The WWE wellness policy was not in existence during Kurt Angle's initial stint with the company, but he sees the policy as a great thing for all parties involved.
Angle, a recovering addict himself, discussed the policy during a recent interview with Addiction Professional.
“WWE has a great wellness policy now," Angle said. "You have to pass physicals through WWE doctors, not your own. But back then, I was convincing my doctor to get me back as soon as possible. As long as you were cleared by a doctor in 2003, WWE was OK with it. Now, they have their own doctors you have to go through. I rushed back in there long before I should have. That was my own fault, talking my doctor into clearing me.”
Angle battled drug problems during his active in-ring stint in WWE, which ended in 2006. He noted that, in 2005, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon approached and asked Angle to enter a rehab program.
"I thought I was a liability to that company, and I think he felt that way. He was trying to help me, and I didn’t want his help,” Angle said.
Angle started his own addiction recovery program to help fellow addicts late last year. When he announced the new program, Angle was open about his addiction issues.
"My addiction started when I was prescribed painkillers for a neck injury in 2003. I didn’t know how powerful the opiate drug was until I found myself taking an insurmountable amount of Vicodin. To be exact, I was taking 65 extra strength Vicodin per day. ... I loved the feeling it gave me, because it allowed me not to feel anything," Angle wrote in a blog published in October of 2016.
The headline member of the WWE's latest Hall of Fame class, Angle currently is the on-screen general manager for Raw.
