Original subtitles

I never had a love for something as much as I do for this company.

I always

thought that my destiny was the Olympic

gold medal.

But being in WLB, this is what brought me real joy.

This is my first love.

Y 'all ready?

There aren't any words to describe exactly how great this next individual

simply because he is in a class by himself.

The one, the only, Kurt Angle!

was determined to be Olympic champion.

He lived it. He breathed it. He slept it.

He won a gold medal with a broken freaking neck.

So all of a sudden this guy shows up and I'm thinking, you know, can he make the

transition? An American hero!

I'm an American hero!

Audiences loved to hate him.

But here's the thing.

He was also a bad...

He is at the very, very top of that list.

Hands down, bar none.

Those matches are what made me the best in the business during those years.

Now comes the tough part of the questions.

I went to a chiropractor. He said, you know you have four broken vertebrae,

right?

These painkillers can hide a lot of pain.

My life completely spun out of control.

This guy who's an Olympic gold medalist, you think he's bulletproof, but nobody

is. Vince, he told me, listen, you're going to die. When you have that level

addiction, it takes a hold of you to a point where you just don't care.

My husband, how did he get from where he was to this point of his life?

Don't let people see you like that.

Now you, Kurt, ain't.

I always felt that Kurt was a man with great resolve.

It's never too late to make changes.

It sure as hell isn't too late to save your own life.

I think I want Kurt Angle to be remembered, not for the mistakes he's

but what he was able to accomplish in his lifetime.

We were from Pittsburgh.

We were the city of champions back then. The Steelers, Pirates, World Series,

Super Bowls.

So, Kurt, he was set on being a champion, you know, from the beginning.

They played a lot of sports, the Angle Boys. Kurt, he was, you know, he's good

at everything.

One of those guys that was just a great athlete, and I think most, like, his

brothers were, too.

They were all tough guys.

He did not want to mess with the Angle Boys.

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

my brothers were in so much trouble.

No, hardly ever.

Yeah, yeah, 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.

Mian was a really good sister.

She was the only girl in our family. My sister was my dad's princess, so 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, okay?

People say he'd give you a shot off the bat.

Okay, this guy would really do it. He knew that I was going to be capable of

doing something great. He seemed to know that early on.

He was my coach up until a time in high school, and he felt that it was time

that somebody else taught me, and he became my fan, my number one fan.

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.

My dad was a functional alcoholic.

He drank all day.

What did your dad do for a living?

He was a construction worker.

Now comes the tough part of the questions.

Okay. Your dad, the record will show, had an accident on August 27, 1985.

Do you remember where you were when that happened?

Yes, I was at football practice, and somebody came up to me and received a

call, one of my coaches.

and told me that my father was in an accident.

What happened was he went to the cab to get his lunch.

When he stepped back, he stepped on some rebar, lost his balance, and went

against the guardrail.

He fell through it.

Thirteen feet on the back of his shoulder and his head at the same time.

He actually broke his shoulder and fractured his skull all the way through.

In the hospital, he went into a coma.

And I remember my sister -in -law saying, Kurt, do you realize what's

here? And I said, yeah, my dad's hurt, but he'll be fine.

No, no, he's not going to be fine.

Your father's brain dead, and they're going to leave him on a machine.

So I remember them taking us into the room where my dad was, and my mother had

to make a decision to either keep him on or pull him off.

off of the machine, and she decided that she wasn't going to let him just stay

like that. So she, I remember her getting on her knees, and before she

the doctor 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.

I'll be the...

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

And then right before they pulled the plug, my sister started crying.

And that was just, she jumped on my dad.

She begged him not to go.

We pulled her off of them, and they pulled the plug, and that was it. You

my dad was gone.

My father passed away on Wednesday, and it was the first week of school.

I decided to play football that week.

I wanted to do something special for my dad, knowing that he would have wanted

me to play.

I really didn't want to play, but it just felt like somebody was tugging at

They were telling me, you know, get up.

Keep moving.

I had a game day.

It wasn't just spectacular. It was beyond unbelievable. It was perfect.

I had two touchdowns as a fullback. I had 14 solo tackles, two fumble

and interception.

And I did it for my dad.

I always wanted to make him proud.

I'd like to be All -State in the Big 33 game.

I'd like to go on either Penn State, Pitt, West Virginia, or Rutgers as a

linebacker.

Football was my first love, not wrestling.

I never watched pro wrestling before.

I was taught by my brothers, don't watch that stuff. It's crap. Don't waste your

time watching it. So I never did.

But in high school, I was very, very good.

And the high school coach, Coach Lampranakis, pulled me aside and said,

I haven't had a wrestler like you in 20 years.

You're going to be a state champion.

And I dominated.

My senior year, I was the state champion from Pennsylvania, and all I had left

was the junior nationals in the summer.

And I won it. So I was considered a national champion in high school before

ended up going to college.

We recruited him out of Mount Lebanon High School. He was blessed with

and talent.

He was the one that gave the extra time, the commitment to the weight room and

to the practice room.

And I was beating guys that were Olympians.

It was crazy. I was a 19 -year -old kid, and I'm beating all these great

athletes. Nice, beautiful dunk to a double, and he's got Walker on his back.

