This Wrestler Fought His Own Demons
Wrestler Kurt Angle is a rarity: Before going pro, he won gold at the Olympics. Angle maneuvered his medal-winning status into a pro wrestling wholesome character who liked to drink milk. Sadly, that wasn’t the only substance Angle imbibed.
Angle was soon hooked on painkillers and other illicit things. It looked like he was heading for a dismal end—until, out of nowhere, help arrived from a jaw-dropping source.
1. He Started Early
When Kurt Steven Angle was born on December 9, 1968, his family was already pretty big. He had four older brothers and an older sister. The family had their humble home in Mt Lebanon, Pennsylvania and wrestling ran in the Angle family. Little Kurt started early. He was only seven when he first stepped in the ring.
But there was more to Angle than just wrestling.
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2. He Earned His Letters
At Mt Lebanon High School, Angle got recognition for another sport as well. He got his varsity letters in football. But wrestling continued to be his true passion and in his freshman year—and quite impressively, Angle didn’t lose a single fight. But a heartbreaking tragedy was about to interrupt his idealistic high school life.
3. He Suffered A Tragedy
Angle’s father worked in construction, and in the 1980s he was working on a huge tower in Pittsburgh called Fifth Avenue Place. Sadly, there was an accident, and Angle’s father lost his life. Angle, who was just 16 at the time, deeply felt the loss of his father. But despite this personal tragedy, he did not give up on his passions.
Little did he know, wrestling would be a bigger part of Angle's life than he could have ever foreseen.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
4. He Was A Champion
The 1980s saw Angle moving up the ranks of amateur wrestling. The National Collegiate Athletic Association Division Championship was his—twice. He also won the NCAA Division I All-American three times. And in 1988, he was the champion of the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles Junior World Freestyle.
Angle was on a winning trajectory, and he was just getting started.
5. He Took Home Gold
When Angle graduated from college he had no intention of quitting wrestling. In 1995, he entered the FILA Wrestling Championships which were in Atlanta, Georgia that year. Angle walked away with a gold medal. But that wasn't the only gold within reach. You see, the Olympics were soon approaching and they would also be hosted in Atlanta.
Nothing was going to stop Angle from competing there.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
6. He Found A Replacement
To get ready for the Olympics, Angle joined the Foxcatcher Club. Here he met a very important figure in his life—coach Dave Schultz, who trained with him for sometimes as long as 10 hours a day. In Schultz, Angle had found someone who could almost replace the father he’d lost as a teenager. They had a special bond, but there was only tragedy in their future.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
7. He Was In A Strange Place
Things weren’t quite right at Foxcatcher Farms where Angle was training. The man paying for all the training was John Eleuthère du Pont, who was one of the heirs of the du Pont fortune. Toward the end of 1995, du Pont's peers began to notice that he was acting strangely. However, in an unexpected twist, his strange behavior eventually turned fatal.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
8. He Lost Another Father Figure
In January 1996, a deranged du Pont came at Schultz with a rifle and shot him. Tragically, Schultz did not survive his grievous injuries. Angle had once again tragically lost an important father figure in his life. Somehow, he still hung on to his hopes for the Olympics.
Even though he was heartbroken, he had to start looking for a new sponsor in order to compete.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
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9. He Faced A Terrible Injury
The David Schultz Wrestling Club began in Schultz’s honor, and Angle wasted no time in signing up. He was ready to win his place on the Olympic team but faced yet another obstacle. During the trials, he fractured two cervical vertebrae, pulled four muscles, and herniated two discs.
It looked like Angle’s dream of winning the Olympic games was over.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
10. He Needed Someone To Say Yes
What Angle needed was a doctor to agree to let him fight, even though his injuries were extensive. He actually had three discs poking right into his spinal cord. Angle refused to give up and was eventually given the green light to compete. He was ready to fight, but with his injuries, it was going to be nearly impossible to win.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
11. He Was In Pain
Somehow, still recovering from a broken neck, Angle won the trials. By that summer he was ready to compete at the Olympics. Even with all of the pain he had to endure, Angle did the impossible. He fought his way to the top of the podium and took home the gold. Sadly, he was about to pay for this win, big time.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
12. He Took Medication
While preparing for the Olympics, Angle had been in considerable agony—and found a temporary solution for the problem. He got his hands on Vicodin to treat it. Vicodin has a reputation for recreational use in the United States. It’s an opiate and highly addictive. Angle later admitted that he became addicted for a short time while preparing for the Olympics.
