Mark Bell's Power Project - Winning Olympic Gold, WWE Superstardom, and Overcoming Painkiller Addiction - Kurt Angle || MBPP Ep. 986

Episode Date: September 20, 2023

In Episode 986, Kurt Angle, Mark Bell, Nsima Inyang, and Andrew Zaragoza talk about how Kurt overcame obstacles at every step of his journey from winning a Gold Medal at the Olympics to becoming one of the biggest Superstars in WWE despite breaking his neck FIVE times. Watch the Trailer for "Angle" here: https://www.peacocktv.com/watch-online/movies/angle/f3e95679-f0eb-3ae9-8462-e2d574773601   Official Power Project Website: https://powerproject.live Join The Power Project Discord: https://discord.gg/yYzthQX5qN Subscribe to the Power Project Clips Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC5Df31rlDXm0EJAcKsq1SUw   Special perks for our listeners below! ➢ https://Peluva.com/PowerProject Code POWERPROJECT15 to save 15% off Peluva Shoes!   ➢https://drinkag1.com/powerproject Receive a year supply of Vitamin D3+K2 & 5 Travel Packs!   ➢ https://withinyoubrand.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off supplements!   ➢ https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off all gear and apparel!   ➢ https://mindbullet.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off Mind Bullet!   ➢ https://goodlifeproteins.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save up to 25% off your Build a Box   ➢ Better Fed Beef: https://betterfedbeef.com/pages/powerproject   ➢ https://hostagetape.com/powerproject to receive a year supply of Hostage Tape and Nose Strips for less than $1 a night!   ➢ https://thecoldplunge.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save $150!!   ➢ Enlarging Pumps (This really works): https://bit.ly/powerproject1 Pumps explained: https://youtu.be/qPG9JXjlhpM   ➢ https://www.vivobarefoot.com/us/powerproject to save 15% off Vivo Barefoot shoes!   ➢ https://vuori.com/powerproject to automatically save 20% off your first order at Vuori!   ➢ https://www.eightsleep.com/powerproject to automatically save $150 off the Pod Pro at 8 Sleep!   ➢ https://marekhealth.com/PowerProject to receive 10% off our Panel, Check Up Panel or any custom panel!   ➢ Piedmontese Beef: https://www.CPBeef.com/ Use Code POWER at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $150   Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ https://www.PowerProject.live ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject   FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢https://www.tiktok.com/@marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell   Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more ➢YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang ➢Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=en ➢TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nsimayinyang?lang=en   Follow Andrew Zaragoza on all platforms ➢ https://direct.me/iamandrewz   #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell #FitnessPodcast #markbellspowerproject

I really loved your match that you had with John Cena. I tried to get him tired, but the kid wouldn't blow up. You were set on being a champion from day one. Where does that come from? It was instilled in me by my brothers. You were a big dude, running six-something minute miles, and then wrestling, and then lifting, and then only taking two days a month off.

How were you able to build up that type of capacity? When you talk about training until you're exhausted, and then that's when the training actually begins, you know it's a form of torture. What did your nutrition and food look like at that point? Okay, I had to eat as many calories as I could. I would take a can of tuna, and I would pour it in the blender with water.

Oh, the tuna shake. I wasn't the best wrestler in the world, but I was the most well-conditioned wrestler, and that made me the best wrestler. You're wrestling with Triple H and The Rock. You're about to get a pedigree. I guess you were supposed to get knocked out, but you're supposed to get knocked out in air quotes.

I don't know how I got through that, getting knocked out, because I don't remember. This is the coolest thing, that this guy made such a mockery of himself after being a legit gold medal. He worked his whole life to be legit as fuck. Yeah. And then he just totally made fun of himself, which is awesome.

It is. I think it's also cool how it's a totally different mode. Because when you see the clips of him wrestling, like wrestling, wrestling, right? And training for wrestling. It's what he's all about. He's serious. He's like, get a gold medal and then wwe is a showman it's like that's crazy he's really serious and he's like really well spoken and everything and like they talk to him afterwards and he's like i'm just out there doing my best you know he's like good old american boy yeah

and he's got the look and everything he's got the bright blue eyes he's got the whole everything down he's got the captain america sing He's got the bright blue eyes. He's got the whole everything down. He's got the Captain America singlet on. All these moms are like, I want my daughter to marry Kurt, right? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And then it turns into some darkness. A little bit of darkness, yeah.

Man. Poor guy. Yeah, he was just completely unbelievable, though. The conditioning. the conditioning, like the way that that guy got himself into shape was just – it was very like old school. Like I'm just going to work and I don't think there was like, oh, I'm going to go do some zone two running today. Maybe today I'll take off and I'll just do myofascial release. They worked hard back then. It sounds familiar. Who's the sound like but dude he did i that work ethic especially like if you guys

haven't watched angle on peacock because his work ethic when he was a wrestler even when he was a wwe wrestler too it's something else it's unbelievable it's like i can't believe his workouts when he was you know the the three-a-day training pretty much what yeah he i mean i wouldn't be surprised if it was even like more than that and then it sounded like he just like would go through like a bunch of different wrestlers like high-level wrestlers also sound like he had really good access to a lot of great wrestlers which which I think is cool. And he ended up going and training with DuPont at the Foxcatcher, which that ended up being like a movie.

Did you see that movie? Yeah, yeah. The movie's wild. I don't remember it like crystal clear, but I just remember that the guy was very, very wealthy, and he wanted to support wrestling, and wanted to like learn how to wrestle but it was uh you know it was kind of almost like a computer nerd trying to like all of a sudden put himself into the sport where you you know wrestling you got to be i mean you do have to learn it it's a sport there's a technique

to it but i think that you kind of need like a little like aggression in you and this guy was very passive so it took a it took a long time to be able to to be able to teach him and even after that i don't know how well that worked out it's kind of it kind of reminds me like zuck right now is going around exactly what i was thinking he's doing a bunch of stuff with high level jujitsu guys like he has mikey musumechi's taking pictures with john jones and all these other jujitsu people it's but he actually does it yeah i mean what I mean? He's actually fairly good. So anyway, I wonder how accurate Foxcatcher was. Kurt would know.

