'I got completely out of control' - Former WWE Champion on painkiller addiction after Brock Lesnar broke his neck
The first episode of 'The Kurt Angle Show' on AdFreeShows with Conrad Thompson provided various insights into the Olympic gold medalist's first WWE run. The episode focused on WWE WrestleMania 19 and Kurt Angle's main event match against Brock Lesnar.
Kurt Angle's neck was already in an unimpressive state heading into the Brock Lesnar match, and there was a time when his status for the WWE WrestleMania 19 PPV was also in jeopardy. As we had reported earlier, WWE had plans of getting Chris Benoit to replace Kurt Angle.
Kurt Angle also opened up on his well-documented painkiller addiction. The WWE Hall of Famer revealed that he was introduced to painkillers after Brock Lesnar broke his neck during a WWE match in 2003. Angle admitted that he took to painkillers very quickly as it gave him the energy to function.
It didn't take long for Kurt Angle to get addicted to painkillers as his dosage increased rapidly.
"The first time, you know, Brock broke my neck in 2003 in February, that was when I was introduced to painkillers. The second I took them, I loved them. It took the pain away. It gave me energy. It got me up. I don't know if it's an upper or a downer, but it made me feel really energetic. And, obviously, that's the opioid working. You know, I started taking them, and when one didn't work, or you know, it wore off, I started taking two, and then two went to four and four went to eight, eight went to sixteen."
Kurt Angle was in a spot of bother as he took 65 Vicodin tablets a day during the peak of his addiction.
"I got completely out of control. I was taking 65 Vicodins a day before I started trying to fix the problem. And I got myself in a hole. The thing is, the body builds a tolerance to opioids, so once you are on them for a while, they are not going to work. You've got to double the supply, and you would have to triple it and quadruple it. And, I got myself dug into a hole, and I had to get myself out."
Angle did try to get off the pills, but he was back on it after Brock Lesnar injured his neck for the second time merely eight months after the first incident.
"Yeah, I had a lot of issues, and I started waning off, but when Brock broke my neck again eight months later with the chair, back on it again. And I didn't come off of that for at least another one and a half years."
I hid it pretty well: Kurt Angle was secretive about his painkiller usage in WWE
The WWE locker room wasn't aware of Kurt Angle's painkiller issues as he hid it from the other WWE Superstars.
"And the thing is, I didn't really tell anybody. I hid it pretty well. You know, Vince didn't know it was occurring. A couple of the boys saw me sneaking pills, and they knew I was taking them, but they didn't know how many. Nobody knew I had a serious problem like that."
Kurt Angle also revealed that he was traveling with the wrong people, and while he didn't disclose any names, the WWE Legend realized that he had to get his life back on track.
"The thing is, it was hard to deal with because I knew I had a problem. And, I was just trying to find a way out. Once I injured my neck the second time with Brock, I got the GM job, and I was being wheeled around in a wheelchair; I was a pretty mean character, and I got really self-absorbed in the painkillers at that point. It was really bad. The people I was hanging around with, I'm not going to say names; they were a bad influence. The people I was traveling with, it wasn't the right thing for me, and I had to get myself straight. Eventually, I did."
Kurt Angle successfully overcame his addiction and went on to have another great spell in his career after leaving WWE in 2006.
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