Championships, Challenges, and Comedy in Wrestling With Kurt Angle

Kurt Angle is an American retired professional wrestler and Olympic gold medalist renowned for his exceptional wrestling career. He achieved international acclaim by winning a gold medal in freestyle wrestling at the 1996 Summer Olympics, notably competing with a broken neck. Transitioning to professional wrestling, Kurt joined the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) in 1998, where he became a multi-time world champion and was later inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2017. Beyond wrestling, he has pursued acting and launched the Kurt Angle Brand, extending his influence beyond the ring.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [03:41] Kurt Angle discusses losing repeatedly and nearly giving up on his Olympic dream
• [05:32] How eight months of intense training led to winning the World Championships
• [06:23] Attempting to join the Pittsburgh Steelers before the Olympics
• [09:21] Kurt’s dedication to his late father and how it fueled his athletic journey
• [13:12] WWE injury struggles and battling a severe painkiller addiction
• [17:24] Kurt talks about the influence of Dave Schultz and losing his coach just before Olympic trials
• [20:52] Kurt’s mission to fundraise for USA Wrestling and support future athletes
• [33:11] Developing charisma and comedic timing in WWE through Vince McMahon’s advice

In this episode…

Many high performers push through pain in pursuit of greatness — physically, mentally, and emotionally — but how much is too much? What happens when dedication turns into addiction, or when a lifelong dream is achieved and suddenly there’s no plan for what’s next? These moments can leave even the toughest champions searching for identity, purpose, and healing.

Olympic gold medalist and professional wrestling icon Kurt Angle shares his raw, behind-the-scenes journey from dominating the mat to battling personal demons. He reveals how mindset shifts helped him overcome repeated failure and physical setbacks — including wrestling with a broken neck. Kurt also offers insight on managing addiction, finding purpose after peak success, and the importance of support systems, humility, and continual growth inside and outside the ring.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, co-hosts Dr. Jeremy Weisz and Andrew Gottlieb interview Kurt Angle, Olympic gold medalist and Founder of Kurt Angle Brand, about the highs and lows of his legendary career. Kurt dives into his physical and emotional challenges, discusses lessons from WWE and Olympic wrestling, and opens up about his recovery journey. He also discusses mentorship, comedic timing in wrestling, and fundraising for USA Wrestling.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Kurt Angle on Facebook | X | Instagram | TikTok
• Kurt Angle Brand
• Support Kurt Angle & Girls Wrestling

Special Mention(s):

• Andrew Gottlieb on LinkedIn
• No Typical Moments
• NTM Growth Marketing Podcast

Related episode(s):

• “From WWE Wrestler to Popular Podcast Host with Colt Cabana of ColtCabana.com” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “Fired From His Dream As A WWE Wrestler With Colt Cabana of ColtCabana.com [One Question]” on the Inspired Insider Podcast

Quotable Moments:

• “I dedicated my athletic career to my father. When I did that, I started getting more focused.”
• “If I died that night, I’d have been the happiest man in the world because I did it.”
• “You’re an Olympic gold medalist. Everybody in the world knows you’re a badass.”
• “Painkillers are dangerous, they’re addictive and they can kill you — your body builds a tolerance.”
• “Nothing in my life has ever come easy. I figured I’d go up and work for it.”

Action Steps:

1. Adopt a mindset of relentless resilience: Embracing the decision to keep going despite failure can lead to extraordinary breakthroughs.
2. Train beyond your comfort zone: Pushing through exhaustion builds mental toughness and competitive advantage.
3. Get creative with resource-building: Resourcefulness ensures you keep progressing even when traditional support systems fall short.
4. Be vulnerable and ask for help: Vulnerability isn’t weakness — it’s the foundation for healing, growth, and resilience.
5. Diversify your skillset over time: Constant evolution keeps you prepared for new opportunities and challenges.

Episode Transcript

Intro: 00:00

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 00:22

Jeremy Weisz here, founder of inspiredinsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Today is no different. Today we have Andrew Gottlieb as a special co-host for today’s episode. This will also be featured on the NTM Growth Marketing Podcast. And before we formally introduce Kurt Angle.

