Randy Orton & Kurt Angle's Wives - Kim Orton and Giovanna Angle Tell All!

Kim Orton (@kim.orton1) and Giovanna Angle (@giovannaangle) are the wives of professional wrestlers Randy Orton and Kurt Angle. They are also the hosts of "The Wives of Wrestling Podcast" with Jon Alba. They join Chris Van Vliet to talk about how they first became friends, the story of how they met their husbands, how Kim Orton went from being a Randy Orton fan to marrying him, when she thinks Randy Orton will retire, the song they chose for their wedding, the pressures of being married to a WWE superstar, what Randy and Kurt are like when the camera are off and much more!

For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.com

On how they became friends:

Kim: “It’s been 5 years. We both went to WrestleMania and it was when Kurt was fighting with Ronda [Rousey]? No, he was going into the Hall of Fame. We kind of met by the pool, Giovanna took her babies and was in the lazy river and came over to where me and my rather loud family were. She was like ‘Hi I am Giovanna.’ It was so nice to meet another wife that I have so much in common with. You know, I was mostly friends with a lot of girls and guys in the back because of Randy. To have another wife friend sounds awesome.”

On seeing each other in person:

Kim: “No but funny story. I was in Pittsburgh last weekend and waiting for my car to come and I am texting Randy like ‘Babe, the car never came.’ Randy tries to get in touch with the car company, but then who comes around but Giovanna. She went all out, she had the WWE sign, a wig and glasses, I’m like oh no! She was nervous and waiting for me in disguise, but like us it made sense for it all to get screwed up. It was so great to see her, even if only for one night.”

On names for their husbands:

Giovanna: “We try because of the kids, we call him daddy sometimes. My son is 18 and it’s not his father, but it is daddy in this house. Whenever he is being an idiot I call him Curtis or some stupid little thing, there are many names for him.”

Kim: “It’s actually weird but we for some reason, we call Randy Kevin. I don’t even know a Kevin, but I would just scream babe and it’s the weirdest story, it just reminded me of Home Alone where the mom would scream Kevin. Oddly enough he will answer to it. Then 2 years after the whole Kevin thing started, he did Changeland with Macaulay Culkin. It was weird that it went full circle.”

On podcast rules:

Kim: “Not really. Randy just kind of says to me ‘Try not to mention names.’ Me and my husband get gossipy with each other, so he knows I know a lot. But he also knows that I am not trying to mess with anyone’s life or give out juicy dirt stories. As far as he goes, he is an open book, he will be 100% honest with you and he is cool with it. Sometimes he gets embarrassed when I talk about shaving stories though.”

On a week in the life of Kurt Angle:

Giovanna: “Right now there are a lot of doctor’s appointments because he is getting surgeries done. There is that, Kurt is getting 2 knee replacements at the same time on Tuesday. I am terrified, the thing about Kurt is that I wanted him to go straight from the hospital to the center so he can’t think about anything else. But I guess after the hospital we will be going home for a few days and then someone to help him every day. The thing about Kurt is that I see him in so many situations after recovery where he is like ‘I’m good.’ He has always had that mentality because he always wanted to get back in the ring, but I have said to him ‘You are not getting back in the ring.’ This is serious, after every surgery, he just did the minimum so he was healed, that was why his knees were bent. This time they are also going to be straightening his legs again, he’s going to be so tall again!”

On Randy’s nagging injuries:

Kim: “I would say right now for Randy it’s the hamstrings. He wakes up and he uses the massage gun. After a few hours with that he is ready to go.”

On a typical day for Randy:

Kim: “So it’s been so busy since COVID. It is crazy, since COVID he has had this awesome schedule. He has really been going just for Raw, so he would leave on Sunday, do Raw on Monday and be home on Tuesday. But now he is also doing SmackDown, so he is gone Thursday, does SmackDown on Friday, maybe a house show on Saturday, pay-per-view Sunday, he can be gone the whole weekend. Now there is Europe too, so he has been gone a lot more, which does suck. We have a lot going on and I kind of need him here, but he does get those relaxing few days.”

On Randy’s career:

Kim: “He looks great and he can just keep going. I get so jealous why he is so shredded and I’m not. He says to me ‘Well you eat like sh*t.’ [laughs]. Maybe if I tried a little harder.”