Yeah. I mean that ended in such a tragedy. His mentor got shot and killed by DuPont, which is absolutely nuts. What I think is amazing and I think sometimes gets lost in the shuffle is like just how talented some of these people are. You know, like Kurt Angle is doing backflips. He's running like six-minute mile paces if what he said was accurate. He said he ran like six miles in like 38 minutes. And I punched up some math on that.

It was like 6 20 or something like that i'm like holy shit he's flying and he's also i i want to say um he's maybe a 5 9 or something or 5 8 and he's like 220 or 230 so that's a big guy running at 10 miles an hour for for six miles straight that That's pretty unbelievable. And then he would go back and he would do all these hill sprints. He would run with people on his shoulders, which sounds pretty wild. And then on top of that, he was wrestling. I mean – and then he would lift.

Yeah. He'd be squatting like 315-inch chin. I wonder what the letdown is after. Like he – so he won the gold lift. Yeah. He'd be scoring like three 15 inch chin. I wonder what the letdown is after. Like he, so he won the gold medal. Yeah. And it's probably like a nice release and this is cool. But he did mention in the documentary that all of that was over.

Yeah. That was interesting. And I, I kind of wonder like they didn't go into like what his feelings were, but I wonder what his feelings were at that moment because that would be weird. Like train, train, train, train, train. He'd write gold. He'd write it all over his training log.

And he would talk about it all the time. And his coach talked about it all. His coach thought he could win a gold medal. They both thought he had a shot at it. And he would beat people that were in gold medal contention. So it was becoming more and more clear. people that were in gold medal contention so it was becoming more and more clear and this was a mission that uh was a was kind of almost like a lifelong mission since he started uh athletics when he was young he kind of had his uh mindset on being great at something and then it turns into

like this you know four-year training cycle to try to win the Olympics. And then he does it. And then you, I mean, I don't know, like what would, what would feel good after that? I mean, it seemed like he was, uh, got a huge dose of relief because when he's waiting for like the, the ref's decision, you know, the other guys like celebrating already and he's just thinking like shit am i gonna have to do this another four years like all this work and i gotta do it again for another four years and then when he his hand gets raised you know he's obviously he's like super overwhelmed what

that other guy did was fucked that other guy was like trying to raise his own hand with the ref and the ref had to keep pulling his arm down yeah that's fucked i saw that and i was like i was like wait up is is the referee is the other guy and then he put it down but the other guy raises on him yeah it looks like he's ready to go he wore everybody out man he made everybody like just exhausted there he is recording in progress there we go. right off the bat here yeah yeah go ahead i would like to know what it felt like when you won the gold medal and then sort of the transition back into like civilian life uh was there kind of like

almost like a letdown or um like what you know how do you get that same high from winning a gold medal and uh was it just kind of awkward that all of that training and everything was put to rest? When I won the Olympic gold medal, and I said this on TV, if I would have died that night, I would have been the happiest man in the world because I did everything I wanted to do.

But you get up the next day and you're like, what am I going to do now? So it's like, you know, you did the best thing you could actually do in anybody's lifetime, win the Olympic gold medal for your country. And, and there's, there's a, there's a bit of depression afterward. I mean, it happens to everybody. I think once you have that, feel that glory of winning the gold medal and knowing that you're the best in the world

knowing that you're not going to be doing it again it's a really tough road so for me I tried sportscasting it didn't work for me then I decided maybe I'm not done being an athlete I'll go to the WWE

and see what happens. And that's what I did. And it semi-replaced the feeling I got when I won the gold medal, but not totally. It wasn't as fulfilling. Don't get me wrong. I had a blast in WWE. But I really, I worked my whole entire life for that gold medal. And that's all i wanted

was there any part of you that wanted to do it again though like i mean afterwards yeah you you realized you were done but was there a side of you that was like i could maybe train again for this you know what um no uh now later on in my career at wNBA, I thought about doing it. I actually even tried. I started training. I kept getting injured, and I just couldn't do it. But I didn't want to go back because my last year, I went through so much turmoil with my Olympic coach getting killed, breaking my neck. And I felt like I didn't enjoy it anymore okay i i felt i put so

much pressure on myself because i won the world championships in 1995 and then i repeated in 1996 and won the gold medal and it wasn't fun my last year wasn't fun unfortunately the only time it was fun is after i won and uh i just put so much pressure on myself that i took the joy away and that's why i knew i'd never compete again what about uh something like mma you know you see mma you know explode the way that it has is there a part of kurt angle that maybe wishes you were born maybe just a little bit later uh so you could have maybe gotten to some ufc or something like that you know what i i um the thing is when ufc uh when they approached me which was 1997 uh they weren't as distinguished as they are now in other words they offered me a contract

and it was 150 grand for 10 fights like 15 grand a fight really i'm not gonna put my life on the line for 15 000 uh so but when when i got into wwe in like 1998 1999 2000 i was rolling i started winning world titles and then ufc became mainstream and i was like whoa uh i want to go back there and do that. But then immediately when I started thinking about it and possibly leaving WWE to go do it, to train for it, I broke my neck again. And that was in WWE. So that pretty much put the fire out of ever being able to compete in UFC.

