professionally.

To make people love you and to

make people laugh, it's very

difficult.

Kurt did it as good as anybody

ever did.

I'm in love with the sport.

I'm in love with sports

entertainment.

I enjoy doing it.

I love performing.

Any top guy that's ever

stepped foot or watched kurknows what a badass he is and

how talented he is in the ring.

He is at the very, very top of

that list.

Hands down, bar none.

Again, he had this naivety

to

him, this innocence to him, buthen he disrupted that with I'm

also a bad mother -- and I will

angle slam you through the --

mat in which he has done to me

on many of occasions.

[Music]

angle with an overhead

suplex.

The brahma bull has tapped

out.

That guy's a --..

[Laughs]

I knew nothing about pro

wrestling.

First time I'd met him, he

walked in and I was like, "oh,

my god, he is so handsome."

He had these big blue eyes.

I knew nothing about him at all.

We went on a date at applebee's,

and after our first date, we

just were inseparable.

Ladies and gentlemen, before

we get this party started, I

have one more announcement to

make.

I have the three most beautiful

children in the world and I

would never ever want to be

without them.

They're very special to me.

Kyra, my nine-year-old.

She's my princess.

Kody, he's my little mma

fighter, little five-year-old.

I have my beautiful little

squeaks, giuliana, my

one-year-old.

I just want to announce to all

of you, we have another baby

coming by december or january,

so we're going to have a fourth.

The irony of the success and

the bright lights is very

exciting and it could be very

alluring, but then there's a

dark side.

There's also an underbelly thaso many of my friends, my family

members have gone through and

experience.

Some have gone through an

experience and wound up on the

other side better and stronger

for it.

Some not better.

Guys like kurt who wrestled

all their life, you can't expechim to be totally healthy.

It's impossible.

People have to understand, these

guys are taking their own falls,

they're bouncing around over

that mat and the mat's nopostherpetic cure.

You do that 200 days a year or

more, several times a day, it's

obvious what it's going to do to

your body.

I think also guys on his level,

great world-class level

athletes, they just have this

fear of failing that could

manifest itself into a greablessing, and more drive, and

more accomplishments, or it can

become the kiss of death.

Between the years of 2003

and

2006, I had a very bad string of

luck.

In early 2003, I was on brock

lesnar's back.

I had him in a choke hold, and

he was running from one side of

the ring to the other.

He turned sideways and I hit the

turnbuckle and my head snapped

sideways.

I literally lost feeling in my

left arm.

I couldn't raise my arm.

It was just dead.

I knew something was wrong, and

I went to see a doctor, and I

was told what it was and that I

broke my neck.

It was "stone cold" steve

austin's doctor.

He did stone cold's neck fusion.

When I went to see him, he

wanted to do fusion right away.

When I had to leave to go

gemy surgery, I was gone for 12 or

15 months.

That's career suicide for 9 ouof 10 people.

Kurt had that same fear.

He's not a dummy.

I was very tentative abouthat because you would have to

take a year off, and I don'want to take that long off.

I remember one night, I wenover to my neighbor's house and

there's a really nice kid.

His name's johnny and he said,

"I hear you're not wrestling

brock at wrestlemania."

I said, "yes."

He said, "I really wish you'd be

able to wrestle brock."

He handed me a direct tv

magazine and on the cover was

brock lesnar versus kurt angle

at wrestlemania.

I look down and I was like,

"this might never happen again."

I called vince.

I said, "listen, I'm doing

wrestlemania."

This match we have been

waiting for for months.

Two of the most decorated

athletes in wwe history.

I wrestled brock with a

broken neck at wrestlemania 19.

This is wrestlemania, it's

like the super bowl.

These guys are world-class

athletes and they're going to go

out and give you everything they

got.

Powerslam.

Wow, what a slam by lesnar.

Oh, that's how he can win

the

match.

Oh, look at this.

Spinebuster.

That's where lesnar tried

the

sh**ting star.

Brock lesnar, he's climbing

to the top rope.

