10 Wrestlers Who Ruined Their Bodies For The Business
5. Kurt Angle
There's a famous story about Steve Austin chatting away to Kurt Angle on the phone. According to Steve, Kurt had to crawl out of his bed any time he needed to use the bathroom. Yep, the legend couldn't walk, so he had to literally crawl on his hands and knees.
Angle was still wrestling when this conversation took place.
Yours truly has even witnessed Kurt struggle to walk towards the curtain at independent shows, then suddenly morph into the Olympian of old as soon as he's in front of fans. It's a startling transformation to see up close, but there was something sad about it when Angle returned back from his match in obvious pain.
Kurt battled through a broken neck more than once throughout both his amateur and pro wrestling careers. Doing so became his own personal badge of honour, but something had to give. Angle deserves huge praise for battling substance abuse issues too, because he must still feel the after-effects of his physically-demanding peak today.