And don't get me wrong, I tried many times. You know, Dana White, I met with him a couple different times. One was in 2006. There he wanted me to compete against a fighter named Daniel Pewter. He was not a well-known fighter, but him and I had a little riff in WWE, and he got me in an arm bar and literally he could have broken my arm and he was just he was kind of an idiot because it was supposed to be pinfall only it wasn't submission so he actually pinned himself you know but uh he

caught me at an arm bar and dana was interested in that he was like intrigued he was like hey why don't we just have a fight you versus danielter, and we'll give you a big payday. And I thought about it, and then I said, well, listen, I just signed with a new wrestling company called Impact Wrestling. He said, well, I can't have you fight and wrestle at the same time. I said, why not? I'm only going to wrestle part-time. He said, I can't have you do that.

He said, when you're ready, come back, and we'll see what we can do so that was my opportunity and unfortunately it didn't work now in 2010 dana i went to dana again something personal happened to me and i was getting ready to quit the company that i was wrestling for and i called dana and i told him i wanted to fight and uh what he wanted me to do was go on Real Fighter with Kimbo Slice, which was pretty cool. But, you know, you don't get paid to be on Real Fighter. You know, you're giving your time, your efforts for nothing. I mean, you know, unless you win it, then you get a contract.

But he was willing to pay me to be on Real Fighter. But when it came down to it, I knew I wasn't suited to be an MMA fighter at this point in my career because I broke my neck five times. I could barely do 10 push-ups. That's how weak my upper body was from my broken necks. So I knew that I was just full of myself. So I just decided to just let it go. And, you know, I do want to thank Dana White for the opportunities he gave me, though. He was a really cool guy and he gave me many opportunities. And unfortunately, I didn't take

advantage of them. I'm really interested in learning because you have like the ultimate drive, even in the the peacock documentary I believe it was one of your brothers that said that you were set on being a champion from day one that's incredible where does that come from um it was instilled in me by my brothers my four older brothers were all, I wouldn't say incredible athletes, more like badasses. They got in a lot of fights, got in trouble quite a bit. There was one brother that was a wrestler that he's the one that kind of, he was the oldest one that got us following suit behind him. So he started wrestling.

And this is an interesting story. He was getting in so many fights. behind him. So he started wrestling and, and this is an interesting story. He, he was getting in so many fights and in eighth grade, he actually beat up two cops and he stole a bike. He beat up two, the cops were chasing him and they got ahold of him. He beat them both up and ran back to my house. And the cops were waiting for him there.

He ended up going to a juvenile delinquent center for two years. And when he got out, he went to Keystone Oaks High School, and the wrestling coach went up to him and said, listen, I'm going to get you in wrestling. You're going to take your aggression out on the mat instead of fighting on the streets. And he did. And his first year, he qualified for states.

He actually took fifth at the Junior Nationals in Greco-Roman. He was going year he qualified for States. He actually took fifth at the junior nationals in Greco Roman. He had, he was, he was going to have a super career, but what happened is he got, got married in high school and his wife got pregnant and they had a kid. Then he went to college for a year and his wife got pregnant again. And there was just no way that he was going to be able to sustain college. He's going to. He knew he had to quit and get a job to provide for his family. So his career came to a short end. But he didn't give up on us. He kind of pushed us to do the same thing and actually be better than he was.

And my brother Eric was placed at States and he went on to college and was an All-American in Division III wrestling. So and then I followed after that. And I obviously had the best career out of all of us. I really loved your match that you had with John Cena. It was like John Cena's first match. And it's probably it's probably one of the best examples of a young person coming into professional wrestling uh and then getting the the torch kind of passed their way uh that was a really interesting match where you um you know intentionally trying to I'm friends

with John and me and my brothers got John Cena into professional wrestling long, long ago with UPW. But, you know, were you trying to specifically like test John and kind of see what he was made out of on that day? Yeah, yeah, I was. And I know John didn't appreciate it. I tried to get him tired. I did. But the kid wouldn't blow up. I was really impressed by his, you know, his, his, I guess, endurance.

You know, he, he really had a, he had a huge gas tank. He was able to go for, for a long time. So John, John was a well oiled machine and he knew what he was doing and he had incredible conditioning. Now we talked to countless professionals on this podcast about the importance of strong functional feet. And chances are that your years of wearing narrow toe box shoes have weakened your feet and they're probably not functioning the way they should. That's why we've partnered with Palooza. They're the first casual five-finger shoe that's flat,

has a wide toe box, and has five fingers that you can stick your little toesy-woseys into so that they can help bring back that toe space so your toes will start to move and function the way they should. And if they do, that'll allow you to be a better, stronger athlete. Andrew, how can they get them? Yes, that's over at paluva.com slash powerproject. That's P-E-L-U-V-A dot com slash powerproject. And at checkout, enter promo code powerproject15 to save 15% off your order. Again, Paloova.com slash PowerProject. Links in the description as well as the podcast show notes. On that note of conditioning, man, a lot of athletes listen to this show.

And when you were watching that documentary, you talked about that exhaust training. And as I was listening to that, like, first off, you were a big dude running six-something minute miles and then wrestling and then lifting and then only doing that, only taking two days a month off from doing that. Don't forget the uphill sprints with someone on his back, right? Like, so, I mean, what the hell did your first off your lifting sessions look like and how were you able to build up that type of capacity? Like, like what? Cause I'm just thinking of the recovery side of things. You did that day after day after day. And maybe after one day of doing that, some, most people can't do that a second day. Well, that's something you have to have your

body get used to. Um, you're right. You know, the first day I did exhaust training, I couldn't move for three days. It took me a while to, uh, you know to be able to be comfortable with what I was doing. And I couldn't do the exhaust training every single day when I started. But eventually, I started recovering quicker and quicker. And then every day, I was good to go. I mean, every day, I was doing something different and putting in the exhaust training. And I really pushed myself very hard to make sure that I was going to be the most well-conditioned athlete in the world. And exhaust training is the best form of training I've ever done. And don't get me wrong, there are a lot of people that won't be able to do it because their body won't respond the same way mine did. You know, it's really tough to do it because um their body won't respond the same way mine did you know that it's really tough to do i mean when you talk about training till you're exhausted and then that's when the