I remember lesnar tried the

sh**ting star press and he

missed it.

Brock.

What the hell is this?

What the hell's lesnar

doing,

cole?

Oh, my god.

Brock lesnar went for the

sh**ting star press and kurangle rolled out of the way.

Wind up being a hell of a

match and they were both really

sore afterwards.

[Laughs]

I can remember.

It was pretty bad.

They were both busted up.

Look at lesnar.

The powerslam to kurt angle.

I went back home and

decided,

am I going to do this?

Am I going to get fusion or do I

find somebody else?

A man named dr. Jho got a hold

of my manager and he said,

"listen, I can fix kurt angle.

He will only be out for six

weeks."

I thought this was bogus.

I was like, "this is too good to

be true."

He was going to give me a

minimally invasive surgery.

I believe it's called a

laminectomy, and he would cuout the problem and let the neck

heal, so I decided to do thasurgery and it worked extremely

well.

The surgery he had done, in

my opinion, I thought it was

like putting a patch on an

indycar, a super car, and then

expect it to go out on a track

and run 250 miles an hour again.

You're talking about a

high-performance machine and I

thought it was a patch job

rather than a fix job.

You never know what's going

to happen.

Hopefully, I'll get back in the

line up.

If I can stay in there for a

while and stay injury free and

my neck is injury free, then I

made the right move.

After six weeks of healing, I

went right back to wrestling.

I don't believe my neck fully

healed.

A couple of months later, brock

lesnar hit me over in the head

with a chair, but he wenstraight over on top of my head

instead of swinging it sideways.

When he did that, he broke my

neck again.

I believe it was three or four

months after my first break I

had my second break.

My third overall, but my second

in wwe.

I went back to the doctor, he

decided to do surgery again.

Did the same thing again.

Clipped out part of the disc and

let the neck heal.

I got back and do it again.

[Bell rings]

wow, does angle look ready

or what?

It was the beginning of

I made it all the way to

wrestlemania against eddie

guerrero, wrestlemania 20.

Both these men are

world-class athletes.

Landed on the back of my

head

and I broke my neck again.

Ddt on that surgically

repaired neck.

There goes eddie.

This is the third time in a

year.

Broke the vertebrae.

I was taken off the shelf.

Vince mcmahon said, "that's

enough.

We'll let you rest up.

Take five, six months off."

So I did that.

Came back and I started

wrestling.

I believe early 2006 I broke my

neck again.

I broke four vertebrae and I

don't remember what match I did

it in.

It was just a lot of confusion

going on in my head.

A lot of things going on at thatime, but that was four breaks

in two and a half years.

It was a really bad time for me.

In my life, I've had 40

injuries.

I've had three knee surgeries, I

broke my neck four times, I've

had some bad sprains, muscle

tears, I've torn both of my

hamstrings, I tore muscles in my

quadriceps, I dislocated my

right shoulder.

I would say probably had aleast 150 stitches on my head,

broke my nose twice, had all

four teeth knocked out twice.

That sucked.

That was a pretty penny.

I think other than that, I'm

good.

From the top of the

turnbuckle, gets pulled off once

again.

Here he comes again.

There you go.

Oh, my god.

There you go.

Third time's the charm.

Angle slam from the top

turnbuckle.

What impact.

In kurt's injuries in the

beginning, I could tell he was

in pain, but he hid it very

well, and I didn't put two and

two together until things goworse.

When I broke my neck at no

way out 2003, I met with a

doctor that prescribed me pain

medication, opioids.

I remember taking the first one.

It definitely masked the pain.

I didn't have any pain.

I felt a little more energetic,

more euphoric, and I like the

feeling, so I started taking

more.

I really didn't want to say

don't take medication because I

didn't really realize how severe

his injuries were.

I know that he broke his neck

and all that stuff, so who am I

to say, you can't take a pill?

Your body builds a tolerance

and the more you take, the more

you need.

I was taking about four a day,

four painkillers.

Didn't take me long.