Kurt Angle's probably 5 '11 1⁄2".

He's not your typical 6 '5", heavyweight, 270 pounds.

He was 220 or under.

He amazed me a lot of times.

Staying in it to the very end and winning was something that he shouldn't

beat.

I knew that I was really good. I knew that I could compete at the NCAA level.

I didn't know it was that good.

He continued to grow. We found out that he could go with the best of them.

His match with Sylvester Durkheim in the NCAA Finals his senior year is an

epic match.

I was a national champion.

Over half my wins were by pinfall. That was my thing. I pinned a lot of people.

This was a David and Goliath story all the way. Kurt's 5 '10", this guy's 6

Kurt's 200 pounds, this guy's 275.

Was I worried? Yeah.

Was I very confident that Kurt was going to win?

Oh, not so much.

I was a big, tall, lanky guy, and here's a guy that's a lot more stockier, kind

of compact, he was kind of hard to get a hold of.

There's a minute left.

Came down to who was going to get the first takedown.

It was like a falling timber.

Technician against a big burly dude.

And the technician won.

It was the smartest match I ever wrestled.

That's when you know you've matured.

As an athlete, you didn't just go out there and try to put on a show for the

fans. You went out there and you got the job done.

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.

Foxcatcher was a facility owned by John DuPont.

Mr. DuPont, you know, the heir to the DuPont throne.

He wanted to promote amateur wrestling.

And he started his own club.

And he recruited the best of the best.

My name is Dave Schultz. My involvement here at Foxcatcher is as an athlete.

I train here.

I work with DuPont.

Dave Schultz was the recruiter. Dave was really good at spot talent.

And everybody wanted to be there to work with Dave.

Kurt Angle went and trained at Foxcatcher because Dave Schultz could

And how many other people went to Foxcatcher or went around Dave because

could help them?

I remember the first time I wrestled Dave. He was 40, 50 pounds lighter than

He beat the shit out of me.

He thought Kurt was as hardworking an individual in wrestling as he had ever

seen. I could just see Kurt really respected Dave, and Dave really

Kurt for the work that he was putting in.

So I think Dave was a mentor, you know, and of course a good friend.

He had such an impact on my career.

He was a friend, a father figure, and when I looked at him, he was everything

wanted to be.

So 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.

I did what you call exhaust training.

I trained until 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 you know he wasn't he didn't have a limit that

he thought he couldn't achieve he believed in himself more probably than

people did he was determined to be a world champion he was determined to be

olympic champion and he lived it he breathed it and he he slept it everybody

wants to win the olympics on the day of the olympics but you have to want to win

the olympics every single day when you wake up leading up to the olympics my

schedule every day was

This is how crazy it was. I'd do a six -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.

See the story about him running up the hill over Mount Level with a guy on his

shoulders? So I guess.

On his shoulders like a log.

So I guess.

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.

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, three 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 almost every single day.

He's one of the best conditioned athletes in the world.

Had to be. The way he worked out and trained, he had to be.

I mean, he lived here with me, and I've never seen him. He would come in to eat

and run back out, change his clothes, and he puts everything into everything

does, you know. And I guess, you know, not because I'm bragging it, but I'm

trying to say that when he does something, he does it the best.

getting set to wrestle for the championship, and he's not thinking

Olympic Games. In fact, there is only one thing on his mind tonight at the

The World Championships right now, like I said before, I'm not going to think

about anything else.

This is as big as the Olympics, and I'm going to give everything I've got to win

this title.

Erevat Sabeev was the world champion from 1994.

He also pinned me in 38 seconds three years prior.

He was good.

I took him into overtime. As the overtime started getting longer and

further into it, he was getting really tired.

He was so tired, he kept asking for injury timeouts.

He's faking injuries, and I knew I had him.

for 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's the toughest sport in the world. I don't regret one minute of it.

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.

And that's what I love about the sport.

The victory against Aravat Sabih 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.

But I didn't have a guaranteed spot on the Olympic team.

I still have my work cut out for me with the USA wrestlers at the 1996 Olympic

Trials. It wasn't going to be easy.

In 1995, when I won the Worlds, that was a credit to John DuPont.

He made it possible for wrestlers to not quit early on and get real jobs.

He would give you a house at Foxcatcher.

He would give you money for food. He would give you all the equipment you

needed. And he would take care of all expenses, traveling expenses.

But I could tell you that he wasn't right.

Anyone that jumps in the sport of wrestling, just to jump in the sport of

wrestling and throw millions of dollars at it and...

put people on their property to train full -time and hardly know them, that's

not sane.

I always knew he was eccentric.

91, 92, 93, he was fairly reasonable.

94, he was starting to change.

In 1995, he was, at that point, really what I felt like losing it.

We'd get together for breakfast, and he would talk about the little demon on his

shoulder that was talking in that ear.

There was a time where John DuPont thought I was in his walls.

So there were a lot of things that were going on that showed he needed some

help.

In 95 is when he started packing a gun.

He never made me nervous about it, but it made a lot of people really nervous.

It was just really a regular day.

In the afternoon sometime, Dave and I were having lunch.

As we were finishing up lunch, we heard a car pull up, and Dave went out.

And I heard a shot, and I heard Dave scream.