Kurt, I always like to mention some favorite episodes on the podcast. People should check out. There was one with we were talking about Colt Cabana. He started the Art of wrestling podcast back in 2010. He’s also part owner in Pro Wrestling Tees.

Kurt has some amazing merch there which we’ll poke around and see. Andrew, what about you? What are some favorite episodes on your show.

Andrew Gottlieb: 01:01

I would say two favorites are we interviewed presidential candidate Andrew Yang and also the president of Doctor Bronner’s Magical Soap.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 01:10

All right. Very cool. So this episode is brought to you by Rise25. Rise25. We help businesses connect to their dream relationships and partnerships.

We do this in two ways. One, we are a company. There’s an easy button to launch and run your podcast. We do all of the strategy, accountability, and full execution. Number two, we’re an easy button for a company’s corporate gifting.

So we make gifting and staying top of mind to your clients, partners and prospects simple and seamless and affordable. You know, for me, Kurt, the number one thing in my life is relationships. I’m always looking at ways on how I can give to my best relationships, and for me, I found no better way over the past decade to profile the people and companies I most admire and share with the world what they’re working on the podcast, and also send follow up gifts to appreciate them, you know, stay in touch with people in my universe. So if you have questions, go to rise 25 comm or email us at support at rise 25 comm. I am super excited to introduce Kurt Angle.

Kurt is an Olympic gold medalist and professional wrestling icon. He’s widely regarded as one of the greatest athletes in the history of sports, entertainment, TNA, and WWE Hall of Famer. He’s earned multiple world championships and accolades throughout his career. Beyond the ring, Kurt is actually a motivational speaker, advocate for mental health and addiction recovery. In 1996, when Kurt won the Olympic gold medal, he actually did it with a broken neck and he’s broken neck several times.

Unfortunately, Kurt Angle is not just a sports legend, but he’s really. We’ll talk about a powerful example of how to overcome the toughest obstacles and emerge stronger. On the other side, he’s doing he has a project fundraising for USA wrestling. You can check it out at Kurt angle.org and also has a protein powder and nutrition project one nutrition. You could check it out at project one nutrition.com.

Kurt thanks for joining us.

Kurt Angle: 03:09

Thanks for having me on.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 03:12

You know, I wanted to start. There’s so much to tackle. You did an amazing interview on Joe Rogan. People could check it out. It’s like two hours and 40 minutes, which I listened to the whole thing.

And you went into a lot there. But one of the things I thought was interesting was obviously mindset and not giving up. And there was a point where you kept losing to people and talk about that point and the decision to go, hey, you could have given up at that point from your Olympic dream, but you didn’t.

Kurt Angle: 03:41

Well, it was it was a 1993, 1994, right after I graduated college, I won two NCAA championships in college, and I decided to continue on to try to make the world championship team and the Olympic team. So in 1993, I tried out for my first world team, and I lost to a couple of individuals that continuously beat me for the next couple of years. So after the 1994 season, I decided to quit. I figured there’s no reason for me to continue. I’m never going to make the team the world team or the Olympic team, so why even try?

So I quit for about five months, but I had a really bad guilt feeling in my stomach telling me, listen, you know you’re going to regret this if you don’t at least try see it through to the end. So I decided to come back. But I came back with a game plan. And that game plan was exhaust training. And what that entails is that’s when you train to your exhausted and that’s when the training actually begins.

It’s almost a form of torture. I learned it from University of Iowa head wrestling coach Dan Gable. He taught his wrestlers this, and I knew that because I wasn’t the fastest or the biggest or the strongest or the more technical person. I knew if I could wear my opponents down and get them tired, I could score on them and win. And it actually worked because in 1995 I won the World Championships and in 1996 they won the Olympic gold medal.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 05:22

Unbelievable. And how long were you training with that method before you’re like, you saw. Okay, I can beat these people that I was losing to.

Kurt Angle: 05:32

I would say about eight months, eight months of training got me prepared for the World Team trials. And when I stepped in there, I won every match. And I ended up making the world team, and I ended up winning the World Championships that year. So it was my first year at the World Championships, and I actually won it, which is very Doesn’t happen very often. Very few people have ever won the world championship at their first world championships heard.

