Living The Red Life - Winning Gold with a Broken Neck: Kurt Angle's Unyielding Willpower

Episode Date: September 1, 2025

Kurt Angle. Known for his laser-focused determination, Kurt discusses how he overcame significant adversity, including winning an Olympic gold medal with a broken neck and reinventing himself from an amateur wrestling champion to a professional wrestling superstar. Rudy guides listeners through Kurt's strategic mindset, emphasizing the unwavering dedication necessary to achieve greatness.Kurt Angle's life, filled with both monumental successes and challenging setbacks, serves as a testament to perseverance and adaptation. From turning down a lucrative WWE contract to ultimately dominating the wrestling entertainment world, Kurt exemplifies the relentless pursuit of dreams. His stories are not only about overcoming physical impairments but also about breaking into new arenas and leaving a legacy. This episode offers a treasure trove of wisdom, detailing Kurt's transition to Hollywood, the demands of intense training, and his current passion as a committed husband and father.Key Takeaways:Relentless Determination: Kurt's journey illustrates the power of never giving up, even when faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges, like winning an Olympic gold with a broken neck.Adaptation and Reinvention: Moving from amateur wrestling to WWE required Kurt to unlearn old habits and embrace a completely new form of entertainment.Importance of Consistent Effort: Success hinges on everyday discipline and exhausting training routines that set one apart from the competition.Handling Failures: Kurt emphasizes learning from failures and how they shape eventual success.Family and Personal Growth: Post-retirement, Kurt found immense satisfaction and personal growth through his role as a family man.Notable Quotes:"I was so laser focused on the Olympics that nothing else mattered.”"Knowing that having to have to attain an Olympic gold medal... I knew I had to work extremely hard.”"I wasn't going to let anything or anyone ruin that goal.”"I never dreamed about doing it, but was like, wow, I'm succeeding at something that I never thought I'd ever do.”"Whether you fail or succeed, as long as you try,Connect with Rudy Mawer:LinkedInInstagramFacebookTwitter

Joining me today, a very special gas. Thank you. Kurt Angle is an Olympic gold medalist turned iconic wrestling legend, an in-demand mentor in the world of sports entertainment. As one of the few to conquer both the amateur and professional arenas, he now channels his expertise as a WWE Hall of Famer, working backstage as a producer and manager, shaping future champions. You won the gold medal with a broken neck.

But one thing that maybe a lot of people don't know that I do is a doctor told you no, right? You're done. And then you actually went out, got a second opinion, and then six weeks later, you're wrestling and winning a gold medal. Knowing that I broke my neck and I'm going to have to overcome this adversity, it was really difficult. But I was so laser-focused on the Olympics that nothing else mattered, and I was going to do whatever I could to make that possible. So much life experience, a lot of success. What's a couple of lessons for everyone listening about if they have goals, dreams, they're chasing success? If you have goals and dreams

My name's Rudy Moore, host of Living the Red Life podcast and I'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week if you're ready to start living the red life ditch the blue pill, take the red pill join me in Wonderland and change your life. Hello and welcome

back to another episode of Living the Red Life joining me today a very special guest. Kurt, welcome to the show. Thank you. So we just finished recording an epic series talking about Kurt's life. I'm sure you know who he is some crazy achievements, some crazy stories. So, Kurt, I'm going to start at the top.

If someone's watching and they don't know your life story, I know there's a lot to summarize, but do you mind giving us the sort of one-minute spiel? Yeah, I'm Kurt Angle, and I won an Olympic gold medal with a broken neck in 1996. I won a world championships in 1995. Won 13 World Heavyweight Championship in professional wrestling, and I'm pretty much an ambassador for USA wrestling now.

I've had a lot of success in my life, and I'm very grateful. So, Kurt, let's dive in. You know, this podcast and what I teach is all about mindset and success and business. And we talked a lot about the connection between athletics and pro sport and chasing your goals there and achieving any aspect of greatness in life. What do you think are some of the core things you've learned in your career that made you successful? Well, knowing that having to have to attain an Olympic medal, and I know. knew that I would have a lot of work ethic, and I knew I had to work extremely hard.