And by the time I got to the door, Dave was down in the snow, and John shot

him in the back.

And then I grabbed a phone that was right by the door, and I went out, and I

said, I'm calling the police, and I was just trying to get him to stop.

And he pulled the gun and pointed at me, and I just had to step back inside. And

then he pulled it, and he shot Dave in the back.

Second time, third shot.

When I touched him, it was just soft.

So I just put his head in my lap and told him I loved him.

And he died very quickly.

I was in Pittsburgh at the time. I left Dave a message around 1 p .m.

that I was coming to the farm the next day and that I would stop by to see him.

And literally three hours later, I saw on CNN that Dave was shot and killed.

No one is sure or saying why John DuPont would have killed Dave Schultz.

This is crazy.

Dave and I would have a lot of conversations. I mean, in November

killed, you know, he said, I'm going to get out soon, but, you know, I got

things. Things are okay down there and safe. All the rumors that you hear about

John being crazy, you know, it's not as bad as people say. It's, you know, and

then three months later, you know, he's shot.

Shot Dave 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 DuPont drove up and shot Schultz in the

driveway. Dave was one of my best friends, and I just want him to know

love him and I care a lot about his family, Nancy and the kids, and I just

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.

I don't know that anybody will ever know why.

That's the sad part.

Nobody will ever know why he shot Dave.

There's all kinds of speculations, but what was the real reason, I don't know

you will ever know.

After Dave was killed, there was this gap because it was January and the

trials were in June, right? And all the funding had come from this guy.

So 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.

And Nancy called me right away.

And she said, well, I'm starting a wrestling club, the Dave Schultz

Club. would you like to be the first member?

I was like, wow, me?

I said yes.

And Kurt was the first one to say, I'm going to wrestle for the Dave Schultz

Wrestling Club.

And 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 was helping me to put together the program.

Kurt stood up immediately and said, let's wrestle for the Dave Schultz

Club in Dave's honor.

Well, in 1996 at the U .S. Open, that was the beginning stages of the Olympic

trials. And I had a wrestler that was pretty tough named Jason McKinney.

We were wrestling and I dug for an underhook to get my arm under his

And he hit me with this arm throw.

So 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.

And 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.

Little by little, I was scoring a couple points here and there, and I believe

with about 20 seconds left, I scored my fifth point.

It got me into the finals. The problem was I didn't know how bad my neck was

injured.

I went to a chiropractor.

He said, you know you have four broken vertebrae, right?

You're in a position where...

you could do some real damage to your body, like paralysis.

It makes you think I could end up being paralyzed or even dead if I land wrong.

Before I wrestled 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 Novocaine to numb my neck.

Feeling the Novocaine and feeling how...

It made me completely pain -free. It gave me confidence that this might work

out.

I just never considered quitting, never considered giving up. It was, what do I

need to do to get back in the game?

And I did that.

Nobody was going to stop me.

My opponent in the Olympic trials, the finalist was Dan Chade.

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.

So the first thing he did is he went right for my neck.

Put both of his hands around the back of my neck and was pulling me down, trying

to inflict pain.

But because of the Novocaine, I couldn't feel it. It wasn't working.

His mindset was, go for the net, go for the net. And every time he did, he left

himself open.

Tactically and strategically, Kurt, he was smart.

The whole game plan backfired on him, and it benefited me.

I just made the Olympic team by beating Dan Shane.

It was good. It was something that built my confidence, that made me realize

maybe, you know, you're more ready than you think you are.

We got to the Olympics.

I'm still having some pain, but I was ready for the Olympics. I knew I

had a great shot at winning the gold.

I remember my first match being against the Mongolian.

The Cuban, I won 1 -0, double overtime.

The next round, I had a Russian.

I took him down, won 4 -3.

I didn't have to have a pretty performance.

I just wanted the gold.

Any way I could get it.

The gold medal represents that there is nobody better than you on this planet.

I wanted that gold medal.

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

the weight class.

Kurt, he was the underdog.

For sure he was the underdog.

Kurt Angle having lots of reasons to be motivated for this competition.

He wants to do it for his mom. She's raised him. He still lives with her. His

father died in a construction accident.

And he's wrestling also for David Schultz who was slain.

Kurt wrestled well. The later the match went, the better he got.

So now we're in overtime. It's one to one.

And he's getting really tired.

And a little voice in my head said, you need to do something.

You have to take him down.

I got both of his legs.

And I had to take that.

One ref gave me a point.

The other two didn't give me it yet. They're waiting for me to move up onto

hips a little higher.

If they don't give me it, they'll at least award me it because the match was

that even.

The way that it was the ref's decision, it looked like it could have went either

way.

First thing I thought was four more years. I have to do this four more years

because I can't just stop at a silver.

First thing I thought about, I got on my knees and I thanked God. And I thought

about my dad and I thought about Dave Schultz, how proud of them they would

been to me. And, oh, man, Dave would have, he would have ran on that mat and

lifted me up on his shoulders.

What a tough year. I mean, Dave gets killed and Foxcatcher breaks down and

you don't have a club. And then Nancy Schultz gives you the Dave Schultz

Wrestling Club.

Everything that we went through that year, my broken neck and all this work

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 a .m. No more staying until 1 o 'clock in the morning

the weight room.

