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Date Posted: 13:41:39 03/16/03 Sun
Author: SLY 666
Author Host/IP: modemcable029.114-201-24.mtl.mc.videotron.ca / 24.201.114.29
Subject: Angle to defend title a WM!!!

2 ARTICLES POSTED ON 411 WRESTLING:

ANGLE CONFIRMS RISK OF PARALYSIS OR DEATH FOR 'MANIA BOUT
Posted By Ashish on 03.13.03

WWE Champion tells Pittsburgh Post-Gazette of the risks he is facing...

Kurt Angle told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he is risking "paralysis or maybe even death" by wrestling at WrestleMania despite his neck problems.

Angle goes on to say that precautions are being taken, and that his opponent (Brock Lesnar) would know what is, and isn't, off limits for the match.

Much of the article featured worked comments from Angle, but does confirm the seriousness of his injury as well as him wrestling through it

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ANGLE PUTS OFF NECK SURGERY TO DEFEND TITLE

Thursday, March 13, 2003

By Shelly Anderson, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

A neck injury that almost kept Kurt Angle from wrestling in the 1996 Olympics has flared again, and this time it will eventually end his athletic career.

Angle, who wrestled at Mt. Lebanon High School and won an NCAA championship at Clarion before winning the heavyweight gold medal in '96 in Atlanta, will have two vertebrae surgically fused sometime in the coming weeks or months.

That will put his pro wrestling career with World Wrestling Entertainment on hold for about a year.

"Then in five, six, seven, maybe 10 years if I can last that long, I'll have to have surgery to have two other vertebrae fused, and I won't be able to wrestle anymore," Angle, 34, said yesterday from his home in Moon, a day after a WWE Smackdown event at Mellon Arena.

In the meantime, he plans to work through his pain and do what he can to lessen some substantial risks so that he can make a few more appearances for WWE, beginning with a gig Tuesday in Louisville, Ky. He will defend his WWE title March 30 at Wrestlemania XIX in Seattle.

"I can't wait too long for the surgery, but chances are I could win at Wrestlemania," Angle said. "That means I could hold the title for another month or more."

He would like to put off surgery until he is dethroned.

Before he became an Olympian, Angle was told he should retire from wrestling because of a similar neck injury that also included a cracked bone, but he was able to overcome that injury.

This time, the problem is two herniated disks that are pressing on his spinal cord, causing pain and nerve problems in his left shoulder and arm. He said he has been given medical clearance to continue pro wrestling until the surgery, as long as he takes precautions and understands the high risk.

"I could get a worse neck injury, possibly paralysis, and they said, yes, maybe even death," Angle said. "It's a very big risk, so I have to take care of myself and be very careful."

Besides a reduced schedule, Angle said he is avoiding certain moves in the ring that could aggravate his injury, adding that his opponents know what is off-limits. He also is rehabilitating his neck to try to make it stronger and lessen his pain.

The injury doesn't surprise him given the nature of pro wrestling.

"Wrestling is probably the most dangerous sport there is, and I've been more injured in pro wrestling than in amateur," he said.

"We have taken wrestling to such a high level with such high risk and high expectations for the fans. We're doing more fighting, more bouncing around, more acrobatics. We need to go back to the true grit of what pro wrestling was."

Angle and his wife, Karen, who have a 4-month-old daughter, Kyra, talked about him trying to go to the 2004 Olympics in Athens but decided against it even before the neck injury.

"We wholeheartedly considered it," he said. "But for me to go back to the Olympics, I would have to train eight or nine hours a day, and I don't think I'm capable of that now."

Shelly Anderson can be reached at shanderson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1721.
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Let's just hope it goes well for him!
Crazy world the wrestling business huh?!

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Replies:

Re: Angle to defend title a WM!!! -- Scrapiron Bryan, 00:07:53 03/17/03 Mon