I also knew that I was going to have a lot of failures happen along the way, and I endured those failures, and I continue to move myself forward until I attained that Olympic gold medal. Yeah, one of the standout thing to me, and I'm sure everyone else on the planet, is you won the gold medal with a broken neck, right? And obviously, once you got into the WWE, it became more as a famous story, right? More well-known. But one thing that maybe a lot of people don't know that I do is the exact story of like, a doctor told you no, right? You're done. And then you actually went out, got a second opinion, and then six weeks later, you're wrestling and winning a gold medal. Can you give that summary story for everyone listening? Yeah, I broke my neck

at the U.S. Open, the first round of the Olympic trials. I was told that I wasn't going to be able to compete. I ended up winning the U.S. Open, and I went home the next day, and I went to my doctor, and he took an hour MRI in my neck, and he said, listen, you have four broken vertebrae and two days stick directly into your spinal cord, and you're going to have, you have a really bad bruised spinal cord. He said, you can't wrestle anymore. You're done. You're finished. And me being a stubborn person, I am, I went to another doctor to get a second opinion. And this doctor basically said the same thing,

but he also said, when is the next round of the Olympic trials? And I said, six weeks. He said, well, you know what? I probably could get you ready by that. What we're going to do in order to get you ready for the Olympic trials and the Olympic Games is you're going to have to get 12 shots of a Novakane injected into your neck five minutes before each one of your matches. And he said, you're going to have to do this at the World Team Trials and the Olympics.

And he said, therefore you want to do it. don't feel the pain, you'll forget, your neck is broken and you'll wrestle more freely. But he said, I'm warning you, an hour after your matches are over, you're going to be an excruciating pain from the abuse of your necktakes during those matches. He said, so you're going to have to deal with that pain. And I said, he said, you okay with this? And I said, yes, let's do it. Well, what's fascinating is, and I've interviewed a lot of pro athletes, gold medalists,

is one thing that makes a pro athlete and a gold medalist is the eyes on the price, right? that zoned in nothing else matters right and this is a great example of that like you could have been in hindsight parallel right yeah yeah i mean i did everything i could to make my dream come true and uh knowing that i broke my neck and uh i'm going to have to overcome this adversity was really difficult but um i was so laser focused on the olympics that nothing else mattered and i was going to do whatever i could to make that possible and i think it's a pretty cool story of like not taking no for an answer because a lot of people in life they have a goal they have a dream they have a setback and then they give up right you you you could argue a lot of people

would have got taught i got broken now you know after the first doctor told me i couldn't wrestle anymore i should have probably taken his word for it and quit but i didn't i didn't want to and i knew that uh i wanted to do whatever possible to make my goal my dream come true i knew that this doctor wasn't going to allow me to wrestle, so I had to find another doctor. And I looked and looked until I found somebody that would clear me to wrestle. And his idea was to get injected with 12 different shots of noviccane. So I, you know, I had to make a sacrifice, and that was my sacrifice. Good. And then follow up from that is one thing during, even before the Olympics in college, right, and your younger years, you told me, like, you weren't party and you weren't drinking.

and you were dialed in training, right? And there's a lot of people in life, they say they want to be an Olympian, right? They want to win, but then they don't do what it takes every day to win. Did you see that with other wrestlers and, you know? Yeah, yeah, you know, I knew what I had to do to attain my goal. And I was doing all the right things to make sure that my goal was attainable. A lot of my friends that had those same goals weren't doing what they had to do. They, you know, they would go out and party.

they would uh you know they were they had girlfriends i i didn't really have any girlfriends i i i stayed lower laser focus on the goal that i i had to attain and i wasn't going to let anything or anyone uh ruin that goal so um yeah there are a lot of people that do the wrong things i always did the right thing and i i wanted to make sure that i did everything possible to make my dream come true yeah and i came from a family of pro athletes and you know i think one reason i've been successful is I learn early on that the big goal or the success comes from the everyday suck. Right. Right.