It was done.

It was incredible.

I can't believe this happened.

This is the best feeling I've ever had.

Thank God.

I saw you kneel on the mat and pray. Were you talking to your dad?

Oh, yeah. My dad's always with me.

Dave Schultz, I knew they were with me.

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.

Olympic gold medal.

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.

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.

You know what's funny about that? My mom, too.

What are the odds?

To be honest, nobody's going off to win the Olympics to, like, be a millionaire,

you know. No one ever thinks that. But you at least think that, you know, you

should have, like, a path or a career for the rest of your life. And usually

people just end up with an Olympic medal in one hand and their dream in the

other.

When you win something or you're awarded something that you dreamed about since

you were a kid and you felt like there was nothing else more important than

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 that anything can happen here in the World Wrestling

Federation, but now 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 key word in that phrase is entertainment.

If Vince McMahon were to give you a phone call tomorrow and say, Kurt, tell

what, I'll give you a three -year deal worth two and a half, three million

bucks.

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.

Kurt Angle, 1996 Olympic gold medalist in Atlanta. He won, you know, the broken

freaking neck, man.

So he had a little legendary status as being a badass.

So he was on the radar early and often.

I had the opportunity to sign up with the WWE back in 1996.

I met with Vince McMahon, and he offered me a 10 -year deal.

Really, really good deal.

When I thought about professional wrestling, I didn't care for it. He said

much money he was probably going to make.

Well, I said, yeah, you can do that.

First thing I said is, okay, I'll sign this as long as I never lose a match.

And Vince was like, okay, nice meeting you. See you later.

He knew I didn't get it.

But then I started watching Raw.

At the beginning of 98, I started watching these guys, and they were doing

some of the most athletic things I've ever seen.

And there was a

restaurant there that really caught my interest.

His name was Stone Cold Steve Austin.

If you want to see Austin McMahon, give me a hell yeah!

There's nothing like when you're in the entertainment business, grabbing a crowd

and having them hook, line, and sinker, and you are dictating to them and

getting a response, and they're buying into your story.

It's intoxicating. It's so uplifting. It's so powerful. If you could bottle

stuff and sell it, you'd be a billionaire.

I loved the character.

He was a lot of fun to watch.

So why am I so bitter about these guys making all this money?

Why don't I try it?

Why can't I do it? They already offered me a deal.

So call back.

So I called Vince McMahon back in late 1998.

He told me to talk to Jim Ross, who is head of talent relations.

And I asked him if that contract still stood.

And he said, nope, but you can come up and try out.

And I said, oh, wow.

So I have to try out now?

Yes.

Timing is everything.

The shine, if you will, no pun intended, off that gold medal had faded a little

bit.

I believe you should have signed this deal in 96.

He said, if you make it, you will get the lowest guarantee that any wrestler

gets.

All right, I guess I'll have to prove to you guys that I can do this, and

eventually I'll make the big money.

I remember seeing this guy, and I'm thinking, okay, he's a good -looking

great physique, stud athlete with a big -ass neck, but can he make the

transition? Kevin Quinn, there's no doubt in my mind you're a tremendous

wrestler. No one is a guaranteed blue chipper in the business. You know, you

have to have something, whether it's talent or look and ability to speak.

Some of the moves I've seen you... I've seen so many amateur wrestlers come

along, legitimately tough guys.

It could never get it.

Okay.

First of all, Bruce, now you're laughing at me, aren't you?

And so many guys come from the amateur ranks, and because of the ego involved,

can't stand being on the bottom.

It was very difficult to go against my instincts and let people throw me

Nobody ever did that to me before.

Now I had to allow them to.

One day I got out of the ring and I told my manager, I can't do this. This is

garbage. I said, this is self -mutilation.

Why would I want to do this? All I'm doing is hurting myself.

This hurts.

I walked out and my manager followed me and said, listen, just stay to the end

of the day.

Just do everything they do and see if you can do it.

And I did. I stayed until the end of the day.

And I was able to hang in there. I was sore as hell.

But I showed up the next day and decided I was going to commit myself to this.

He approached our process without ego.

He won a gold medal in the Olympics and came in with all this cachet and all

this incredible accomplishment behind him.

And he came in with great humility and said, I just want to learn. I'm going

back to day one.

And he checked your ego at the door.

Seldom will you find that in a great amateur wrestler.

They're going to want to go in there and show you what they can do and how they

can beat somebody up. But Kurt Angle got the idea.

He was a great student.

I started picking things up relatively quickly.

And I think they saw something in me they never saw before.

So I got a contract.

It wasn't handed to me.

I earned it.

Vince wanted to present Kurt as really what he was, this incredible athlete

incredible accolades, gold medalist, been through it all, done all this.

But he wanted to present him in a way where he sort of saw himself as a real

wrestler. You know, the WWE superstars were sort of beneath him.

You're going to walk in here and you're going to be a heel.

And Kurt was absolutely certain that this would not take place. So they

to create these vignettes around Kurt. I do respect the athletic ability of the

superstars in the WWF.

And I'm sure some of them could have competed on the Olympic level.

But I believe you have to have a little extra something to win the Olympic gold.

With my intensity, integrity, and intelligence.