I'd say about a month or so

before I doubled up to eight.

After that, I go in higher,

higher, higher.

I gave him a call, and as we

were talking there for about a

hour to an hour and a half, his

voice changed from being very

coherent to starting to slur.

I've been around enough guys and

I've given a few other calls

like that and I sort of said,

"dude, are you all right?"

He's saying, he goes "steve, I'm

telling you I'm fine."

I can't imitate his slurring

voice, but he didn't sound good

and I was honestly scared for

him.

Vince mcmahon saw a change

in

my behavior and he had jim ross

call me and he said, "listen,

you need to get off the stuff."

I said, "what are you talking

about?"

He said, "we know you're doing

something."

Some of those guys are

really

proud, man.

They won't admit they goproblems, they don't show any

weakness.

It's a sickness.

They're overmedicating and they

start feeling very guilty and

they feel very vulnerable, then

stuff just starts unraveling.

It's happened to a lot of-- and

it's not just wrestling.

Drug issues are not a

pro-wrestling issue.

It's all of our issue.

This is tough.

There was a point where my

sister was getting in a lot of

trouble.

She didn't have money.

She was living in virginia

beach.

She was taking a lot of drugs,

and I knew she was.

I adored her.

She was a great woman.

She just ended up in three bad

marriages.

Her value of herself became

nothing.

She just thought she was useless

and it drove her to a poinwhere she started using drugs.

She kept calling me for money.

I kept sending her money.

She kept telling me the bills

were racking up.

I found out later she was using

it for drugs.

When I found out that she was

$35,000 in debt, I gave her an

ultimatum.

I told her, she has to move up

to pittsburgh, live with my

mother or I wouldn't pay her

debt, so she moved.

She came back.

She didn't want to, but she

didn't have a choice.

She moved back to pittsburgh, I

paid off that $35,000 debt, and

she seemed to be doing okay for

a while.

Then she relapsed,

so I gave her

another ultimatum.

I told her that if she didn'get cleaned, I wasn't going to

talk to her ever.

She didn't get clean, so for the

next eight months, I didn't talk

to her, and then she overdosed.

I wish I would've talked to her.

Now, I find out that night thamy sister died of heroin

overdose.

The next day, I have a 60-minute

iron man match with brock

lesnar.

I didn't want to do it, but I

figured if I did do it, it'll

take my mind off le'anne jusfor that one hour, so I did it.

We buried le'anne, and by this

time, I was already 40 deep into

painkillers, so I started taking

more.

The higher I got, the better I

felt, or I should say the less I

felt because painkillers can

hide a lot of pain.

Not just physical but emotional.

As he's overmedicating

himself, trying to manage his

pain, his personality starchanging, and he knew he was

carrying a burden and you could

see that that burden was

starting to wear on him.

There were a lot of things

that were going through my mind

that I had to get away from.

I was always running away from

problems.

The pills were my sanctuary.

I remember kurt telling me

that he would just have to take

a bunch of pills just to get ouof bed because of the pain he

was in.

I would say that every

evening I went to bed, I would

put about 18 pills next to my

counter.

I'd be going through withdrawal

when I woke up, I would throw

those down and chew them up and

swallow them.

I was medicating myself not jusfor the pain, but the

psychological pain of being in

and out and wondering if I'm

going to be able to wrestle

anymore.

When I did take the pills

heavily, I do it in the morning

and after my match at night.

I made sure I didn't look messed

up or high when I worked out, or

messed up or high when I was

doing the show.

When the show was over, it was

fair game.

Counter, counter.

Look at this.

Oh, my god.

Oh, my god.

Kurt, you just figure this

guy who's an olympic gold

medalist, one of the toughesguys I know, you don't think

anything could happen to him and

you think he's bulletproof, bunobody is.

I was taking pills to feel

normal.

Over time, you build a tolerance

and you have to have more and

more and more and more.

One led to two, two led to four,

four led to eight.

Before I know it, within six

months, I was taking 65 of them

a day.

