Bruce Prichard Discusses Kurt Angle’s Neck Issues, Frustration With Smackdown GM Role

In the latest episode of Something to Wrestle, Bruce Prichard spoke about Kurt Angle’s decision to have an experimental neck surgery in 2003 and how it ended up not working as well as hoped, leaving him still having neck issues the following year. Angle would continue to wrestle in 2004 and would appear in top matches, but would do so while in pain. Here are highlights:

On Angle wrestling with neck issues: “Well, Kurt won the Olympics with a broken freakin’ neck so you knew you had a world class athlete there. However, world class athletes break down if they don’t take care of themselves and Kurt was breaking down. That’s just what was happening. He was breaking down before our eyes. So we had to give him some kind of rest and let him have the time to actually heal and get better. If you were to ask Kurt, Kurt would tell you every night, ‘No I’m good. I can go.’ And then the doctor would shake his head, ‘No, he’s not. He can’t.’ And you’ve got to listen to the medical professionals at that point that know Kurt and protect him from himself. So that’s what was happening with Kurt, man. He just had a lot of nagging injuries and things going on with his body that the thought of him being able to go out every night and have matches the way that he used to have them… that wasn’t gonna be the new reality. It just wasn’t gonna happen.”

On if Kurt’s forced time off affected any creative plans: “Yeah it hurts! It just hurts. So you gotta figure out something else for him to do, which is where we came up with the general manager role to keep him on TV and keep his personality out there so when he is ready to go, it’s easy to slide him in. We didn’t want to just give up on the character and say, “Okay, well he’s done.” and move on. So we just tried to find ways to keep him in front of the audience.”

On if he was frustrated with the role: “I think Kurt was extremely frustrated. Kurt wanted to be in the ring performing. That’s what he loved to do. But he also grew to love a lot of these backstage vignettes that we were doing and being able to find a different dimension to that character and for the first time in a long time, give his body some rest. So Kurt embraced it.

If you use any of the quotes, please credit Something to Wrestle with an h/t to 411mania.com.