I can share with the people my great achievements and inspire a new

of athletes in the WWF. Vince told him again, when you come out, you're going

get booed out of the building, and Kurt was certain that wouldn't happen. And

when that music hit, they booed him out of the building.

The only Olympic gold medalist to ever grace a WWF ring,

Kurt Angle!

It was my first match, my debut in WWE.

Vince McMahon said, listen, I'm going to throw you into the ocean.

You either sink or swim.

He told me to grab the microphone and tell these fans you do not boo an

champion. I was like, holy.

You do not boo Olympic gold medals.

I'm the best in the world.

Here's this guy. He's so squeaky clean that you could see with the right spin

it, he could be very arrogant and not better than you.

I remember his red, white, and blue suit and his metal, and it just had this

authenticity and this power.

I came here for you.

You do not fool me.

People hated Kurt. You know, it was loud, very loud. But I think for him, he

in a place to, he could sort of learn to love that.

My fans responded, and they started booing me even more.

It was the birth of the heel Kurt Angle.

The next night, we were back in Pittsburgh again.

And Kurt pulls me aside and says, look, this is Pittsburgh. Like, I'm like Mr.

Pittsburgh, basically.

He said, I'm beloved in this town. He said, they're just going to cheer me.

just not going to work here tonight.

And I looked at Kurt, and I said, Kurt, they're going to boo the hell out of

you. Because you have now, you know, made yourself better than them.

I can't believe this.

You tear a pimp over an Olympic gold medalist.

They boo him. I mean, cascade of boops.

Kurt comes back. He was like, that was unbelievable.

And it just clicked.

Take those medals, turn those sumbitches sideways, and stick them straight up

your Olympic ass!

And the build -up to all of our matches were always fun because I would talk to

him. 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. He

talk to me. Just bring it.

Audiences loved to hate him.

And I tell you what, Rock, your chances at winning the title in front of these

sleazy hometown losers just went from slim to not.

So what do you think about that?

From the psychology of wrestling to being a character to being entertaining,

just all came to me very quickly.

Most amateur guys are taught, don't show any emotion.

From the company amateurs to the pros.

We don't want that.

We want emotion.

And Kirk got that.

And that's why I'm glad I'm here in this town.

Because if there was ever a town that could relate to losing, it's Detroit,

Michigan.

It's really hard to find somebody that can be a kick -ass guy, that can be a

villain, and make you laugh.

He can do all those things. And it just came naturally to him.

I am very proud to be here tonight at Madison Square Garden.

In a building this famous, it deserves to have a true champion performing in

it. And we all know that if we wait for Patrick Ewing and the New York Knicks to

bring home a title, we'd probably be waiting forever.

He was a wrestler. He spent his entire life training.

But at the same time, Kirk just had a natural charisma and a natural delivery.

What in the blue hell is that?

It's got calcium.

It helps you build strong bones.

And above all, it's delicious.

Kirk got comfortable in his own skin and started doing these just hilarious

things that you wouldn't expect from an Olympic gold medalist.

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 got you something, you little rascal.

You did?

Yeah. So I said, man, Kurt would look amazing in that hat because he's got

you know, 22 -inch neck. You know, his neck is like a cobra.

The guy does this look.

I feel like a real cowboy.

Yippee -ki -yay.

I got on people's nerves.

I noticed that the city of Chicago is a little short on winners and a little

long on fat, sweaty pigs.

It was a lot of fun.

It's true. It's damn true.

He won inside and outside.

Kurt Angle on the road to WrestleMania.

It's true.

He won in the mainstream world.

1 -800 -CALL -ATC for collect calls. He's giving some undeserving fan a

to go to WrestleMania.

And then he won in the WWE world.

His ascension was like a rocket.

I remember coming in this building the first time I came here.

First time I met Vince McMahon. This was, gosh,

96 right after the Olympics.

I was overwhelmed.

Vince McMahon had it planned from the beginning.

He knew I was going to be the top heel of the business.

I thought he was crazy, an Olympic gold medalist, being a top heel in the

business. But Vince had plans for me.

Vince McMahon's been in this business for decades.

And he knows when things are going to be huge and when they're not going to be

huge. And he pegged my character right away. And I became, I believe, one of

favorite characters to work with.

And that was a huge honor for me.

And the relationship started to grow rapidly.

I actually loved him. Loved him like a father.

On behalf of every person in this arena, thank

you, Kurt Angle.

As long as I could produce for him, he would continue to have better things

planned for me. And every week, my character as a heel would step forward.

I was gaining momentum.

And I was, within months, I was the top heel in the business.

The winner of the year, though.

to be champion.

It's a huge honor.

I think Vince just thought I was ready.

And since he thought I was ready, I believed I was ready.

And I guess I was ready.

At that time, the company, it was like a wild, wild west.

It was the Attitude Era.

It was crazy, and it was awesome.

So, Kurt came along at a time where he just wanted to entertain the crowd.

But then, the B -side, and also the most important side, was

the promise of an amazing match.

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 got into my zone. I got into my craft.

He had chemistry with everyone. He could just adapt to everybody. So it was so

easy to do stuff with him.

It's hard not to fall in love with that character.

But one of the matches that I remember the most, it was a cage match. Kirk gets

on the top of that cage and does a moonsault.

