10 Awesome Wrestling Matches On Otherwise Terrible WWE Shows
2. Kurt Angle Vs. The Undertaker Vs. The Rock - Vengeance 2002
The rot had set in by 2002.
2001 was a disaster of a year for WWE and karma put them through a barricade after they made zero effort to show ass for WCW or even rebuild it in any vaguely meaningful way.
By Vengeance, Brock Lesnar was not ready. His disqualification loss to Rob Van Dam while OK went too long and exposed his act. Edge and Hulk Hogan was a transparent attempt to get the former over as a singles player, and a loss to Christian & Lance Storm was hardly going to do it. Nor was John Cena ready, whose win over Chris Jericho was such a glorified dark match tryout that the scalp he took meant nothing.
Elsewhere, beyond a decent double-header of opening matches - and decent again was nowhere near good enough for a company that had defeated all competition - William Regal Vs. Jeff Hardy was an ugly styles clash that while short was still offensive.
Kurt Angle Vs. The Undertaker Vs. The Rock was absolutely blinding. The layout was exquisite. Angle showcased his range and negated the inherent problem with the Triple Threat genre in a two birds, one stone masterclass. First, Angle displayed his piss-funny comedic chops when Rock and 'Taker double-teamed him at the jump. Whenever he tried to re-enter the ring, he took a silly slapstick bump back out of there. This structure made fans laugh at - and not question - the turn-taking genre formula.
Deeper into a dramatic, perfectly-timed match, Angle evolved back into the intense killer wrestling machine in an electrifying composite performance.