And most people don't want the everyday suck. They don't want to wake up and get out of bed and have the tuna shake. Can you talk about two moments of suck that I know from your story? You had tuna shakes every day. And then you were doing these crazy training regimes, right? These all out fatigue. Can you tell us those two stories? Well, I had to change my perspective because, uh,

What I was doing wasn't working for me. So I knew I had to change my diet and I started having a higher protein count, 300 grams of protein a day. And the only way to get that in was having tuna shakes. So I would put tuna fish in a blender and I would blend it with water and a couple of scoops of protein. It was horrible. But I did that because I had to get my protein in in order for me to continue to build

my body the way I wanted it to be. Is that a staple in the household today? No, no, no. You know what? I ruined those blenders, too, because they smell like tuna for the rest of their endurance, yeah. And then what about the workouts, right? You had to cheer you what you've said. You weren't the biggest guy.

You weren't the strongest, the fastest. So you had to outwork everyone. So, you know, I knew I was going to have to put in the extra time possible to make my dream come true. uh because i knew i wasn't the most talented i wasn't the fastest or the best or the most well condition i knew what i had to do is uh work extra hard and do exhaust training so i could wear my opponents down because i knew i wasn't the best i knew i wasn't the biggest or the fastest or the strongest but i what i knew i could be is the most well conditioned so i would i would wear my opponents down and score on them once it got tired and it worked extremely well for me yeah and

And the training behind that, you know, I'm a triathlete, so I train two, maybe three times a day sometimes, right? But even your workout, what you told me you were doing is crazier than mine. Can you give us an average day what you're doing? Yeah, yeah. I would wake up in the morning. I would do 30, 100-yard hill sprints with a guy on my back. I would run up the hill, sprint up the hill and jog down and do that 30 times.

With a 200-pound guy on your back. Yes, a 200-pound guy on my back. And then I would do six miles, and I would do it in 36 minutes. minutes. It would be six minute miles. And then I would ride the aerodyne for an hour where I would sprint for a minute and jog for a minute. And then I would do a sauna for a half hour. And then my afternoon practice So that's just workout one. That's just the first workout. Yeah. Yeah. And then the second workout would be four hours. I would do two hours of live wrestling. And I would do an hour of technique and

an hour of conditioning. So I would do more conditioning and sprint work and pliometrics and stuff like that. And then my third workout would be another conditioner where I would do an hour of conditioning and that way to do heavy weight training. So I would train about probably nine to ten hours a day. Every single day, I took one day off a month and that was it. So every day was nine hours a day of training and I had one recuperation day a month. And I was all fueled by these tuna shakes. Yeah, yeah, tuna shakes. I did a lot of protein shakes. Took a lot of a lot of Metarex, but it really helped me out because I was burning off so many calories and I had to get those calories back into my system so I wouldn't lose too much weight.

Yeah, but it's that, it's that eight hours a day, every single day apart from one day off per month that helped you win an Olympic gold medal. That was definitely the reason why I won an Olympic gold medal. And you know what? I also, it also got me in the mode to start scouting my opponent. So while I was training so hard and getting in that rhythm, I started like watching film of my opponent and learning how to, what their weaknesses were and what their strengths were.

So this all came into my routine and it all blended in together so well. Yeah. And I think that's so key. Like I teach success lies in the areas where everyone else won't go. Right. Like, I'm sure everyone else wasn't training eight hours a day. Probably not, no. So, so now let's fast forward.

