Kurt Angle revealed a disappointing truth about the WWE on his popularly viewed podcast appearance on the ‘Joe Rogan Experience’. Angle claimed that the company does not care about the health of the wrestlers.
The 56-year-old appeared on Joe Rogan’s JRE podcast episode #2036. In a candid conversation, Angle revealed several stories related to his personal life and the pro-wrestling world.
Angle disclosed how he was never completely fit when he was part of the pro wrestling world. He explained how one gets hurt in amateur wrestling as well but pro wrestling was something else. He said, “I have been so beaten up there, I barely was ever 100% healthy.”
Exactly. Undertaker had a broken foot at the 1998 HIAC with Mick Foley. Cena wrestled Bryan with a nasty bicep injury. Kurt Angle worked the Wrestlemania 19 main event with a broken fucking neck.
Working through the injury doesn’t make the injury a work. Gotta dead that shit.
— QuizziGUILE One (@QuizzicalOne) June 5, 2022
The Olympic gold medallist explained how he learned “to work around injuries.” He wrestled Brock Lesnar in the main event of WrestleMania 19 with a broken neck and claimed that “pro wrestling is just ridiculous.”
The conversation shifted to the material of the ring. Angle said, “You wrestle on plywood; there’s a cloth above it, but it’s literally hard like plywood. There’s no spring under the ring or it’s not a box spring or a bed; it’s plywood; that’s what you bump on.”
Rogan inquired about why they would use plywood and not a softer material. The podcaster’s assistant explained that plywood is used for the sound. Angle agreed and said, “Yeah, it makes a loud sound. That’s why they don’t care about the health of people; they just care about the sound it makes.”
Angle, who has wrestled for the majority of his life, was visibly unhappy with how the wrestlers were not treated as a priority.
Joe Rogan and Kurt Angle suggest a safer ring material for the WWE to prevent fighter injuries
Rogan was concerned for the health of the wrestlers and tried to have a discussion on safer ring material. He asked Angle, “Isn’t there a way they can like put a layer of wood and a layer of wood and then the foam so the wood slams into the wood, but you feel the foam?”
However, a valid argument was imposed by Rogan’s assistant. He said, “Well, if you do that, then they see your little feet pushing into the foam… They’re like that’s a bed.”
Rogan countered, “I mean not a foam like a bed. I mean if it’s like a wrestling mat, like something.”
Angle was convinced with the idea. He hoped that the WWE was listening to their podcast so they could make the necessary changes and help their wrestlers. However, it should be noted that some reports suggest there is a foam-like material beneath the ring. Although not soft and bed-like.
