During the latest episode of his new podcast, The Kurt Angle Show, WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle talked about breaking four vertebrae in his neck in a match against Shawn Michaels on Raw in 2005.
“I did an Angle Slam from the top rope and landed on the back of my head. I broke four vertebrae in my neck, again. The thing is, I went back to the doctor. The good thing was no disks moved. They stayed in place. The vertebrae were broken. Then they cracked. My doctor, I asked him if I could still wrestle because I knew I was eventually going to get the World Title because I stayed healthy for so long, and this setback would have set me back even further and I probably wouldn’t have won another world title in WWE for the duration that I stayed there. It was important for me to stay in the game and get another World Title. So, I asked him if I could keep wrestling and he said ‘As long as you’re careful, you’ll be fine.’ I did wrestle. I won the World Title with my neck broken against Mark Henry. I actually wrestled Undertaker at No Way Out with my neck broken. It wasn’t a smart move, but it was something that I felt I needed at the time.
Angle then talked about why he didn’t have the neck fusion surgery on his neck:
“I was going to have to have three of my vertebrae fused together. If you get three of them fused together, you’re done. You’re retired. You can’t wrestle anymore. So, I decided to have the repair done the first couple times. It worked for me temporarily, but fusion would have been the better option, but I would have had to retire.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co