But this was just the beginning of Angle’s addiction issues.
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13. He Needed Something To Do
Angle had hit the top spot for international amateur wrestling, but now he had his whole life ahead of him. All he knew was wrestling, so when his pal Shane Douglas made a suggestion, Angle was all ears. The suggestion was to attend High Incident, an event put on by Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW).
Angle was not emotionally prepared for what would happen there.
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14. He Was Slumming It
When Angle attended High Incident, he was a big name in the wrestling community. He agreed to give an interview in the ring and also gave some commentary during one of the fights. It was a little odd for a gold medal-winning wrestler to be hanging out at ECW, but Angle seemed to be enjoying himself.
And then something shocking happened.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
15. He Couldn't Believe His Eyes
While Angle was watching High Incident, one fighter went at another with an unbelievable tactic. A wrestler named Raven pinned his opponent, The Sandman, to a cross. Even worse? He used barbed wire to do it. What was happening on stage horrified Angle, and he walked out of the arena. But the drama wasn’t over yet.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
16. He Threatened Him
Angle did not want his name to have any association with what happened during High Incident, as he was afraid of what it might do to his future chances as a wrestler. He didn’t even want ECW to show his face in the same broadcast as the attack with the barbed wire. To stop this from happening, he threatened to sue the ECW owner.
This was not a great way to start his association with pro wrestling.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
17. He Had A Low Opinion
Angle’s opinion of professional wrestling could not have been lower. The shocking episode at High Incident had soured him. The same year, however, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) was ready to hand him a very generous 10-year contract, but Angle was having none of it. On the top of his list of complaints was that the WWF wanted to tell him when he could win or lose a match.
Angle needed advice, but he looked to the wrong source.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
18. He Got Bad Advice
At this time, Angle had an agent who was guiding his career. When the WWF offer was on the table, Angle turned to his agent for advice. Not only did his agent not like pro wrestling, but reportedly, he wasn't even familiar with the sport. Angle listened to his agent and said no. But he would soon regret this decision.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
19. He Had A Change Of Heart
In 1998, Angle happened to catch WWE Raw. At the time, Stone Cold Steve Austin was the belle of that ball, and his performance impressed Angle. He started to see professional wrestling for what it was: athletic entertainment. His first thought was to get that contract from WWF, but it had been two years. Would they still want him?
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20. He Went Into Training
Sadly, the WWF had withdrawn the 10-year contract, but they were still interested in Angle. He did a tryout and then signed a five-year contract in August of 1998 for quite a bit less money. To learn the ways of the WWF, Angle had to train with Dory Funk Jr at his Funkin’ Dojo in Connecticut.
It took just one week, and Angle was ready to jump in the ring.
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21. He Was Clean Living
Every professional wrestler has their gimmick, which is the thing that sets them apart from the other men in tights. Angle decided to use what he was most proud of: winning the Olympic gold medal. To round his character out, he put forth a character who lived cleanly. He even talked about how he drank a lot of milk.
Another thing he wanted to do was improve the lives of his fans.
22. He Had A Lesson To Teach
While fighting for the WWE, Angle had a lesson he wanted to teach his fans. Well, actually it was three lessons. He called them the “three Is” for success. They were “intensity, integrity, and intelligence”. It was a wholesome message—one that was absolutely guaranteed to backfire.
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23. The Fans Revolted
It was WWE co-founder Vince McMahon who had the idea for Angle’s clean-cut image, but Angle believes McMahon knew that it wouldn’t work. McMahon assumed the fans would revolt against Angle the minute he did something underhanded. Of course, it was all part of a plan that McMahon masterminded—a plan to get Angle as many fans as possible.
24. It Was All In Fun
The idea was to push Angle’s character as “holier than thou”. The second part of the plan was to get Angle to behave badly and then watch the fans go crazy. It was all part of the Angle brand, and audiences were eating it up. It also just happened to drive Angle to new levels of fame. It even helped him in the romance department.
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25. He Met His Match
Being a wrestler with the WWF had its perks. Angle soon started dating Karen Smedley whose job title was “professional wrestling valet”. This wasn’t just a fling, and the two tied the knot on December 19, 1998. While it may have looked like a marriage for the fans, the two were serious and had two kids together: Kyra and Kody.
But it wasn’t long before this marriage got as dramatic as a WWF match.