65 Extra strength vicodin.

I was getting about 1,300 pills

a month.

It's about 65 a day.

The hardest part about being an

addict is knowing where you're

going to get your drugs next.

Whenever I would run out, I'd go

through the worst withdrawal and

it would make you do crazy

stuff.

I started stealing pain meds and

just doing crazy stuff that I

never thought I would ever do.

I had to have my fix every day

and I had to set up a schedule.

I had a calendar where every

other day I would call a doctor

to get a script and then every

couple weeks, I would call my

mexico contact to get my

painkillers illegally sent to

me, and I had to keep up on this

schedule.

It was my number one priority.

It was above my family, above my

work, it was everything.

I have a lot of respect for

kurt like a big brother, and to

see him like shaking, it jusmade me angry.

I just got angry with him and

was like, "man, don't let people

see you like that.

Man, you're kurt angle."

I was hiding the pain

K*llers, I was hiding the

injuries.

When you get a hold of these

drugs and they get a hold of

you, there's no way to quit.

I was taking enough to k*ll a

horse.

I just wish that I would've

known at that time you're doing

this to yourself.

It was just hard for me to

accept.

I was so out of control and so

dangerous to myself, I juswanted to keep going until I

couldn't go any longer.

I remember going in to meet with

vince and he told me, "listen,

you got to get your a*s

straight.

You're going to die.

We would like you to go to

rehab.

You can't keep doing this."

That is the reason I quit.

Why exactly kurt angle was

released?

Can you set the record straighright now?

Some of it is confidential

and I'd love to tell you exactly

what the story is, but it really

revolves around kurt's health

more than anything else.

I didn't go to rehab because

I didn't think I had to.

I didn't think I was ready for

it.

I didn't want to let go of the

drugs.

I did want to quit, so the

ultimatum was leave, leave wwe.

Go somewhere else, so I did.

Here's this once in a

lifetime talent because he's one

of the best ever and now he's

down at tna.

I'm thinking, "man, tna, they're

not at our level."

Now samoa joe has got angle.

Look out.

He just grabbed him, slung him

right into the barricade.

When I left wwe, I started

drinking alcohol in tna, so now

I was mixing the pills with the

alcohol.

The debacle of a run he had

in tna was-- he's lucky, one,

he's not dead.

Seriously.

Happy new year.

Happy new year.

I love you.

I ain't going to make it to new

year.

It just got worse and worse

and worse.

Drinking and mixing pills

together, that's not good aall.

What's daddy stealing?

Of course giuliana's food.

She's not going to eat it.

Now I'm taking these

c*ck.

I was taking probably six xanax

a day, probably eight zonas a

day, two morphine pills.

From 2007 to 2012, I was so ouof control I was driving anight on medication and 12 beers

in me.

Channel 11 in pcnc grapping

with emotions.

A judge's decision nearly brings

a former olympian and

professional wrestler to tears.

Channel 11 news reporter gordon

lash was there as kurt angle

faced a judge on dui charges.

I got four duis in five

years.

I was lucky I didn't get more.

Let's talk about the drugs

in

your car a little bit because

that's been out there and people

probably want to know exactly

what that is.

I was so out of control, my

life completely spun out of

control.

The drugs took over my life.

It was the worst feeling in the

world.

I think people will be

interested to know what you took

out of the house was your

olympic gold medal.

How much does that mean to you?

That's how pittsburgh remembers

you.

Since I was five years old,

that's all I ever worked for.

Once I won that, I tried

everything I could to do better

than that.

He was drunk and he was

sitting there, and this is when

he had the chew in his mouth,

and he had a beer in his hand

and he was just passed ouwatching tv.

He's just talking in his sleep,

and he's just drooling, and he

just doesn't even know what he's

doing.

My lowest point was after I

got my fourth dui.

I actually got on my knees and I

prayed.

I said, "god, what am I doing

wrong?"

Because I literally still didn'believe I was a drug addict.

I just thought that I had some

bad luck.

When he was going to jail,

that was the worst time of my

life.