training actually begins you know it's a form of torture you know you're torturing yourself and uh i did that quite a bit and uh you know i i was able to recover every day which is really surprising but um i trained myself to be able to do that what uh how'd you come up with it did you come up with it to the coach uh how did you i i went i in 1995 i was on the world team i was number one guy on the usa team and we just we had uh our wrestling camp for the world championships it was out in iowa and dan gable was the world team coach and dan gable was the one that taught me exhaust training listen the training i did uh wasn't even close to what dan gable was doing to his athletes he's the master of his train that's where i learned it. But, um, you know, I remember going there and I'll give you an example. Like our day off, our day off was, we would go in, we would do, um,

an hour worth of calisthenics conditioning where we were pushing ourselves and sprinting and doing airdyne, uh, sprints and everything like that. Uh, doing uphill sprints, running around the track. Then we would go into the wrestling room and, you know, he said, okay, this is going to be one match. And a match is three minutes, two minutes, two minutes, three periods. So seven minutes, you know, you figure, okay, I'll go as hard as I can so I can get incredible conditioning. So I start wrestling. I'm wrestling as hard as I can so I can get incredible conditioning so I start wrestling I'm wrestling as hard as I can

and 20 minutes goes by and I'm like what's going on and my partner's like just keep wrestling so I'm wrestling we get to 30 minutes and Dan Gable blows the whistle and someone says to Gable hey I thought this was one match he goes yeah it's not 3-2-2

it's 30-20 20 20 so we had to wrestle for 50 minutes straight and you know i i put everything i had into those first 30 minutes and i didn't have anything left and i had to continue on for another 40 minutes it was ridiculous but we we would do three three a days and it was uh there would be 10 hours of training. There was strength training, biometrics, conditioning, and live wrestling. And Dan Gable, I learned this all from him. And I took most of it, not all of it, because, you know, there's no way I'd be able to recover with the stuff that he was doing.

But I took most of it, and I put it into my repertoire. What did your nutrition and food look like at that point? Okay. I had to eat as many calories as I could, but I tried to eat pretty healthy because, uh, when in college, I was a little heavy, a little chunky. Um, uh, and I knew that what, that would not do well for me if I was holding extra weight, extra fat in my body because I'd get tired a little quicker. And so I decided to eat high protein, low carbohydrate, low fat. But I ate a lot of it.

I mean, I was drinking the Metarex. Those Metarex shakes came out around that time. And, you know, there are 38 grams of protein i think 25 carbs like three uh four grams of fat and i was pounding six of those a day along with three meals three uh 1500 calorie meals so i was eating about 6 000 calories a day just to keep my weight on because i was underweight i wrestled at 220 and i weighed 205 so i had to keep my weight on because I was underweight. I wrestled at 220 and I weighed 205. So I had to keep my weight up. I could have dropped to the lower weight class, 198,

but there was no reason for me to. I was winning at 220. So I decided I would just keep my weight on and keep going. And you know what? When you diet or you cut weight in wrestling, it takes the fun out of it. And I didn't want to have to worry about cutting weight and losing weight and not eating and having to go in late at night and sweat in the sauna for two hours. I didn't want to do all that stuff.

It's not fun. So I decided I was going to stay up a weight class and do what I got to do. Three of those metric shakes a day, that might be the most impressive thing that you've ever done in your life. Those things are so thick. Six. Oh, six. Six of them a day. Yeah, it's like a giant cement mixer.

3 meals, 1,500 calorie meals. Oh, my God. All right. Well. You know what else I would do? I would take a can of tuna and I would pour in the blender with water. Oh, the tuna shake. I would drink it.

I did that every day, too. too hey you want a gold medal you know that's that's what it takes all right you're right you're right i gotta ask you this because obviously you've had you know multiple neck things that have happened but at the end of the day your neck is so large like we were talking about this before it's like that must have saved you so like when you were younger did you always have like a thick ass neck or did you train that neck you know what i didn't do anything what what i did in wrestling i always fought with my head positioning and uh using my head into his body and uh that's how i built up my neck my neck

got strong i did bridges you know in wrestling you do bridges but eventually after a while you know when i broke my neck right before the olympics i couldn't do bridges anymore because the doctor told me that's really unhealthy for your neck but it did build up my neck i mean i i was able to get my neck in like 22 inches. Right now, I'm really light right now. My neck's only, I think, 20 right now. But I had it up to 22 inches when I was competing in the Olympics. And it was a big neck, no doubt about it. So, I mean, throughout your whole career, competitive and in sports entertainment,

there's so many situations where you were like you had all the cards stacked up against you. I'm thinking back to Sylvester Terke and like those times where it seemed like you're it's literally David and Goliath. And then fast forward to WWE and it's like, hey, if you land wrong, you could die. And you faced all these situations and you're like, no, I have to do it. What the hell goes through your mind when it, like I said, it seems like everything is like, Kurt, don't do it, don't do it. Or Kurt, man, it's going to be really hard, probably impossible. How did you mentally prepare to enter into all these different scenarios? Well, I really believed in myself, and don't get me wrong.