That guy will go to the end of the world. So I put on

a damn good match. As I'm sitting there, I'm thinking, holy, I mean, you know,

part of my language is you're crushing it.

A lot of people have said that.

Stone Cold and Steve Austin and myself were one of the greatest matches of all

time at SummerSlam.

Kurt Angle going to meet Austin and Austin retaliating in kind.

That crowd that night absolutely loved it.

Kurt had great chemistry, not just with me. I mean, he had great chemistry with

basically anybody. That's how good he was.

Eddie Guerrero matches.

Back body drop.

Edge.

Brock Lesnar.

Shawn Michaels.

2005 WrestleMania.

And then 2006 No Way Out against Undertaker.

The match I had with a big man.

And the story we were able to tell.

It was incredible.

Those matches are what made me the best in the business during those years.

He was just meant to wrestle, whether it's competitively or professionally.

Kurt did it as good as anybody ever did it.

Kurt Angle with another championship!

Any top guy that's ever watched Kurt knows what a badass he is.

What a night in the life of Kurt Angle. 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. But then he disrupted

that with, I'm also a bad - And I will angle

slam you through the mat.

You know, the irony of the success and the bright lights is very exciting and

can be very alluring.

But then there's a dark side. There's also an underbelly that so many of my

friends, my family members have gone through and experienced.

Some gone through an experience and wound up on the other side better and

stronger for it.

Some not better.

It's a scary situation.

And I was in that for a while.

Well, at that time.

I was on a roll.

Keep moving. Just keep moving.

Keep moving forward.

That's what kept going in my head.

Guys on his level, world -class level athletes, they just have this fear of

failing. That can manifest itself into a great blessing and more drive and more

accomplishments, or it can become the kiss of death.

Guys like Kurt, who wrestled all their life, you can't expect them to be

healthy. It's impossible.

People have to understand, these guys are taking their own falls.

They're bouncing around all with that mat, and that mat's not a posturpedic

here.

So 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.

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 chokehold.

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 then I broke my neck.

There was no coach to be Boston's doctor.

He did stone cold neck fusion.

So when I went to see him, he wanted to do fusion right away.

When I had to leave to go get my surgery, I was gone for 12, 15 months.

career suicide for 9 out of 10 people. So Kurt had that same fear. He's not a

dummy. I was very tentative about that because you would have to take a year

off, and I don't want to take that long off. I remember one night I went over to

my neighbor's house.

And there's a really nice kid. His name's Johnny. And he said, I hear

wrestling Brock at WrestleMania.

And I said, yeah.

He said, I really wish you'd be able to wrestle Brock.

He handed me a DirecTV magazine.

And on the cover was Brock Lesnar versus Kurt Angle at WrestleMania.

And I was like, this might never happen again.

So I called Vince. I said, listen, I'm doing WrestleMania.

Kurt's a different breed of athlete. He's going to have the drive to work

through anything.

He won a gold medal with a broken leg.

Injuries were nothing to him.

That's the way he is.

What are you going to do, make a pit bull or a poodle?

Vince McMahon actually is against me wrestling.

He said, hey, I'm against you doing this, but if this is what you want to

then I'm going to support it.

And I said, thank you, Vince. And he said, I just want to tell you one other

thing. You're not going to like it, but I'm going to tell you.

I said, what? And he said, I love you.

And I actually started crying.

This match we have been waiting for for a month. Two of the most decorated

athletes in WWE history.

So 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.

So then that's where Lesnar tried the shooting star.

And he missed it.

Ended up being a hell of a match.

And they were both...

really sore.

Afterwards, I can remember it was pretty bad. They were both busted up. Guys,

can we clear, please?

Clear this hall!

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.

Joe got a hold of my manager.

And he said, listen, I can fix Kurt Angle. He will only be out for six

And 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.

And he would cut out the problem and let the neck heal. So I decided to do that

surgery.

Can't wait for him to get back in the ring.

After six weeks of healing, I went right back to wrestling.

I don't believe my neck fully healed.

So I broke my neck again.

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.

So I got back and knew it again.

It was the beginning of

2004.

I made it all the way to WrestleMania.

Against Eddie Guerrero, WrestleMania 20.

landed on the back of my head, and I broke my

neck again.

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

I broke four vertebrae, and I don't remember what match I did it in. There

just a lot of confusion going on in my head.

A lot of things going on at that time.

It was a really bad, bad time for me.

But it got worse and worse.

When I broke my neck at No Way Out in 2003, I met with a doctor

that prescribed me pain medication.

Opioids. I remember taking the first one.

It definitely masked the pain.

I felt a little more energetic, more euphoric, and I liked the feeling. So,

know, I started taking more.

I was taking about four a day.

Didn't take me long before I doubled up to eight.

After that, it went higher, higher, higher.

I gave him a call, and as we were talking there for about an hour to an

a half, and, you know, his voice changed from being very coherent to kind of

starting to slur.

And I've been around enough guys, and I've given a few other calls like that.

And I said, dude, are you all right?

And he's kind of saying, Steve, I'm telling you, I'm fine. I can't imitate

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. He said, listen, you need to get off the stuff.

And I said, what are you talking about?

And he said, we know you're doing something.