You win the gold medal, the broken neck, right? And then, you know, obviously you've achieved your life goal, right, that you had set years and years, decades before. Then you go into the WWE. A big polar opposite to Olympic wrestling, right? Yeah, yeah, complete opposite, yeah. How was that transition? It was difficult because they were very, very, very,

different you would think they have the same word wrestling but that's the only identical thing about them is the word wrestling and there's nothing else and tight shorts maybe uh tight shorts right yeah yeah tight shorts singlets yeah so um but uh i have to forget everything i ever learned about amateur wrestling and focus solely on pro wrestling when you're in amateur wrestling you're taught to show no emotion in pro wrestling you have to show every emotion on amateur wrestling you're taught to uh pin your as fast as possible. Pro wrestling, you have to tell a story. Slow down and tell a good story, good guy versus bad guy. Good guy outrestles the bad guy. The bad guy gets a heat on the good guy. The good guy makes a comeback. The bad guy cheats and wins or the good guy overcomes its cheating and

wins. So they're worlds apart. So I decided to take a non-aggressive approach and do everything I ever learned about amateur wrestling. I forgot and I focused solely on pro wrestling. I think what's cool about that story is to be successful in life, like I've been an entrepreneur 15 years, it's constant reinvention. Right. And not every athlete reinvents themselves. Many are forgotten about, right?

A lot of Olympians, gold medalists, just gone. Right. So you reinvented yourself. You adapt to a different sport. Or sports entertainment is a better word for it. But yeah, I had to adapt and learn a whole new system. But I did it really well. And I learned very quickly.

I only did seven months of training before I went on WWTEL. television. Yeah. So, you know, it usually takes the average rest of three to four years of training before they go on TV. I didn't just seven months. And I didn't know what I was doing. Well, and what's famous there is you turned down the big contract originally and then you had to work your way up from the ground. Yeah. And then when I approached them again, they said that no, that contract no longer stands. Well, I'm sure not many people turn down those sort of contracts. I know. I know. You know, the thing is my, my brothers and my coaches had a big influence on me back then and they didn't like pro wrestling because you know amateur

wrestling was taking a back seat of pro wrestling so everybody knew what pro wrestling was but didn't know what amateur wrestling was so it left the bad taste in a lot of amateur wrestlers mouth and so we we were always told not to watch pro wrestling so and I never did and you know it's crazy because when I stepped in I never didn't know anything about the business and here I'm learning it and I had to learn it really quickly quickly. They only gave me seven months to get ready for TV. And so it was a very quick journey for me. Well, when you turn down the big contract, you come back a couple of years later. You have to work from the ground up now on a low base entry contract. And you do a pretty good job, right?

You then go and be, you know, multiple titles, you know, epic matches with The Rock and every. So tell us some of those highlights. Yeah, you know, I got to win my first title 10 months into my rookie year. I beat the Rock. Then I beat Stone Coat Steve Austin a half a year after that and I won the world title from him. So, you know, I had a, then I was wrestling Sean Michaels and Brock Lesner and Eddie Guerrero and Ray Mysterio and just all these big names in wrestling. And I became a big name. And I became one of the most popular wrestlers. And it wasn't a dream come true for me because I never dreamed about doing it. But it was like, wow, I'm, you know, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm succeeding at something that I never thought I'd ever do, and I'm one of the best at it.

And it was like, wow, here I am. I'm not only the best at amateur wrestling, but now I'm the best at pro wrestling. And did you ever think, so you were, you know, training for amateur wrestling in the Olympics, and then fast forward, you know, 10 years later, you're shooting a big show with a trang, you're pouring milk, right? Like, how is it when you look back at the... Well, you know, thinking about it. is I wasn't a very funny kid. I didn't, wasn't entertaining. I just did what I had to do to win a gold medal. And now they're wanting me to perform. I never did stuff like that. So I was

like, I don't know how I'm going to do, you know, but Vince McMahon, you know, he, he basically gave me a choice. He's like, either going to sink or swim. My first promo that I cut was my debut and Vince McMahon said listen I'm going to tell you the promo tonight I want you to go out there and do it he said I'm not going to write it down like I usually do I'm just going to tell you at once and I want you to go out there and perform it so he starts telling me the promo and I'm listening and he's going on for about three minutes I'm like holy shit this is a long promo and I stopped listening he goes on for about six minutes he says all right I want you go out there and cut that promo I said Vince I'm sorry but I didn't hear words you said could you repeat it again he said

repeat it one more time you go out there seek or swim so he told me it one more time and i went out there and i got about 80 percent of it right and he said you know what i can work with this skin to skin his ability so he starts having me cut promos every week week after week they're getting longer and longer and i'm getting better and better at them i started mastering promos and vincent McMahon went to pull me out of my comfort zone early early on in my career i would have never learned how to do that but that's the great thing too about the the adoption thing yeah like you had to figure it out and you yeah he's basically sink or swim. He's going to either fail or succeed. He was giving me an opportunity. And thank

