When people think of a Shane McMahon match, it is almost always either this or the aforementioned Vince one that come to mind. The Vince match was all about the story and paying off months of storylines. There was plenty of that here too, but this was Shane McMahon and Kurt Angle going at each other, one on one, in what was (and still is) Shane McMahon's best performance (to date). It should also be noted that this was Kurt Angle's third match of the night, having wrestled two King of the Ring tournament matches earlier. Kurt Angle was an absolute machine. This match is contested under Street Fight rules (of course), but it is unique in Shane McMahon matches due to the absence of any outside interference. It is Shane and Kurt, mano e mano, and boy is it violent. There is a lot to like about the wrestling that takes place throughout too, especially from a psychology standpoint. Shane repeatedly hits Kurt with his own moves, including the Angle Slam and an ankle lock, but Kurt is able to evade more often than not by virtue of being a wrestling genius. Shane even attempts a shooting star press at one point, showing his desperation to survive against a far superior opponent. The two fought up the aisle, which lead to one of the most memorably violent spots in WWE history; Angle attempts to give Shane a belly-to-belly suplex through the plexiglass stage partition at the top of the ramp, only for the glass not to smash. The thud of Shane's head on the floor still sickens to this day. Of course, the show must go on, so Kurt tries again and Shane goes flying through the partition. Despite being dropped on his noggin' and thrown through the wrong kind of glass (they thought it was sugar glass but the props man screwed up), still Shane went on. Sure, this match isn't perfect, far from it. It might not even be as good as many remember it being. But it is Shane McMahon's finest in-ring performance in WWE, a match where he stood up on his own against one of the best of all-time, and took incredible amounts of punishment in the name of the fans' entertainment. Will Shane be able to top this against The Undertaker at WrestleMania? Time will tell on that one...
Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.