26. They had Problems
Around the end of 2000, Angle and Smedley began experiencing some serious marital issues. What people in the community were saying was that Smedley was having an affair. Worse still, it was with Jeff Jarrett, the co-founder of Total Nonstop Action (TNA) wrestling. It took a while, but in 2008, Angle got a divorce, and Smedley ended up in Jarrett’s arms.
It was a messy situation, especially since Smedley made some disturbing claims against Angle, saying that he'd been emotionally abusive. But this wasn't the only distressing problem he experienced during the 2000s.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
27. He Went Over The Limit
Professional wrestling may follow a script, but it is still dangerous. Angle suffered several injuries to his neck and to ease the pain, a doctor prescribed painkillers. Angle said that he really enjoyed taking painkillers at the beginning. After all, they stopped the pain. He also said he felt more "energetic" when he took them.
With these benefits, it's not surprising that Angle took his love of painkillers to a dangerous extreme.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
28. He Needed More And More
The problem was that Angle soon needed more than the prescribed amount to get the same feeling. He admits to, at one point, taking an astonishing 65 extra-strength Vicodin a day. When he went to bed, the thought of waking up in the morning with no pills scared him, so he always placed 15 pills on his bedside table to start his day off right and stave off withdrawal.
That’s a lot of pills and getting them soon became a huge challenge.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
29. He Juggled Multiple Doctors
You might wonder how Angle got his hands on all these pills. Well, one trick was to have 12 different doctors regularly giving him prescriptions. Of course, they didn’t know about each other. He also used multiple pharmacies, as a single pharmacy wouldn’t give that many pills out to one person. On top of it all, Angle additionally came up with a plan B.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
30. He Went South
Angle needed to get approximately 2,700 pills per month, so eventually turned down an illicit path to get what he needed. He established a contact in Mexico who would get him the pills. He said that at this time figuring out how to get the pills he needed became an obsession. But Angle wasn’t the only family member suffering.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
31. His Sister Was An Addict
Angle’s sister had her own addiction issues that she was dealing with. To make matters worse, because he was helping her financially, Angle was unknowingly paying for her recreational drug use. At one point he’d had it with her and stopped talking to her. This was a decision that Angle would soon regret.
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32. He Hid It
Of course, Angle didn't want the WWE to know about his use of pain medication and he did everything he could to keep this fact away from them. On the night before one of his biggest fights—against Brock Lesnar—he got a call that hurt more than any body slam.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
33. He Felt Very Sad
Angle was preparing for a big fight when his phone rang. His brother was on the line to tell him that their sister had passed due to an overdose. Angle felt unbearable sadness, and he had to find a way to deal with it. Unfortunately, there in front of him was the only solution he could see to cope with his loss.
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34. He Took A Handful
Angle's way of dealing with his sister's passing was to shove even more medication into his mouth. After hanging up the phone, he took 20 pills all at once. This was in addition to what he’d already taken that night. He had a lot of guilt to deal with. First off, for giving her money that he might have known was going to her drug use, and second, for cutting her out of his life.
To make this night even more stressful, Angle was also thinking about the thousands of fans waiting to see him fight the next day. He couldn’t disappoint them.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
35. He Did It For Her
Angle might have been buckling beneath the weight of grief, but he still had an important fight the next day. His call time was 1 pm, and he rolled in at 5:30 pm. WWE was compassionate and told him to go home and forget the fight. But Angle was sure his sister would want him to fight anyway. A heavy-hearted Angle climbed into the ring and had one of his favorite performances of his career.
But the WWE would soon turn their backs on Angle.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
36. He Got Dropped
In 2006, the WWE wanted Angle to go to rehab. He said no, so Angle more or less had to walk away. Where Angle walked to was Impact Wrestling. While with them, he tried to get his addiction under control. He found a doctor who prescribed him MS Contin. This was still pain medication, but Angle thought it was better because he only needed two pills a day.
His logic was not exactly sound.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
37. He Took More And More
Angle thought he was better off with the MS Contin, but the truth was that it was actually extra-strength morphine. To make matters worse, he got a doctor to prescribe him Xanax for his anxiety. The nail in his coffin was that the guys at Impact Wrestling were heavy drinkers, so Angle threw that into the mix as well. It was a recipe for disaster.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
38. He Got Outed
In 2007, there was a report in Sports Illustrated about a wellness center in Florida that they suspected was a cover company for handing out performance-enhancing medication. Sports Illustrated found Angle’s name on a database of clients, and they alleged that he was using steroids. While the allegations did blow over, they effectively tarnished Angle’s reputation.
