Joe Rogan Experience #2036 - Kurt Angle

Kurt Angle and Tony Hinchcliffe join Joe Rogan for a wide-ranging conversation centered on the brutal physical toll of wrestling. Angle details winning the 1996 Olympic trials and gold medal with a broken neck via Novocain shots, then breaking his neck four more times in the WWE. He opens up candidly about a devastating painkiller and alcohol addiction, the night his sister died of an overdose, his DUIs, and his 12 years of sobriety. The discussion ranges across artificial disc replacements, MMA history, weight cutting, testosterone, and the Sackler family's role in the opioid crisis as depicted in the Netflix series Painkiller.

• Angle won the 1996 Olympic trials and Olympic gold with a broken neck, taking 12 Novocain shots before each match.
  00:00:32
• At WrestleMania 19 Brock Lesnar landed on his head doing a shooting star press while Angle himself had a broken neck.
  00:14:11
• At his addiction's peak Angle was taking 65 extra-strength Vicodin a day, using 12 doctors, 12 pharmacies, and a Mexican supplier for about 2,700 pills a month.
  00:23:34
• The night before his Iron Man match with Brock Lesnar he learned his sister died of a heroin overdose and swallowed 20 pills.
  00:25:07
• He got four DUIs in five years and went to rehab only after his wife threatened to leave; he is now 12 years sober.
  00:28:16
• Angle actually wrestled Brock Lesnar for real for about 15 minutes and beat him.
  00:12:35

• Aljamain Sterling defended his UFC title and dominated after getting an artificial titanium articulating disc placed in his neck.
  00:05:12
• Yoel Romero's neck was fully fused with zero mobility, yet he became one of the best middleweights in UFC history.
  00:07:51
• Angle's five-day hospital stay for pneumonia produced a $165,000 bill, including $12 ginger ales and $200 bed linens.
  00:45:51
• Vince McMahon, in his late 70s, does 3 a.m. workouts after Raw and only sleeps about two hours a day.
  01:17:40
• McMahon bought WWE from his father for about $1 million and it reached a roughly $9 billion valuation.
  01:18:12
• Rickson Gracie, considered far superior to Royce, choked Funaki unconscious with his eyes stuck open in a famous Pride finish.
  02:14:27
• A child once dented Angle's Olympic gold medal, so he now keeps it locked in a safe.
  02:33:20
• Angle never cut weight, wrestling heavyweight at 197 lbs against a 270-lb, 6-foot-6 opponent in the NCAA finals.
  02:20:13

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