10 More Wrestling Facts You Probably Didn't Know
6. Kurt Angle Is Deaf In One Ear
There have been rumours for years about various wrestlers suffering from deafness.
CM Punk burst his eardrum in a match in OVW, rendering him half deaf for a while until the injury healed. ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin’s ex-wife Debra once claimed that Austin would repeat “What?” a whole lot at home, due to being partially deaf, but that sounds too good to be true.
Then there’s Mick Foley, who may have lost an ear but still hears okay - losing the pinna (that outer shell-like bit that everyone thinks of as the ‘ear’) will affect the quality of your hearing, as it funnels sound into the ear canal, but it won’t destroy your hearing. Meanwhile, Michigan wrestling manager ‘Handsome’ Johnny Bradford is legitimately completely deaf, having lost his hearing as a young child.
However, the ears of intense amateur wrestling have genuinely left Olympic gold medallist Kurt Angle deaf in one ear. Cauliflower ear meant that liquid filled his left ear, which was then left to harden, losing him half of his hearing. Supposedly, Angle’s had the ear drained close to a hundred times, but never regained any hearing.