Kurt Angle won an Olympic gold medal with a broking neck, so the double knee replacement this week should be a piece of cake.
At least that is what fans probably wish for the WWE Hall of Famer, Mount Lebanon native and 1996 Olympic gold medalist are hoping.
But Angle is 53 now, and Tuesday he posted a video to social media from his hospital bed addressing the procedure that he had just had.
“This is your Olympic hero Kurt Angle, and I’m in the hospital right now because I just had knee replacements done this morning,” he said. “I’m feeling pretty good right now, but my legs are numb because of the epidural. So, I know I have a long road ahead of me, and I’m willing to work very hard to get back to where I was before.”
Thank you all for your prayers and best wishes for my 2 knee replacement surgeries today. So far so good. I realize rehab is going to be a bitch, but I’m ready for it. If I won a gold medal with a broken freakin neck, I can handle this! Lol. It’s true!!!! Thank you all!!!! pic.twitter.com/xwUX6fPC80
— Kurt Angle (@RealKurtAngle) May 24, 2022
Angle thanked fans for their supports, wishes and prayers.
“I really do appreciate it,” he said. “God bless you all.”
And, of course, he had to throw in a little bit of the wrestling gimmick in a post on Twitter.
“I realize rehab is going to be a (expletive),” he said. “But, I’m ready for it. If I won a gold medal with a broken freakin’ neck, I can handle this! Lol. It’s true!!!! Thank you all!!!!”
Angle really did win the Olympics with a broken neck — something he incorporated into his persona in the professional wrestling ring in the years that followed. The neck has, however, been a continued issue for him.
In an interview last year he said he had been putting off neck fusion surgery for 15 years so he could continue to wrestle, but that he would one day have to have that operation done as well.
Angle was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2017.