Some of those guys are really proud, man. They don't admit they got problems.

They don't show any weakness.

It's a sickness.

They're over -medicating.

Then they start feeling very guilty.

And they feel very vulnerable.

Then stuff starts unraveling.

And it's not just wrestling.

Drug issues are not a pro -wrestling issue.

It's an all -war 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 point where she started using drugs.

She kept calling me for money.

I kept saying, I kept sending her money.

She kept telling me the bills were racking up.

I found out later she was using it for drugs.

So 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.

So 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.

And so I

gave

her another ultimatum.

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

her, ever.

She did get clean.

So for the next eight months, I didn't talk to her.

And then she overdosed.

I wish I would have talked to her.

I find out that night that my sister died of heroin overdose.

When you're taking the drug, you're in denial of anything else. It's the only

thing that's on your mind. You're thinking about how you're going to get

next day, and, you know, it takes control of your life.

By this time, I was already 40 deep into painkillers, so

I started taking more.

My mom would call me all the time to see how I was doing, and I'd lie to her all

the time.

Tell her I was okay.

The higher I got, the better I felt.

Or I should say, the less I felt.

Spankers can hide a lot of pain, not just physical, but emotional.

Between my dad and Dave Schultz and my sister Leanne, it's just like nothing

ever gets easier.

As he's over -medicating himself, trying to manage his pain, his personality

started changing.

And he knew he was carrying a burden.

And you could see that that burden was starting to wear on him.

There are a lot of... things that were going through my mind that I had to get

away from. I was always running away from problems.

You know, the pills were my sanctuary.

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 a draw when I woke up. I would throw those down and chew

them up and swallow them.

I do it in the morning and after my match at night. I made sure I didn't

messed up or high when I worked out or messed up or high when I was doing a

show.

But when the show was over, it was fair game.

This guy who's an Olympic gold medalist, one of the toughest guys I know, you

don't think anything can happen to him. You think he's bulletproof, but nobody

is.

I've seen way too many...

Good people it takes over your life. It takes over your mind. It takes over All

of your relationships it just It sucks and it sucks to watch me outside and

I can't even imagine what it's like to experience I Was taking pills to go

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

I was

Within six months, I was taking 65 of them a day.

The hardest part about being an addict is knowing where you're going to get

drugs next.

It would make you do crazy stuff.

I mean, 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 work.

It was everything.

I have a lot of respect for Kurt, like a big brother.

And to see him, like, shaking and it just made me angry. And

I just got angry with him.

And was like, man, don't let people see you like that. You know, like, man,

you're Kurt Angle.

When you get a hold of these drugs and they get a hold of you, there's no way

quit.

I mean, I was taken enough to kill a horse.

I remember going in to meet with Vince, and he told me, listen, you got to get

your ass straight.

You're going to die.

You can't keep doing this.

So the ultimatum was, we would like you to go to rehab or leave, leave

WWE.

And that is the reason I quit.

I decided to quit WWE.

I didn't go to rehab because I didn't want to let go of the drug.

Kurt's downward spiral, it was hard for everybody to see.

When it comes to addiction, it's really difficult because unless that person

wants help, there's not a lot you can do. So you're sort of just kind of

watching it happen, and you're helpless.

And Vince doesn't handle that well, so it was difficult for him.

Well, there's been a lot of rumors as to why exactly Kurt Angle was released.

Can you set the record straight right now?

Some of it is confidential, you know, and I'd love to tell you exactly what

story is, but it really revolves rather around Kurt's health more than anything

else.

I didn't want to quit, so I had to go somewhere else.

Here's this once -in -a -lifetime talent. You know, he's one of the best

and now he's down at TNA.

And I'm thinking, man, TNA, you know, they're not at our level.

When I left WWE, I

started drinking alcohol and TNA. So now it's mixing the pills with the alcohol.

The debacle of a run he had in TNA.

He's lucky he's not dead.

Seriously.

I was so out of control. My life completely spun out of control.

My first wife, she moved out with my first two kids.

And then I met Giovanna.

I basically knew nothing about him. The first time I met him, he walked in and I

was like, oh my God, he's so handsome.

And after our first date, we just were inseparable.

The friendship built into something more. But it was in a dark point in my

So for her, it was hard.

In the beginning, he hit it very well. And I was five months pregnant when we

got married. I had a lot to balance.

So I didn't put two and two together until things got worse.

I didn't want to say, don't take medication.

Are you okay?

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?

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year. I love you.

I ain't going to make it through the year.

It just got worse and worse and worse, drinking and mixing pills together.

That's not good at all. Daddy's stealing, of course, Juliana's food.

Now I'm taking these cocktails.

I was taking probably six Xanax a day, probably eight somas a day,

two morphine pills.

I was driving at night on medication

and 12 beers in me.

Channel 11 News reporter Gordon Lush 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.

The drugs took over my life. It was the worst feeling in the world.

He was drunk, and he was sitting there, and he had a beer in his hand, and he

was just passed out watching TV.

And he's just talking to sleep, and he's just drooling, and he's just...

He just doesn't even know what he's doing.

I actually got on my knees and I was like, I prayed and I said, God, what am

doing wrong?

Because I literally still didn't believe I was a drug addict.

