Kurt Angle Reveals $7,000 Monthly Expenditure on Painkillers During Addiction Battle

In a candid interview on the True Geordie Podcast, Olympic gold medalist and former WWE champion Kurt Angle opened up about his harrowing struggle with addiction, a period in his life he is not proud of. Angle's journey into addiction began following a neck injury, his second since joining WWE, when a doctor introduced him to painkillers.

Angle recounted, "When I broke my neck the second time, the first time in WWE, I met a doctor, and he introduced me to painkillers. He said, ‘These things are the greatest things in the world, you’re gonna love them.’ So I started taking one every four to six hours." However, this quickly escalated. "After a while, your body builds a tolerance, and one doesn’t cut it. Then you take two, then two leads to four, four leads to eight. Before I knew it, I was taking 65 extra-strength Vicodin a day. This was within a six-month period of time."

The intensity of his addiction reached alarming levels. "I mean, we’re talking almost enough to kill a horse, it was that bad. My focus was not wrestling anymore. My focus was, when am I gonna get the drug next? I became a druggie. I became an addict right away. 65 extra-strength Vicodin a day."

Angle also shared the lengths he went to in order to feed his addiction, including seeing multiple doctors and even resorting to illegal means. "I had 12 different doctors that were giving me 12 different scripts of medication... then it still wasn’t enough, so I had to buy 500 of them illegally from Mexico. So I was buying 2,000 painkillers a month just to keep my addiction going."

At the height of his addiction, Angle was spending an astonishing $7,000 a month on painkillers. Despite the financial burden, he noted that his substantial earnings at the time made the cost seem less significant.

This revealing interview sheds light on the struggles faced by one of wrestling's most celebrated figures, highlighting the often unseen battles that can occur behind the glamour of professional sports and entertainment.

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