WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle recently joined the ‘M&F Reps’ podcast for an in-depth conversation about his prestigious career, which included the Olympic Hero opening up about his battle with depression, how the COVID-19 pandemic set him back further, and how he is currently very happy with his life. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
Says he is very happy with his life now after dealing with some depression:
Yeah, I’m really happy with my life right now. I was depressed for a while. Retiring from amateur wrestling, Olympics and then retiring from the WWE, I felt like I didn’t have a place in life anymore and I fell out of place and don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love spending time with my family, with my wife and kids. But from a career standpoint, I thought, what could I do next? I’ve accomplished everything I wanted to and I don’t regret anything that I’ve done up until now but where do I go from here? And I had to learn that now, I’m a non-athlete. I do go to the gym, I go for a run every once in a while but I don’t do athletic stuff anymore. Now I pretty much work behind the desk and do the podcast and my supplement company and I take acting classes every week. I’m pretty much here. This is where I do my work now which is crazy because I really didn’t have a job my entire life. All I did was train for a living. That was my job and that’s what I did for the Olympics and for WWE and now, I realize there’s a lot more to life than just working out.
Admits that the COVID-19 pandemic really messed with his depression:
Well I will tell you, the pandemic really messed me up. Unfortunately, the pandemic occurred right after I retired. You talk about depression, I’m retired, I was depressed from that then the pandemic hit and the whole world stood still for a long period of time and you know, I’m just kind of coming out of it right now. I had a lot of depression and it set me back for a little bit. But, I realize now that there’s other things in life that I can enjoy. I can enjoy my family. I can go to the park with them and play with my kids and just do things I normally never did before because my whole entire life, it was always about Kurt Angle, what’s best for Kurt Angle? What does Kurt Angle want? What does Kurt Angle need? It was always about me. I never thought about anybody else; not my wife or my kids and now, I realize, it was about my wife and kids this whole time. That’s the whole reason I was doing everything and it’s just really sad you get to that point and you realize, man, you’re a selfish son of a gun. But, rightfully so, you have to be if you’re training for the Olympics and you have to be when you’re traveling 300 days for the WWE. But, it was very difficult to make that adjustment.
On the regrets he has in his life:
Yeah, I have a lot of regrets. But at the time same, I look back and I say if I didn’t go through those, I wouldn’t be who I am now. I have regrets about being introduced to painkillers, I have regrets on possibly wrestling too long. My body is really banged up at my age… I had knee replacements, I had three neck surgeries, I’m eventually gonna have back surgery and shoulder surgery. So, I feel like I might have been in the sport a few years too long. If I would have backed out, I think I’d be in much better health today. But, for the most part, those are my only regrets. Other than that, I don’t regret anything I’ve done in my life. Like I said, it made me who I am now.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling
)