I just thought that I had some bad luck.

When he was going to jail, drinking and driving, like, that's serious.

He could kill himself.

That was the worst time of my life.

I was scared.

It was all over the Internet. It was all over the news.

People were calling me.

I just had another baby.

Giovanna got a call from me from jail, and she was

pissed.

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, you know, I have to pick up. I have to pick

up. And the first thing I did, I said, why? Why did you do this? Why did you

in trouble again?

He's like, I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm sitting here in jail, and

like the lowest point of my life, Giovanna.

I need help. And I said, yeah, you do need help. I needed to show him this is

what happens when you make the wrong choices in life.

You choose drugs over us.

I literally wouldn't see Giovanna and my kids.

I would start drinking early. I would pop my pills, and I would be passed out

five.

My husband, how did he get from where he was to this point of his life? And I

know how much of a shame 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 know, you either.

Step up and be a man and get clean or I'm gone.

Giovanna, she said, listen, if you don't go to rehab and get your ass straight,

I can't stay with you anymore.

I don't want your money.

I don't want to live here.

I just, I'm going to have to leave.

I didn't want to lose my marriage. That was the most important thing because I

didn't want to lose my kids.

And I knew if I continued down that road, I was going to end up alone.

That was when I decided to rehab.

There's nothing that compares to the pain you feel when you're going through

trial. 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 you're 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.

It is the absolute worst feeling I've ever had.

And it seems like it lasts forever.

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 that experience again.

I don't want to go through withdrawal.

I am scared to death of it.

It feels like it's going to last an eternity.

I can't explain it any other way.

The hard part was you start thinking, what if I fuck up when I get out?

What if I can't stay clean?

What if I am a complete... What if I just go back to the pills and I start on

again?

And you start doubting yourself.

As soon as he came home, he was like this.

Like, he didn't know how to deal with a 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

He's an addict. He's not allowed to take a medication.

He said, what if you just give me one? What if you just moderate 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?

And I said, you're not allowed to do this. You're going to find a way to do

without taking a medication because you're not going to do that to us again.

only triggers I have is the pain that I have.

You know, sometimes I say, man, I could really use a couple of painkillers right

now. You know, that's a trigger.

I have chronic neck pain, back pain, knee pain.

I do all I can to maintain my body. 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 was just taking a couple pills, and I've been all

right. It took a lot of work for him to know the new him. And I said, you are

not going to feel the best the way you used to feel, but you're going to

tolerate your pain.

You're going to figure this out. We are going to figure this out together.

I had to slowly get him into being a husband again and slowly getting him

a father.

I wasn't there quite a bit for my first daughter, Kira.

Hi, Kira.

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 first daughter.

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.

Yeah, look, she's happy.

She's happy.

I got clean.

And I start spending time with my children.

Do you want to watch videos of Daddy wrestling?

I realized what was really important in my life, my family.

Do you want to see Daddy drive a milk truck?

Do you want to see Daddy with a cowboy hat on? So I've learned to

appreciate the finer things in life, and that's not the drug. It's these little

ones. What's this?

Cupcake and bread.

Cupcake and bread?

It looks good.

I've gotten so much enjoyment out of it the last few years, and I

became the father I never thought I would.

I'm actually a pretty good father.

I'm surprised.

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 screwed up.

You got to stay clean. If you're an addict and you have a problem with

you got to stay clean.

I think Kurt knows the new him now, and I think he's happy with the new version

of him.

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

He missed out a lot on life, but he's trying to make it up with these kids.

You know,

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.

So I felt like with the right people around him and the right support around

him, he was going to overcome it.

And I'm very proud of my friend for continuing to push himself to be the

husband and father and friend and all the things that he is to many, many

people, the best he can be.

I was surprised that I was getting inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

I thought, WWE never wants to speak to me again.

If I would have done the right thing and listened to Vince back then, I would

have stayed in WWE all this time.

Oh, it's true.

It's damn true.

For Vince, in some way, it was like a son coming home and then getting

for the first times and almost picking up right where they left off, like just

the level of fun that they were having.

It was really cool to see.

And think about it. I did have a Hall of Fame career.

The little time I spent there, the six years, was a very impressionable six

years. And I know how good it was because I knew how good I was.

I want to thank my five beautiful children, Kira, Cody, Juliana, Sophia,

Nicoletta. You guys are my life.

And last but not least, I want to thank the one person that saved 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.

I saw him work so hard to get where he is today. I saw the strength.

And I think he is excited of what can this Kurt Angle be, what can this Kurt

Angle do.

Here's a guy who is a world -class athlete.

He's also the kind of guy who, whatever he wants to do in the future, he can

accomplish it.

Juliana.

It's never too late to make changes in your life.

It sure as hell isn't too late to save your own life.

And that's what Kurt Angle did.

It's a great ending for this story that could have very easily been one of the

great American sports tragedies that we would have read about in our lifetime.

I think I want Kurt Angle to be remembered, not for the mistakes he's

what he was able to accomplish in his lifetime.

The new WWF champion! It's a celebration for the Angle family!

I just want people to know that none of us are perfect.

And I want them to know that I wasn't perfect either.

But I was able to overcome many obstacles.

Because I'm a fighter.

A fighter that never gave up on anything.