There were times that I doubted myself. I didn't know if I was going to be able to do what I did. You know, when you put yourself into something, I have OCD. I hate to say that, but I do. And when I do something, I do it over the top. And I make sure that I cross the T's, dot the I's, everything. Everything has to be, I have to be more than ready. And that's the way I trained. I literally over-trained, but did it affect me? No. I was still able to compete and do what I had to do. But the whole reason why I won,

I wasn't the biggest or the strongest or the fastest or the most technical, but I was the most well-conditioned. And I knew that I would wear my opponents down. And once they got tired, I'd be able to score on them. I just had to keep the match close until they got tired. And that's how I wrestled every match. Like I said, I wasn't the best wrestler in the world, but I was the most well-conditioned wrestler and that made me the best wrestler. Pat Proctor and Louie talk about beef and meat all the time on the podcast. That's why we partnered with Certified Piedmontese Beef. But did you know this? That 85% of all grass-fed, grass-finished beef in the United States is imported from other countries? 85%. Damn. But certified Piedmontese

is made in the US of A. America. America. Fuck yeah. So go ahead and get some of the best tasting, some of the leanest, some of the best beef from Piedmontese. Andrew, how can they get it? Absolutely. So you guys can head over to cpbeef.com and check out enter promo code power to save 25% off your entire order and if your order is 150 or more you get free two-day shipping again cpbeef.com links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes fuck yeah when you uh we're in wwe you're wrestling with triple h and the rock you're in that uh three-way match. You're about to get a pedigree. And unfortunately, things don't go the way they're kind of supposed to go.

I guess you were supposed to get knocked out, but you're supposed to get knocked out in air quotes. But you got knocked out. But then you were able to come out from the back and still continue the match. How were you able to come out from the back and still continue the match. How were you able to? And we saw that in your Olympic wrestling career, too, where you broke your neck, and then you still won in the very match that you broke your neck in. How were you able to get through some of this stuff? You know what?

I don't know how I got through that, getting knocked out, because I don't remember. I don't remember any of the match. You know what? I wouldn't have remembered it unless, but they taped it. So I was able to watch it over. And the crazy thing is backstage, when they wheel me backstage, I was backstage there and I had to do a live shot.

So I was supposed to tell Stephanie, she was going to say, hey, I need you to go out there and help Triple H and I was supposed to say I'll do it for you Steph I'll do it for you and I you know she told me what I had to say and I forgot and I said what am I saying again and she told me again and I forgot again I'm like what am I saying

again I did this like six times because they recorded it and I'm watching myself I'm like oh my god and then Vince goes damn, get him some smelling salts and get him back out to the ring. So, you know, Vince is, like, getting pissed off. He wants me to get back to continue the match. And so I eventually went back,

but I don't remember anything about the match. So I can't take credit for that, man. It's like I went on autopilot and just wrestled. And the crazy thing is, you can tell if you watch it really closely, but you can tell that The Rock and Triple H were leading me through stuff. There was a point in time

where I was supposed to get hit with Triple H by a hammer and I was supposed to duck and now he was going to hit Stephanie. And what he did is he grabbed my head and he pulled it down and hit Stephanie. So it looked like I ducked, but I didn't. You know, Triple H and The Rock were such good in-ring generals that they took care of me the whole time.

So I can't take credit for that match. I'm sorry. But I do want to tell you, we talked earlier about Submersion Turkay of North Carolina State. want to tell you uh uh we talked earlier about subversion of turkey of north carolina state when i wrestled him in college he was a really dominant wrestler and um he pinned his way all the way up to the finals the average match it was only taking him 35 seconds per match he was dominating and uh when i got to the finals with him I literally weighed 198 pounds I'm the only wrestler

in history to win the heavyweight title under 200 pounds and this guy was about 265, 270 and he looked like a Greek god, strong as hell and he was a pinner but I was able to out position him

and out technique him and it just shows that somebody that wrestles a lot smarter is able to overcome that obstacle because that guy was a giant. And don't get me wrong, I was terrified of him. But I knew it was possible. I just had to take him. It took me a while to take him down. I took him down with 13 seconds left right at the very end of the match.

And I timed it that way so that once I got the lead, I'd be able to hang on and beat them. So that was all positioned. I thought all that out. I've always been able to figure out my matches and envision them before I do it and go out there and do what I envision. And it's always worked for me. You were mentioning that your coach learned six or seven different languages just to understand wrestling even further. That's pretty wild. Yeah, Dave, he loved learning wrestling from the iranians the turks uh the the russians he learned all these cubans he learned all these languages so he could learn

uh techniques from all over the world and he would bring it back to the united states and teach all of us i mean dave was the best coach ever i i don't I never had a coach like him. Uh, his technique was just incredible. And, uh, he taught me a lot about that, but that wasn't the only thing I had to learn. Um, I knew that just technique alone wouldn't allow me to win a gold medal, especially in my weight class. I knew that my conditioning had to be impeccable. Do you still love wrestling now? The, like the way you did as an athlete, because even though, like, I don't know if you still love wrestling now the way you did as an athlete? Because even though I don't know if you still practice anything like that at all, but what's your relationship with wrestling now being so far removed? Well, I'm trying to get back into it, especially after this documentary.

I got away from it. And there were times where I would go to colleges and talk to the kids and then wrestle with them afterward. But I've had so many surgeries. I had knee replacements. I had my back surgery, three neck surgeries. I have a shoulder replacement surgery coming up. I just haven't been healthy enough to get in that room and go. So I'm hoping down the road eventually I'll be able to do it.

But it just wasn't possible for me right now. It looks like you're doing a lot of training to keep yourself healthy and you look great right now. Um, I do what I can and I go to the gym for a half hour every day. I never miss a day, but it's not a lot. And I don't, I don't do a lot of strength training. I just do a lot of maintenance and that's all I can do right now. Do you have to do a lot of strength training. I just do a lot of maintenance, and that's all I can do right now. Do you have to do a lot for your neck? I know in the documentary it shows you with a traction type thing on your head. I do maintenance, traction, anti-gravity. I do a lot of stretches, but I can't have my neck cracked by a chiropractor.