I was scared.

It was all over the internet, iwas all over the news, people

were calling me, I just had a

baby.

I remember when I got my

fourth dui, giovanna got a call

from me from jail and she was

pissed.

I didn't want to pick up.

I was thinking about maybe when

he comes home, I should be in a

hotel so he knows what he could

lose.

He called me again and I'm like,

"I have to pick up.

I have to pick up."

The first thing I did and I

said, "why?

Why'd you do this?

Why did you get in trouble

again?"

He's like, "I don't know what's

wrong with me.

I'm sitting here in jail and I'm

like the lowest point in my

life, giovanna.

I need help."

I said, "yes, you do need help."

She said, "listen, if you

don't go to rehab and get your

a*s straight, I can't stay with

you anymore.

I don't want your money, I don'want to live here, I just only

have to leave."

I needed to show him this is

what happens when you make the

wrong choices in life.

You choose drugs over us and

your kids are going to know thaand see that.

My husband, how did he get from

where he was to this point of

his life, and I know how much

ashamed he was.

I know that.

He didn't want his kids to see

him that way.

She was telling me, she's on

her last leg.

This is it.

You either step up and be a man

and get clean or I'm gone.

That was when I decided to go to

rehab.

I gave him one last chance.

I waited till he got home and I

said, "you need help."

Because he never tried rehab.

My dad, he used to do the

same thing with his alcohol.

He would isolate himself away

from us.

He would drink when we were

sleeping.

He would drink when he was alone

away from us, and I started

doing that same thing.

I didn't want to be like my dad.

I didn't want to lose my

marriage.

That was the most importanthing because I didn't want to

lose my kids.

I knew if I continue down tharoad, I was going to end up

getting sober and getting clean

is the toughest thing I've ever

done.

How do I explain how it is?

It's like getting tortured.

The insides of your body

pounding, and your skin's

crawling, you're sweating

because your hot, but you're

also sweating because you're

cold.

You can't think straight, your

body's shaking the whole time,

you feel like you don't have any

insides, you're out of breath

all the time, your head's

pounding, your body's pounding,

you go into the bathroom, you're

throwing up.

It doesn't stop.

There's nothing that compares to

the pain you feel when you're

going through withdrawal.

It is the absolute worst feeling

I've ever had and it seems like

it'll last forever.

I had to go through withdrawal

for five days and it was like

death.

I actually wished a few times I

would die.

That's how bad it is.

I don't ever want to have thaexperience again.

I don't want to go through

withdrawal.

I am scared to death of it.

It feels like it's going to lasan eternity.

I can't explain it any other

way.

Kurt, you always figured,

hell, I'm olympic gold medal, I

can handle it, and me as a

friend would think the same

thing.

He's overcome so damn much, the

death of his father, winning a

gold medal, all this stuff.

Kurt angle can overcome it and

it took a nightmare for him to

overcome it.

Ready?

Here.

The hard part was you starthinking, what if I -- up when I

get out?

What if I can't stay clean?

What if I am a complete -- up?

What if I just go back to the

pills and I start on it again?

You start doubting yourself.

Soon as he came home, you

could tell that he was like

this.

He didn't how to deal with the

baby crying without taking pills

and drinking.

He didn't know how to deal with

a nagging wife without taking

pills and drinking.

He messed up his knee a year

after he got out of rehab.

I told them many times, he's an

addict.

He's not allowed to take

medication.

He said, "what if he just gave

me one?

What if you just monitor it to

me?"

I said, "no, you're not allowed

to take this."

He said, "how am I supposed to

heal?

How am I supposed to go back to

work?"

I said, "you're not allowed to

do this.

You're going to find a way to do

this without taking medication

because you're not going to do

that to us again."

The only triggers I have is

the pain that I have.

Sometimes I say, "man, I could

really use a couple of

painkillers right now."

That's the trigger.

I have chronic neck pain, back

pain, knee pain.

I do all I can to maintain my

body and it works pretty well.