Giovanna: “We will just get fat together, it’s all good.”

Kim: “Well the warmer it gets, the more I eat, I don’t know what is going on there. But yeah I think that Randy will stop when he doesn’t feel like doing an RKO anymore. Right now he does a lot of physical therapy and warming up before his matches. The bus helps too in so many ways.”

Giovanna: “Kurt says he wishes he had the bus when he was wrestling. He said ‘That’s one thing I wish I had.’ I’m like that’s the thing? You should have taken care of your body better Kurt. Just like the RKO, the Angle Slam was on his back too, it’s rough on your body. But Randy is doing it right and I wish Kurt did that too.”

On having wrestlers as husbands:

Kim: “So we were at 2 different stages of our lives when we met our husbands. I had kids, he had kids and we had both been married. I had a life for a very long time of people not knowing or caring about me. Just normal things that you get to do, not that I go around fighting people. Just normal life where no one cares about your daily activity. But now people are interested and they have opinions. People were saying things about me that were just not true. Randy taught me how you have to have a thick skin, because people are always going to talk. I feel like people always did talk, but I never heard it, but now I do. You just have to make the choice. But you know, it is what it is. I think it is weirder for our kids, they grew up watching Randy on TV, and now they see him and they see Shawn Michaels and Triple H and they are dying. It was an adjustment but it is not a thing anymore.”

Giovanna: “I think it’s the same with Kim. You don’t have anything in common anymore, my problems are not the same as their problems. It sucks because I could only hold a certain type of conversation with my friends growing up or people I know, but that is where it ends. If they talk about wrestling, I didn’t grow up watching it, I just kind of fell into it. I don’t look at a person as a wrestler, just as a person. The fans are so loyal and so hardcore, our husbands are known around the world and I forget who he is sometimes.”

On how they met their husbands:

Giovanna: “So we met on the set of an independent movie. We just kept running into each other and it was the craziest thing. We just ran into each other and a friend introduced us and I thought he was so sexy, a sexy Kurt. So I ended up being friends with his friend who ended up losing his keys at the Arnold Classic in Ohio. We were like how are we going to get home? Kurt had a spare key and my mom was 4 hours away, so I called her to help me, and my mom comes out in the morning with the spare key, threw the key at me and drove all the way back, she is the coolest mom ever. This psycho mother of mine kept Kurt’s number all this time and she called me to call him to see if he is ok. So I texted him to make sure he was OK, I am walking back to my class and he called me. He was happy I reached out and was going to ask for my number. It was crazy because he was going through some sh*t at that time, I wasn’t going to jump in but I knew he needed a friend. We started hanging out and then started dating in November. A couple of months later we got matching tattoos. Shortly afterwards he proposed, he proposed in March and I got pregnant in April, it was a wild ride.”

Kim: “I think it was a he was supposed to be with me type of thing. I watched wrestling as a kid like everyone did. But I grew up, fell out of love with wrestling and had kids. But then they got into wrestling and Shawn Michaels was still there so I got into it. Then I’m like who is this guy, it’s Randy Orton and I’m like this guy looks good. I started watching Randy more, didn’t care too much about his personal life but he was this fine, fine guy. I feel like if I met him, we would fall in love. It was so strange, I lived in New York when I met him, and there was this little arena in the Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, and they announce WWE is coming. I’m like there is no way that Randy is coming 10 minutes from my house. So I am calling for tickets, I took my 2 oldest and we went to the show. We got there 30 minutes before doors opened, standing out there and Randy’s bus was there. We have all these pictures of Daniel Bryan, Roman Reigns and Dolph Ziggler walking in. It was so hot out but I wanted to see Randy, my kids were getting too hot. He has his match and he walks past and takes pictures, stops right in front of me and asks if I want a picture. He asks me my name and I was dying! I was trying to be cool but I was shaking. I gave the security guard my phone number and the guard gave me Randy’s and we started texting. So I meet him and we go hang out for an hour. He then said he would be around for a few more days and do we want to hang out, and we have been together ever since that day.”

On what they are grateful for:

Kim: “Health, happiness and to be working with my best friend.”

Giovanna: “Healthy family being alive and having an amazing husband and dad for the family.”