There are a lot of things that I can't do. And there is no rehab for necks. There's no way. When you have neck surgery, it's not like you can do exercises and do all that stuff. You just have to let your neck rest and heal. So it's probably the only body part that you can't rehab. Have you ever tried Kratom before? Have you ever heard of it?

No, and I don't want to try it. I know that people have been able to have a lot of success with it, but I still think it's kind of addictive. It can be, yeah, for sure. I've been through painkillers, yeah, and I don't want to ever go through that again. I don't take any kind of drug or any kind of anything that has any question mark on it. I just try to stay stay free from that. And I'm trying to do it for my family because I don't want to go back to what I used to do and be in that position again. Yeah, it seems like it was unbelievable.

I had somebody send me Kratom and my wife's like, what the fuck? So I gave it to her and she's, you know, she's giving it to her father to try it out. But she won't let me have it. Definitely. Yeah, that's understandable. You know, going through all that pain and being able to overcome addiction is a really amazing thing. Did it work out OK for you in terms of like did you go to uh you know recovery and then did you just you know come out of that a lot better or like how long did that process take well to be

honest with you when i went through a draw uh it was the worst experience of my life i mean i was i was hot i was cold i was sweating um i was going to the bathroom. I was throwing up. My my my skin was crawling. It was the most uncomfortable, most terrifying pain I've ever had in my life. And I never I swore to myself I'd never have to go through that again. So after I got through rehab, I I never touched another drug. I knew I've had surgeries surgeries have not taken any kind of painkillers i used to be hooked on uh percocets and xanax and all these different drugs and there is nothing i take right now because i am terrified of it i hate going through withdrawal and i'll

never do it again did you know some of that stuff was addictive kind of going into it? Like it's pretty common in wrestling and when people are traveling like that for people to pass some pills around and here, take this to make you feel better type thing. Were you concerned about it? Or you're like, I'm never going to end up like that. Well, I,

you know, I got introduced to painkillers when I broke my neck the second time in WWE. The first time I broke it was right before the Olympics. The second time was in 2003 in WWE. And I was introduced to painkillers by a doctor. And man, I love the way they made me feel. I mean, they didn't make me feel nauseous or anything like that.

Some people get sick over them. It gave me an energetic feel. It made me feel good. I didn't feel the pain. It masked the pain. And the crazy thing about painkillers is your body builds a tolerance to them. So one doesn't work anymore. Then you have to take two, then two leads to four, four leads to eight. Before I knew it, I was taking

65 extra strain of Vicodin a day, enough to kill a horse. And I was deeply addicted. And not only that, but I was taking Percocets and Xanax because I was having anxiety because of my neck, breaking my neck, so the doctor gives me Xanax. And then I can't wind down at the end of the day, so the doctor gives me Percocet. So I'm taking all these different drugs, and I'm abusing them.

And, you know, honestly, I shouldn't be here today. That's how much I was taking. And I decided after after that after wwe i went to tna uh impact wrestling and over there i got my painkiller problem under control because the doctor started giving me these two morphine pills twice a day and um so i stopped with the vicodin but i was still taking the other drugs and I started drinking alcohol and I was drinking it excessively. And what that got me was four DUIs in five years. My life spun out of control. I mean, I lost my reputation, everything I worked for. I was at the lowest point in my life.

And I remember calling my wife from jail after my fourth DUI and she said, I can't do this anymore. You either go to rehab or I'm leaving. I'm taking the kids and I'm leaving. I didn't want to lose my wife and my kids. So I went to rehab and you know what? When I was in rehab, I thought I was going to be a fuck up. I thought I was going to get out of there and fuck up again. You just have all these question marks in your head when you go in there and you're like, you know, you finally get clean

and then you start thinking what happens when I get out because I'm safe here. And when you get out, anything can happen. And I didn't want to leave. I wanted to stay and rehab the rest of my life because I felt safe there. But I got out and I stuck to my promise and I stayed off of it. And I have to give credit to my wife and my kids for that. They're the reason I did it.

TRT, it's a popular topic. A lot of guys are hopping on it. It's something that we've talked about a lot. And you might think you're a candidate, but how would you know if you haven't got your blood work done and you don't know where your markers are? That's why we've partnered with Merrick Health owned by Derek from More Plates, More Dates. And the cool thing about Merrick is you'll get your blood work done and you'll also have a patient care coordinator that can help you analyze your blood work, analyze your testosterone, all these other markers to help you actually figure out if you're someone who needs TRT. Because there could be things that you could be doing nutritionally with supplements or even with your lifestyle that can boost your testosterone to the levels that they should actually be at. Andrew, how can they get their hands on it?

Yes, that's over at MerrickHealth.com slash PowerProject. And at checkout, enter promo code PowerProject to save 10% off the PowerProject panel, the checkup panel, or any individual lab that you select. Again, that's at MerrickHealth.com slash PowerProject. Promo code PowerProject at checkout. Links in the description as well as the podcast show notes. You know what? I'm curious, man, because there's a lot of people who do deal with those types of issues, whether it's like alcohol or painkillers, et cetera. And rehab, again, you were safe there, but obviously you had the help of your wife and your kids, but were there any other safeguards

that you yourself set up for yourself so that you wouldn't sabotage yourself when you came out? Because like, if you wanted to, you could make the choice. You have the ability to go and find that shit for yourself. It's not like you can't, but you've obviously set some, there are things you must've changed in your life to make it difficult for you to make that mistake again. Well, you know what? There was nothing that motivated me. I had a switch in my head and I turned it off and I decided, you know what? I'm never going to take those again. And, and when I do something,

like I said before the OCD, I do a full tilt. I know that if I decide I'm going to quit something or I'm going to start something, I'm going to give a hundred percent and stick with it. And I've done that to this day. I haven't taken a painkiller, no Xanax, no Percocets. I haven't drinking a drop of alcohol. I've been clean for 12 years now, and I'm really proud of that. Do people still tell you that you suck? Yeah, all the time.

