10 Worst WWE Moments Of 2006
2. Substance Abuse Forces Kurt Angle To Leave
Joe Rogan's mind was once blown when Kurt Angle opened up about his heavy pain pill usage on a podcast. His story about overdosing mere hours before working Brock Lesnar in a 60-minute 'Iron Man' match in 2003 is astonishing, but drug use wasn't the only pain Kurt was living. His sister had passed away and caused the episode, so he was dealing with that agony too.
The final hurdle of Angle's first run with WWE is depressing. He met with Vince McMahon to discuss his pain pill habits. McMahon wanted to send Kurt to rehab, but the Olympian wouldn’t go. So, instead, he wound up leaving the company and heading to TNA. This is something Angle regrets from a wrestling perspective, but he’s since said that he might not still be with us had he stuck around working the WWE schedule.
Wow.
It's difficult to watch some of his later work in WWE's ECW brand knowing he was barely holding it together mentally. On top of that, several broken necks and painful surgeries forced Kurt to grit his teeth and literally fight through the pain whenever he was wrestling. That puts a new spin on some of his final bouts in the company before departing.
The upshot of this is that Kurt decreasing his heavy schedule might well have saved his life, but there's no doubt going to rehab would've been the best thing for him at the time. He'd eventually do that, but not at Vince's behest. On WWE's side, losing somebody who had been such a reliable soldier halfway through 2006 was a real blow to the roster.