God I succeeded. And I became the best in the business, two years in the business. That's how quickly I picked it up. And then all of that transition to Hollywood and others. Yes, to doing movies and stuff like that. And unfortunately, I can't do movies now because I had too many concussions. I can't memorize a script anymore. I can't. Literally, it takes me six months to memorize a movie script. And nobody's going to wait six months for me to memorize that. So I'm in a position in my life now where it sucks and I can't do it. But you know what?

What I do now, I love it more than anything I've ever done. And that's being a husband and a father. I spend all my time with my kids now, my wife. And I absolutely love it. I wouldn't trade it in for the world. And I would have never gotten this unless I had the jobs that I had, you know, being an Olympic medalist and being a pro wrestling. And once I retired, I didn't know my kids when I was pro wrestling because I was gone all the time.

But now it's like every day I get to experience them and I get to see their little changes, subtle changes every day. And, you know, how they're grooming into incredible young ladies, you know. So it's really cool to be that father that I never thought I would be. And I'm actually a pretty damn good father. Good. Love that. Yeah. Yeah.

Love that. So last couple of questions as we wrap, just so much life experience, a lot of success. What's a couple of lessons for everyone listening about if they have goals, dreams, they're chasing success. If you have goals and dreams, never give up on them. No matter how many times you fell, just keep at it, continue at it. And even if you don't attain that, you're going to attain something. You're going to get something out of it.

So it's not like you lose everything by not succeeding. By you trying and trying to attain that goal and you come close, that you're going to learn more from that, and that's going to give you a learning experience that you're going to be able to carry with you the rest of your life. So whether you fail or succeed, as long as you try, that's all that matters. One thing I want to touch on,

I try and touch on this in every interview with ultra-successful people like yourself is people online, right, they see the success, the gold medal, WWE, all these things. but it's a series of failures that lets a success. Oh, yeah, yeah, you know what? It's not like I attain and succeeded everything I do. Actually, I fell quite a lot before I actually attain it. So me winning the Olympic gold medal wasn't like I had a lot of success all the way up through.

I lost and I won and I lost and I won and I got injured and have my coaches get killed in certain situations. And there are a lot of things that led up to it that were felt. failures and successes, and then I eventually succeeded. So you're going to have to deal with that. You're not going to have 100% success. That's not how your life is going to be. You have a lot of failures, or you're going to have to overcome those failures to have the success you want to have.

Good. And final question. I know you've got something exciting cooking. Do you want to share with the audience what's next for you? My real life movie, yeah. It's going to be called Engel. It's about a kid from the streets of Pittsburgh that overcame all these adversities, and cruding a broken neck before the Olympics.

He wins an Olympic gold medal, and it's going to have a rocky-type feel to it with the touch of the fire and Iron Claw, and Ian and Eshom Nelons are the directors as of now. They directed some really good movies, Fat Man starring Mel Gibson, and Red Right Hand starring Orlando Bloom, and we got the funding for it, so we're looking for a studio right now. We're in a good position. We have the script written, so I'm really excited about this movie, and I can't wait show it to the world. I'm very excited for it too. So, Kurt, it's been such a pleasure, guys.

I hope you've enjoyed this. You know, so many epic lessons and epic stories in it. And obviously, if you want to learn more, check out the full episode where we dive into all this stuff. So, Kurt, thanks for so much for the stories. It's been a pleasure. Guys, keep living the Red Life. Take care. I'll see you soon.