You know what? It has become a term of endearment. I don't know how, but, you know. You're like, hell yeah. Yeah, you know what? It bothered of me out of me at the beginning but you know but fans thought when i was turning baby face and i was the good guy they were still doing it so it's like okay yeah go you suck you know i would actually taunt the fans and tell them go ahead do it uh but it was a it was a form of appreciation for me and it doesn't make any

sense. But that's what they did. We're growing up. Were you shy? Or were you outgoing? Because like your transition? I listen, in college, in order for me to be a business major, I had to take two classes where I had to do presentations. I didn't do those classes. So I didn't become a business major, because I had to get these two classes. And I didn't like those classes so I didn't become a business major because I had to get these two classes and I didn't like being in front of people you know when I wrestled in the Olympics I was focused on my opponent

but in pro wrestling you have to include the crowd you have to bring them in make them care about you whether they love you or hate you you know you have to have them be a part of it so and you're you're displaying this character and it you know it just was so different than amateur wrestling because in amateur wrestling you don't show any emotion you go out there you

go for the pinfall right away and pro wrestling you have to tell a story good guy versus bad guy good guy out wrestles bad guy bad Good guy outwrestles bad guy. Bad guy cheats and gets the good guy down and then gets heat on the good guy. And then the good guy makes a comeback, and then they have the finish. Does the good guy win, or does the bad guy cheat and win? Or does the good guy overcome and win the match? So there was a lot of stuff that I was like, whoa, I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this,

because I can't get up and even speak in front of people I remember after the Olympics um I took a sports casting job I was horrible at it and and that was in front of a camera it wasn't even people and I I was nervous as hell so I'm not sure how I made the transition because the WWE didn't really teach me how to do promos. They didn't teach me how to act or do pre-takes. They just said, jump in and you either swim and you survive or you sink and you die. And they gave me that choice. And I had to make that choice myself. And I thank God I survived.

I swam. There was no part of you that like felt uncomfortable being a heel because it's it's funny that you go from like an American hero to like a literal heel it's interesting you know at first when Vince told me I was gonna be a heel I said there's no way in hell I'm an Olympic gold medalist I represent my country in the Olympic games but Vince uh you know he made a character with me you know this milk drinking guy that had the three I's, intensity, integrity, intelligence. His shit didn't stink. But he also went against those three I's.

You know, he would cheat and win and say, you know, I did it, you know, in a, you know, I didn't, I didn't cheat. I was, I did it honorably, you know. So the fans, I started making the fans sick. And Vince would always have these great promos for me to say. And he really came up with my character. I'm not responsible for that, but I'm the one that performed it. Don't get me wrong. I mean, I have to take credit for that.

But they came up with an incredible character. It's not like I had to come up with something myself. They already had something set for me. So they had plans for me from the beginning and it turned out incredibly well. Yeah, I think Jim Ross said it best. He said that you're a wrestling savant. I guess whether it's pro wrestling or amateur wrestling, you got it down pretty good. Yes, I did. I don't know how, but I did it. The Olympic wrestling, I understand, but the pro wrestling, I don't have any, but I did it. You know, the Olympic wrestling, I understand, but the pro wrestling,

I don't have any idea how I was able to succeed in it. You're always welcome out here in Sacramento at Super Training. I'm going to take you up on it, man. And you guys got to put me through a training session. Well, we have a lot of grapplers and stuff, and I know a lot of people would love to learn from you. I know you said you're still working on what you're able to do, but we got a young man out this way. I'm going to be good by the beginning of next year, man. So I'll take you up on that.

There we go. We'll hold a seminar for you and we'll have an awesome time. Okay. Sounds good. All right, man. Have a great rest of your day. Thank you so much for your time. All right. Thanks guys for having me on. I really appreciate it. Thank you, sir. Awesome. Thank you, sir. All right. Take care guys, for having me on. I really appreciate it. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. All right. Take care, guys. See you.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but your sleep quality most likely sucks. It's one of the biggest things that we talk about on the podcast. So many guests have come on and talked about how sleep can help you stick to your diet, stick to your workout plan, lose body fat, gain muscle, all the good things that you're trying to do. But it's hard to do because you might be snoring. And if you're snoring, that's why we've partnered with hostage tape, which is mouth tape that you can put over your nose, your mouth, when you're asleep to help you stop snoring and breathe through your nose. But if you haven't been breathing through your nose this whole time while you've been sleeping, it's going to be a little bit difficult to get air through there.

That's also why hostage tape has nose strips to help open up your nasal airways and make it easier to breathe through your nose when you're asleep. Now your partner won't be having a fuck with you when you're asleep because you'll be actually breathing through your nose. Andrew, how can they get it? Yes, that's over at HostageTape.com slash PowerProject where you guys will receive an entire year supply of nasal strips and mouth tape all for less than a dollar a night. Again, that's at Host at hostage tape.com slash power project links in the description as well as the podcast show notes sick yo he's awesome man he won the olympics with a broken freaking neck and then he broke his neck a bunch more times like four times yeah it's wild i wonder like yeah i wanted to ask this but like

has there been any research done on him? Like, somebody take his blood and put it in a lab and be like. Way better. Like, your pain tolerance level is, you know, like, at a billion when the normal person is like 10. Because for him to literally compete with a broken neck, have an entire tournament of people know that your neck is broken. So the one thing that they're going to go after is that neck and still be like all right i'm gonna win yeah it's just it's it dude i mean he's a freaking golden you know he's a hero you know there's there's no way around it even seeing that like the footage of that trials match yeah that guy dan whatever

dan oh yeah and like the first thing he did was boom boom boom boom on the neck that's all the guy was concentrating oh my god yo this man is insane in the best way possible yeah yeah that's what i mean man he's got to be we got to protect this man so if you can play uh some of the clips i emailed you a couple things there's like uh the one of him getting knocked out on the table and there's um i think i might have sent you him and cena wrestling and stuff like that but that was cool to hear him talk about john that way because that's kind of what i thought of the match i thought he was like just trying to get john tired and kind of see what he was able to do but uh john you know john's like

a fucking meathead times a thousand. So he did a lot of brutal training sessions. This is him in Triple H. Oh, nice. Suffered a concussion at SummerSlam 2000. It would happen in the early stages of the main event as Triple H went from pedigree on the announce table. You know, when Triple H went down the table broke early. So I landed four feet below straight with my head on the concrete.