Andrew Gottlieb: 06:02

If we fast forward a few more years, you had some more mountains that you wanted to climb with the Steelers. I’m a fellow Yinzer. You were on the Steelers roster. Then you also went to WWE. Can you share a little bit about your motivation and the intensity you brought to climb two more mountains and a few more years after the Olympics?

Kurt Angle: 06:23

Actually, this, the Steeler tribe was when I quit wrestling. That was in 1990. That was in 1994. That was before the Olympics. That was the reason to get me away from wrestling.

And the Steelers, what happened was there was a wrestler before me, a heavyweight wrestler named Carlton Haselrig. He dominated the NCAA for like three years. And that was before I got into college. So when he graduated, he didn’t play football, but the Steelers had their eye on him. He was from Pitt-johnstown, the college, which is right outside of Pittsburgh, and they saw a guy that was really fast, really quick, £300.

And they were like, you know what? We’re going to take a chance on this guy. We’re going to draft him. They drafted him in the eighth round, which you know it’s taken a chance. Not that great of a chance because you know if you skip the first round that’s a big chance.

But the eighth round they picked him and he never played football. So he ended up being an eight time all pro. But he was a lineman. Me, I tried out at a running back so that’s a skilled position and not to say that the line isn’t skilled. You have to be very skilled to play any position of football, but being at a skilled position, like running back or defensive back, you have to have college experience.

And unfortunately I didn’t have that. But when I tried out I did pretty well. And they, you know, they told me that, you know, if I would have had some college experience, they would have considered bringing me on the team. But they decided against that. So the whole reason why they gave me the try-out is because of Carlton Haselrig. If it weren’t for him, I don’t think they would have done that for me.

Andrew Gottlieb: 08:28

What did it mean to you to put on a Steelers uniform being a Pittsburgh kid?

Kurt Angle: 08:32

That was awesome. I’m a big time Steelers fan ever since I was a little kid. You know, seeing the Steelers win in the 70s, four Super Bowls, they absolutely dominated the 70s. And they were you know, we were considered the City of Champions. The Pirates won the World Series twice.

Steelers won the Super Bowl four times. It was a really cool time to be a Pittsburgher back then.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:56

I want to share, Kurt, you have some great photos. I want to encourage people to check out Kurt Angle Brand.com to learn more here. And you know, obviously Dan Gable and his, you know, methodology was influential. Talk about this picture and what you’re — what’s going through your mind. And a little bit about your dad being an influence on you.

Kurt Angle: 09:21

Well, there are a lot of emotions. You know, ever since I was a kid, my dream was to win an Olympic gold medal. My brothers were all wrestlers, so I knew I was eventually going to be a wrestler. But this, this point in time, when I. When I won the Olympic gold medal, it was difficult because I lost my dad.

And before my dad passed away. I wasn’t that good of an athlete. I was a bit of a crybaby. I cried a lot because I lost so much. I wasn’t a very tough kid, but when my dad passed away, something inside of me just kind of erupted.

I became more focused because my dad was a big sports fan and he was our biggest fan. He went to every one of our sporting events. He never missed any event. And when he died, it really hit me hard and I wanted to. I wanted to do something great for him.

So I dedicated my athletic career to my father. When I did that, I started getting more focused and more determined. I started setting goals for myself, and by my senior year, I won a state championship in wrestling. Then I went on to college, won two NCAA championships. I went on and I won the World Championships, and I won the Olympics.

And, you know, that was all because of my dad. And not to mention I did break my neck right before the Olympics, so overcoming that made me very emotional too. There was a point in time where I was told I couldn’t wrestle anymore, that my the first doctor I went to said, you’re done, you’re finished. You broke your neck. You have two discs sticking directly in your spinal cord.

You have a badly bruised spinal cord, you have four broken vertebrae, he said. You’re not going to be able to wrestle anymore. And but I went and got a second opinion. And this the second doctor basically said the same thing. But he also said, when is the next round of the Olympic trials?

And I said, six weeks. And he said, you know what? I might be able to get you ready by then. And I said, well, what’s your plan? He said, well, you’re not going to be able to train much up until then.