Then things went from bad to worse.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
39. He Was Driving Erratically
Trouble started in Moon Township, Pennsylvania when officers got a call from a concerned citizen. The witness said they saw someone leave a bar and then drive their vehicle erratically. When the officers caught up with the car, they found an allegedly intoxicated Angle at the wheel. Officers took Angle in, but he got off on a technicality.
It was a stroke of luck, but it wasn’t the end of Angle’s run-ins with the law.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
40. She Needed Protection
Once again, in Moon Township, Angle had another run-in with the law. The first problem was that his girlfriend—wrestler Trenesha Biggers—said even though she had filed for protection from him, he was stalking her. When officers stopped Angle to address this issue, he found himself in even more trouble.
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41. They Found Something In His Car
Officers had stopped Angle in his car to talk about his harassment of Biggers. First off, Angle had lost his license and shouldn’t have been driving. Next, they found a growth hormone in his car, which the officers believed he had no legal reason to have. Once again, the judge dropped all the charges against Angle, and he walked away.
But Angle’s luck was about to run out.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
42. They Threw The Book At Him
In 2011, officers in Thompson, North Dakota pulled Angle over. He failed the sobriety test, and they took him to the station. Angle had little choice but to plead guilty, and this time he received a severe punishment. He got one year of probation, fees and fines totaling over $500, and had to take a chemical dependency evaluation.
This harsh punishment did nothing to stop Angle from doing it all over again.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
43. Oops He Did It Again
Just six months later, Angle was in trouble again. Officers believed he’d been over the legal limit while driving his vehicle. In another incredible stroke of luck, a problem with the breathalyzer equipment led to dropped charges. One charge did stick though. Angle received a fine of $1,500 for reckless driving.
It was now becoming perfectly clear. Angle needed to take control of his life before he ended up behind bars or worse. 
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
44. He Announced A Comeback
To find a way to bring order to his life, Angle looked back at his finest moment. Clearly, this was his Olympic gold medal win. If only he could recreate that moment. Well, the London Olympics were just around the corner, and Angle announced that he would be there fighting for another gold medal. Sadly, a knee injury stopped him from competing.
He soon found another way to take control of his life.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
45. He Needed A Stable Life
In 2010, Angle proposed to actress Giovanna Yannotti, and they walked down the aisle soon after. If Angle was looking for a stable family life, he certainly found it with Yannotti. They had two of their own children and adopted a third. Maybe this was all he needed to find peace in his life.
Well, it didn’t last.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
46. He Got Caught Again
Even after his marriage, in 2013, Angle was still having trouble with the law. In Decatur, Texas officers pulled Angle over and charged him with being behind the wheel while intoxicated. But this time something was different. He now had a family to take care of, and Angle did something he should have done a long time ago.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
47. He Got An Ultimatum
When Angle’s wife heard about his trouble with the law in Texas, she had an ultimatum. Get sober, or she’d walk away with the kids. On the same day that officers took him in, Angle announced that he was going to rehab. He later said that he did it for his family. It looked like Angle had come out a survivor, and it was time to look back at his career.
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
48. He Had A Long Career
Angle’s life has been nothing short of amazing. He was a gold medal winner and followed it up with a 21-year career as a pro wrestler. During this time, he’d won an astonishing 22 championships. Sadly, he also spent nine years in recovery from his pain medication addiction. He’d had quite a life, and it was about to get a cinematic treatment.
49. He Told His Story
In 2023, the streaming service, Peacock released Angle, which told his story from his simple life in Pittsburgh to the Olympics and then to pro wrestling. It also didn’t hold back on some of the darker parts of Angle’s story. One critic called it “candid and raw” and on Rotten Tomatoes it has a 100% approval rating. Not bad for a wrestling story.
The real question is: Will Angle ever go back to his pill-popping days?
Horizon Entertainment, The Real Angle (2009)
50. He Didn’t Need It
In 2023, Angle had double knee replacement surgery. Of course, this involved dealing with pain, and the fear of returning to addiction was front and center on Angle’s mind. He later said that now he’d found a good doctor—one who managed to provide proper care without prescribing excessive pain medication.
Angle walked away from the operation and didn't rekindle his past addictions, triumphant in more ways than one.
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Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
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