Kurt Angle “Really Paid The Price” For Wrestling Career

Kurt Angle has spoken candidly about his quality of life after so many years of wrestling.

Kurt Angle is one of the most decorated pro wrestlers of all time following an illustrious career in WWE and a decade-long stint in TNA that has put him in the conversation as one of the best to ever grace the squared circle.

Angle’s success in the pro ranks came off the back of an amateur career that saw him famously win an Olympic gold medal with a broken freakin’ neck. But all of that success has come at a cost as the WWE Hall of Famer explained to Chris Van Vliet on the Insight podcast:

“You know what, my quality of life right now Chris isn’t so good. I had my knees replaced about a year ago, I had back surgery about four months ago, I have to have my shoulder replaced, and I still have another neck, same surgery coming up. That will be my fourth neck surgery. I really paid the price wrestling as long as I did. I wrestled amateur wrestling for 20 years and then pro for 20. And looking back, sometimes I regret maybe I should have retired five years earlier.

“It comes to a point in time in your life when you’re older, and you want to play with your kids. And here I am having these surgeries, I can’t really do anything with them. I can’t pick them up. I can’t play with them. I can’t run with them. So it gets a little disgruntled thing that I’m not able to be the father that I want to be. And what I’m doing now is I’m having knee surgeries to have a better quality of life so I can play with them. And I just want to make it fast. Because these kids are growing up quickly. And I don’t want to miss it.”

When did Kurt Angle last wrestle?

Kurt Angle brought the curtain down on his wrestling career at WrestleMania 35 in 2019 when he lost to Baron Corbin. That ended his last run with WWE which began with his WWE Hall of Fame induction in 2017 and was followed by a spell as Raw General Manager before Angle returned to the ring.