It's not a choice, I have to do

it or I'm not going to feel

right.

I can't take drugs anymore, so I

do a lot of maintenance

training, neck traction,

anti-gravity device, stretching,

yoga.

These things really help me

every single day and they keep

me healthy.

As opposed to six years ago, I

would have just taken a couple

of pills and I would have been

all right.

It took a lot of work for

him

to know the new him and I said,

"you're not going to feel the

best way you used to feel, buyou're going to tolerate your

pain.

You're going to figure this out.

We are going to figure this outogether."

I had to slowly get him into

being a husband again and slowly

getting him being a father.

I wasn't there quite a bifor my first daughter, kyra.

Hi, kyra.

Hi.

When I was home, I was

always

pretty high and I was only home

for four or five days a month,

so I really didn't get to spend

much time with my firsdaughter.

[Laughs]

hi.

What giovanna was able to do

for me that I couldn't do for my

first two kids is be a good

father for my last three kids.

I got clean and I started

spending time with my children.

I have too much on the line

right now.

It's not about me anymore.

It's about my kids.

It's about my wife.

This is the first time in my

life that I no longer put me

first.

I don't want to be a screw up.

You got to stay clean.

If you're an addict and you have

a problem with drugs, you got to

stay clean.

I don't think kurt would

ever

take a pill again.

I think kurt knows the new him

now and he's happy with the new

version of him.

I don't know many people thawill get here from there.

He missed out a lot on life, buhe's trying to make it up with

these kids.

That's what makes me so happy

and so proud for him to be the

love of my life.

Say dada.

Say dada.

Dada.

Dada.

Yay.

Yay.

Clap hands.

Clap hands.

Yay.

With the friends that I've

had who've dealt with addiction,

and again, some successfully and

some not successfully, I always

felt though in my heart and deep

in my bones that kurt was a man

with great resolve.

I felt like with the righpeople around him and the righsupport around him, he was going

to overcome it.

I'm very proud of my friend for

continuing to push himself to be

the best husband, father,

friend, and all the things thahe is to many, many people the

best he can be.

I want to thank the good

lord

for giving me the ability to do

what I do.

I want to thank my five

beautiful children, kyra, kody,

giuliana, sophia, and nikoletta.

You guys are my life.

[Applause]

last but not least, I wanto thank the one person thasaved my life.

She was there at my worst and

she's here now at my very best.

That's my beautiful wife,

giovanna.

I love you to the moon and back,

babe.

[Music]

I think that I want kurangle to be remembered not for

the mistakes he's made but whahe was able to accomplish in his

lifetime.

Since I was a young kid, I

always wanted to do something

great.

He said in an interview

after

the '95 world championships when

he won, they asked him what he

was going to do and he said,

"I'm going to go to '96.

Go for the gold and land it for

my father."

He did it.

Being able to win thaolympic gold medal, it was

everything that I ever dreamed

of as a kid.

It was what I always wanted.

He's one of the greatesolympic heroes that we ever had.

There's not many people that can

say, "I won an olympic with a

broken neck."

As a matter of fact, there's

nobody.

To come out and be the man

that you are and have been and

to have accomplished what you

have in spite of all this

tragedy, it speaks volumes in

what kind of a person you are.

I'm proud to call you a friend.

I'm honored and that makes my

story look very lame.

I saw him work so hard to

gewhere he is today, I saw the

strength through every little

thing, and I think he was

excited of what can this kurangle be, what can this kurangle do?

It's always going to be a

fight for him.

He's always going to be battling

and staying focused on the righthings in his life, the good

things in his life, and not the

bad things that have happened to

him.

It's never too late to make

changes in your life.

It's never too late.

It sure as hell isn't too late

to save your life.

That's what kurt angle did.

I just want people to know

that none of us are perfect.

I want them to know that I

wasn't perfect either, but I was

able to overcome many obstacles

because I'm a fighter.

I think that's what I wanpeople to remember me as, a

fighter that never gave up on

anything.

[Music]