You have to let your neck rest and heal, but it won’t be entirely healed by then. But it’ll be healed enough that you can still wrestle. And so I ended up doing it, and it worked. It worked out extremely well. What happened was he decided to stick 12 different shots of Novocaine all throughout my neck.

Five minutes before each one of my matches, he traveled with me to the Olympic Trials and the Olympic Games, and when he did that, I couldn’t feel any pain in my neck. And so I was able to forget about my neck injury and wrestle and but he warned me, he said, an hour after your matches are over, you’re going to be in excruciating pain from the abuse your neck takes during those matches. He said, are you okay with this? And I said, yes. And that’s how I won the Olympic gold medal.

So it was a very emotional time for me, you know, being told I wouldn’t be able to wrestle anymore, you know, dedicating it to my father and overcoming my neck injury made me very emotional. And that’s when I broke down and cried.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 12:40

I’m going to let Andrew ask a question, but I just do want to point out. So my background, is as a chiropractor. And so for people listening, like the risk is not just more pain, right? We’re talking paralyzing being paralyzed or death. Right.

And that’s the risk that we’re talking about. So but go ahead, Andrew.

Andrew Gottlieb: 13:01

Did you have a moment in WWE or TNA where you felt that same degree of emotion?

Kurt Angle: 13:12

It’s you know what? That’s a good question. And not that I know of I yeah. You know what? There was a time because in WWE, my third year in, I broke my neck again and I had to have surgery again.

And when I had the surgery, I came back literally two months later. I came back way too quickly and my neck wasn’t entirely healed. And I broke it again. And then I came, I went, and I took a six months off and came back. My neck was healed, but it wasn’t completely healed because I broke it again.

So this is all in a year and a half. And so I ended up, I was in really bad shape and I ended up getting addicted to painkillers. And that was a really tough point in my life for me, because I was I was taking painkillers. And the thing is that the doctors don’t tell you this, but painkillers are dangerous, they’re addictive and they can kill you. And I’ll explain why.

You know, when you. How do I say this? Okay. You take when the doctor gives you the painkillers, you’re supposed to take one every 4 to 6 hours. And so you end up building a tolerance though.

So when you’re taking these pills, you’re taking four a day. But after a while it doesn’t work anymore. Then you have to start taking more because your body builds a tolerance. And so I had to take more and I it ended up being I was taking eight pills a day, then I, then I doubled it to 16 pills. I doubled it to 32 pills.

Before I knew it, I was taking 65 extra strength Vicodin a day, enough to kill a horse. It was really bad. And I was getting injured quite a bit, which didn’t help with the painkiller problem. So I kept injuring my neck and my painkiller problem kept getting worse and worse. And it got to so badly that at one point in time, I was getting ready for the biggest match of my career in WWE.

It was going to be a one-hour Iron Man match against Brock Lesnar, and it was going to air on SmackDown, and I was at a health show, an untelevised show the night before, and I, just got done wrestling. My brother Eric called me and said, hey, listen, your sister Leanne just died of a heroin overdose and man, I was devastated. I remember going back to my hotel room, going into my room. I looked up at the ceiling and I was just, just I was just really crushed. And I threw 25 painkillers in my mouth and chewed them up and swallowed them.

And I didn’t wake up until 4:00 the next day. The WWE was trying to get ahold of me all day long, see where I was, why I didn’t show up for TV for my Iron Man match. But they were calling me to tell me that if I wanted to go home and plan the funeral for my sister, I could do that. I could skip the match. And I remember looking up at the ceiling again.

I asked my sister Leanne. I said, Leanne, what do you want me to do? I was at the last leg of my career. I didn’t know what to do and all I could hear is do it for me. So I went and wrestled and it was the greatest match of my career.

I don’t know what it is, but I’ve always been able to overcome adversity at the craziest times and this is no different. But I you know, I would say that that’s that point in time where I had that feeling again. Like I did in the Olympics. And being able to have that match in memory and in remembrance of my sister was such an incredible thing to do. I wrestled with so much emotion that night, and it felt like I was wrestling in the Olympics again.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 17:15

You know, Kurt, obviously, you know your sister is an influence. Your dad, Dan Gable. Talk about the influence of Dave Schultz.

