Kurt Angle Details Dealing With Depression Following In-Ring Retirement

Appearing on the M&F Reps podcast, Kurt Angle revealed he dealt with depression following his in-ring retirement in 2019. 

"Yeah, I'm really happy with my life right now. I was depressed for a while. Retiring from amateur wrestling, the Olympics and then retiring from the WWE, I felt like I didn't have a place in life anymore and I fell out of place and don't get me wrong, I absolutely love spending time with my family, with my wife and kids. But from a career standpoint, I thought, what could I do next? I've accomplished everything I wanted to and I don't regret anything that I've done up until now but where do I go from here? And I had to learn that now, I'm a non-athlete. I do go to the gym, I go for a run every once in a while but I don't do athletic stuff anymore. Now I pretty much work behind the desk and do the podcast and my supplement company and I take acting classes every week. I'm pretty much here. This is where I do my work now which is crazy because I really didn't have a job my entire life. All I did was train for a living. That was my job and that's what I did for the Olympics and for WWE and now, I realise there's a lot more to life than just working out," Angle said.

The COVID-19 pandemic then sent Angle into another depression, he noted. 

"Well I will tell you, the pandemic really messed me up. Unfortunately, the pandemic occurred right after I retired. You talk about depression, I'm retired, I was depressed from that then the pandemic hit and the whole world stood still for a long period of time and you know, I'm just kind of coming out of it right now. I had a lot of depression and it set me back for a little bit. But, I realise now that there's other things in life that I can enjoy. I can enjoy my family. I can go to the park with them and play with my kids and just do things I normally never did before because my whole entire life, it was always about Kurt Angle. What's best for Kurt Angle? What does Kurt Angle want? What does Kurt Angle need? It was always about me. I never thought about anybody else; not my wife or my kids and now, I realise, it was about my wife and kids this whole time. That's the whole reason I was doing everything and it's just really sad you get to that point and you realise, man, you're a selfish son of a gun. But, rightfully so, you have to be if you're training for the Olympics and you have to be when you're travelling 300 days for the WWE. But, it was very difficult to make that adjustment," he added.

Since his in-ring retirement, Angle has made sporadic appearances on WWE TV, recently celebrating his birthday on SmackDown with the return of his milk truck. Angle hasn't ruled out having one more match. 

H/T to POST Wrestling