WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle revealed on his latest “The Kurt Angle Show” podcast that he nearly drowned during a recent vacation in Florida:
“We went to Miami, Florida,” Angle said. “The temperature was 80 degrees. We spent so much time on the beach. They had a wonderful pool at the hotel. It was a blast. I actually took my kids jet skiing. My first kid that I put on the back for me to ride them because they’re too young to drive themselves, I put her on the back and we went out, and when I went to make a turn, I slowed down and stopped, I wanted to make a turn and I didn’t put the accelerator on when I was turning and we flipped over. We went into the ocean.”
Angle stated that he was sinking and that swimming was difficult for him due to his arms being neck due to neck issues. He attributed his survival to his daughter.
“Now, Thank God my daughter is like an Olympic caliber swimmer. I even had the safety vest on me, but it wasn’t working. I was still sinking. I can’t swim. So I’m in trouble. I couldn’t get above water. I was going under. My daughter kept her composure. The jet ski got away from us. It was like 50 feet away from us. She didn’t know whether to go to the jet ski or to me, and she came over to me and saved my life. She pulled me over to the jet ski. She swept 50 yards with me in her hands. Then she’s pushing, and I couldn’t get myself on a jet ski. My arms are so weak now because of my neck. I can’t push myself up. So now she’s putting her hands under my ass and pushing me up onto the jet ski and she got me up there. Then she jumped up behind me and I said, ‘You know what, honey? You just saved my life.'”
Angle also discussed working in Saudi Arabia:
“I love that and the main reason is money, money, money,” Angle said. “You know, when you go to these places, they spend a lot of money. These were bought shows. Saudi Arabia bought them from WWE and I believe it was like, like a billion dollars for five years where they did two shows a year. So you’re talking $200 million for two shows a year. That’s incredible. You know what? The fans didn’t have to pay for it. The government paid for them. Everything was paid for, for the wrestlers, the WWE, and all the fans. The country, actually the government, paid for everything so the fans could enjoy themselves. There were 75,000 fans, it was incredible.”
Regarding his pay for this type of show:
“I will say this. They didn’t put me in great spots. You know, I think I did a Royal Rumble. I was an entrant of a battle royal. I also did like a seven minute match with Dolph Ziggler. The match wasn’t, you know, Dolph was great. Don’t get me wrong. But me at this point in time, I wasn’t so great because I kind of lost a step at this particular time in my career, but it wasn’t where I wanted to be. I was hoping more main event status, but still, the money was still really good. It was like I main evented a pay-per-view. That’s the equivalency.”
You can listen to the latest episode of the podcast via AdFreeShows.com.
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