Kurt Angle: 17:24

Dave was the greatest wrestler I’ve ever seen in my whole entire life. He was a multi-time world champion. Olympic gold medalist. Dave was the best technical guy I’ve ever seen in my life. Dave learned seven different languages so he could learn technique from other countries like Russia, Iran, all the best countries in the world.

And Dave was my coach. He was my Foxcatcher coach. And losing Dave was tough because, you know, I lost him like I believe it was two months before the first round of the Olympic trials and the US open, and losing him was really tough. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to continue on without Dave because he had so much knowledge. And he’s always been my coach.

And losing him at that point in time was really tough because now I didn’t have my Olympic coach. I didn’t have the one that was teaching me everything. But Dave taught me enough to know what I had to do from here on in. So I was okay, And so I went. I continued on and I ended up winning the US open, and that’s where I broke my neck, actually the first round of the Olympic trials, and I ended up going to the Olympic trials, where I, where I would shoot my neck up with Novocaine to it.

And I won the trials and I ended up going to the Olympics. So it was a I would tell you this, it was there, you know, me looking back, thinking back about it, it’s a blur because everything kind of tied in together. And it was one of those highly stressful points in my life where I didn’t know if I was going to make it through or not. And, you know, I was losing sleep over it. You know, this was my dream my whole entire life.

 Nothing else mattered to me. Actually, I said this after I won the Olympic gold medal. If I would have died that night, I’d have been the happiest man in the world because I said I did what I set out to do, and that was to win the Olympic gold medal. But I don’t want to. I don’t want to change the story after I won the Olympic gold medal.

I didn’t know what else I was going to do. Like, that’s all I set out to do. So the next day I was like, Holy crap, what am I going to do now? I had no plan. So it was like, you know, I that’s why I, I said if I died tonight, I’d be the happiest man in the world because I had no other plans in my life.

I had no other goals. This was it. So I went through pretty much a depression for a while, because I knew I didn’t want to go back to amateur wrestling because it was too difficult. And, you know, all the neck injuries I had and all the injuries overall, it was just too much for me. I didn’t want to do it again.

I didn’t want to wrestle the Olympics again. So I was at a point in my life where I was like, I don’t know what I’m going to do now and then the WB came around.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 20:38

I know Andrew is a quick question, but can you share just the fundraising for USA wrestling on that point? People can check it out Kurt Angle org and where how should people what should people know about it and what can they do to help?

Kurt Angle: 20:52

Yeah. You know what? I’m now the chairman of the winners podium for USA wrestling. I’m raising money for them. You know, I’ll tell you something you probably don’t know.

Many athletes, many countries like Russia and China, many other countries, their governments pay their Olympic athletes to train and compete full-time so their athletes don’t have to get jobs. They don’t have to earn a living. All they have to do is train and compete and they’re taken care of. We don’t have that luxury here in the United States because here our athletes have to get jobs for the most part, and if they’re working 8 to 10 hours a day, they’re only going to have enough time to train 2 or 3 hours, tops. And that doesn’t fair well for an Olympic athlete.

You know, the 2024 Olympics just ended. These athletes are already trained for the 2028 Olympics, and the new athletes coming in at the 28 Olympics will be the first Olympics. They already started training too. So I’m here early on to make sure these athletes don’t have to get jobs this year or next year, or the year after for the next three years. I want them to focus on training and competition and nothing else.

So go to Kurtangle.org, go to that link and tap that link and donate whatever money you can. I promise it’ll come to good use. I mean these athletes I’ll tell you this. They are — how do I say this. These athletes.

Well you know what? I just want everyone to go to Kurt angle.org and donate whatever money they can. Because these athletes are really they’re putting everything they can into it. And the only way for them to be able to be successful is for them to have funds so they don’t have to get jobs. These athletes, you know, when I wrestle back then I got creative about fundraising.

I put on spaghetti dinner fundraisers. I sold autographed t-shirts, autographed photos. I had sponsors that stepped up for me. But these athletes today, they don’t they don’t have sponsors. So the only way they’re going to be able to train full-time is if they get fundraising.

And that’s why I’m here. I’m here to fundraise for USA wrestling.

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