And I was out. Triple H was trying to get my attention. He said I was snoring. I was just out of it. Kurt would be carried to the back as Rock and Triple H would continue. Still punching. He would come back to complete the final stages of the match as he was guided by Stephanie McMahon. So I couldn't remember anything that I had to do.

When I got in the ring, Triple H took over couldn't remember anything that i had to do when i got in the ring triple h took over and he was telling me what to do there was even a point where uh he was going to hit me with a hammer and he reached out he really looped way over top yeah that's sick yeah that's the exact story that he shared with us that was cool to re-watch that and be like shit i don't remember none of this how about him saying that he was shy yeah that's crazy he's going out and doing all this stuff and he like just uh i think what made him so great is that he made such a jackass out of himself yeah he didn't mind you know he leaned so hard into it it was so cool

yeah i remember watching being like oh this freaking guy again and i mean it totally pulled me in but i was all in you know it was junior high i freaking loved it it's a hell of a code switch though for him because like if he says he's shy couldn't do uh presentations in college and now in front of like probably thousands and thousands of people, you're on a mic being a character. You're not being yourself. You're being a totally different character. You're doing it flawlessly.

Live. That's why I was so curious about that. He said he didn't even know how he did it. What? There's a lot of great wrestling talent that was there at the time. You had The Undertaker. You had Triple H, The Rock, Stone Cold, you know, the list goes on and on. A lot of really, really good wrestlers at the time. So I'm sure that they probably helped him along the way. And then plus,

I would imagine like you go out and you do a couple matches and you don't get much of a, of a response, but then maybe three weeks down the road or two months down the road, you start to get a little bit of a response and it probably gives you, uh, an adrenaline rush, like the whole, you suck thing. And,

people saying what, every time he tried to talk, cause stone cold had the, what thing going. And, you know, he couldn't complete a sentence without somebody saying what in between every single thing he said. And then they started doing a you suck chant, I think, because he was wrestling against Edge.

And Edge went along with the beat of his intro song. Yeah, of his entrance music saying you suck. And the crowd went along with it. Next thing you know, every single time Kurt Angle came out didn't matter every single time the whole crowd yeah that shit was wild here's him and Sina going at it and there's suplexing and just beating the shit out of each other it is really cool that like all the superstars have like the utmost admiration for him because they're like you know he came in as a as a gold

medalist and it's like okay what's gonna happen and then they're all just talking about his work ethic and how he he kind of came in with that white belt mentality and he just picked everything up so fast but like the rock stone cold everybody you can think of is like they just again they admire this guy it's freaking amazing well in pro and pro wrestling you know um things get very physical and uh sometimes the guys will kind of fight in the ring a bit and they'll get you know pissed at each other or there could be uh some kind of uh turmoil in the back and they could like want to fight each other and stuff like that but with someone like kurt angle who's so proficient at wrestling like that whole thing is eliminated you know of these guys kind of sizing each other up

there's a savagery to being able to like you break your neck right and then you do your get the surgery and your next match is like Brock Lesnar you're like okay I gotta get ready for this that was wild yeah and Brock Lesnar was the one that broke his neck the first time. Yo. Wow. Yeah, man. It's also interesting, too. His sister unfortunately died the day before he wrestled Brock.

And that was right around the time he started getting more and more into painkillers. And his sister died of a drug overdose. So just, you know know people need to check the documentary out i just advise everyone to go check it out it's really cool it's inspiring it is and there's a lot of stuff in there and i think you know the family aspect the fact that he had a family to help pull him out of that and pull him through that was a big deal. And he said that he seemed like he was very much regretted the fact that he told his – he gave his sister like ultimatum and said, you got to come off that stuff or I'm never talking to you again. And then he didn't talk to her and then she overdosed. Those kind of things are – it sounds super sad and it is sad in a lot of ways.

But hopefully he doesn't feel too bad about that. He was literally just trying to help and people don't know what to do. And so what I always try to advise everybody to do, not that I know a ton about that, but like my brother died from that. My brother died from a drug overdose. My brother Chris almost died from a drug overdose and he had to go to rehab as well. And all I can advise people to do is just try to go get like help. Like go get like professional help. Go get real help.

Don't just try to train. Don't just try to lift through it. Don't just try to go run. Don't just try to – you need a professional. You need someone who knows what you're talking about. Because some of the things that Kurt Angle was addicted to, if you come off those things cold turkey, you can sometimes die. So you need to know that. I think alcohol is one of those things and I believe there's some other drugs that kind of fall into that category. brother your sister you know somebody who has these uh words that might have a bigger impact

on you than than somebody else that might be effective for a week or two but it's not nothing's gonna be more effective than seeing a professional that's amazing yeah and that's seen as like first big match and this you know this is probably 20 years ago or whatever and john just kind of went on from there to be one of the highest grossing WWE superstars ever. Man. That's sick. That is dope.

So much good stuff. Well, that's that. Fucking Kurt Angle. Unbelievable. Strength is never a weakness. Weakness is never strength. Catch you guys later. Bye.