The undoubted best in-ring wrestler of 2002 and 2003, Kurt Angle could do it all in the ring and on the mic. Sadly for WWE, his physical condition was absolutely abysmal. Angle hadn't been right ever since breaking his neck in the lead up to his 1996 Olympic gold medal victory. Most sensibile people would have retired with that condition. Not Angle, he somehow managed to make an ultra successful run in WWE despite his neck, but by 2003, reality had caught up with the major star. Angle was headed into WrestleMania 19 as WWE Champion, set to defend his belt against rookie sensation Brock Lesnar. A month before the bout, Angle lost feeling in his arm and hands. The diagnosis was at first that Angle should take a year out. Stubborn to the core, Angle refused that, instead opting to work the Lesnar match and then undergo minimally invasive surgery. That meant Angle only missed a couple of months ring time. A year later however and it proved there was no such thing as a quick fix: Angle was out with the neck injury once again. This time his missed action was even harder for the WWE to take, Brock Lesnar had quit the company, leaving the Smackdown roster without any major headlining star. Angle simply wasn't fit enough to fill the gap and the Thursday night TV show descended into the god-awfulness of JBL's long title reign. Back to the modern day and Daniel Bryan should maybe heed Kurt's woes - there is no such thing as 'minimally invasive' and no such thing as a quick fix when it comes to injuries of the neck.
