12 Wrestlers Who Cheated Death

11. Kurt Angle

Another man who is no stranger to neck problems is Kurt Angle. It's well-documented that Angle won an Olympic Gold Medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics with a broken neck, but that wouldn't be his only trouble with the crucial bodypart. For years, Kurt tried to dull the pain with medication, which only masked over the issue. During his WWE tenure, he also suffered from various injuries. Surgery was often a short-term solution for the man, who refused to have his vertebrae fused. This would have ended his active in-ring career, something Angle couldn't contemplate. Even today, he still wrestles in immense pain, and it's surprising he can even perform the most basic of moves. Incredibly, Kurt has had some of the best matches on TNA television. At TNA's No Surrender Pay-Per-View, Angle was in a match opposite Jeff Hardy. The bout was suitably hard-hitting, but one move almost outright killed the Olympian. Performing a Swanton Bomb, Hardy landed awkwardly on his opponent. Doctors assessed that had the impact been a few inches higher on Angle's neck, he may not have walked away from the match.
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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood.