4. Chris Benoit Vs. Kurt Angle - (Unforgiven 2002)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHEgCqjbonc Kurt Angle wrestled Chris Benoit many times from 2001 to 2003. Every time they had a match it was great. Fans remember the match at WrestleMania 17 well because it's the best PPV ever while their Royal Rumble 2003 is one of the best WWE Title matches ever. There was also this match at Unforgiven 2002 when these two were a big part of the reason why Smackdown was so great in the second half of that year with Paul Heyman as the main booker of that show. The story was that Angle and Benoit teamed together often, but they had a hard time getting along. Because of that, they had to settle their differences with this match. It's a story that worked because their familiarity meant that it was going to be hard for either man to get a clean win. This match was a technical wrestling classic as they busted out everything in their arsenal and it looked like either man could come away with a victory. There were so many German Suplexes, belly to belly suplexes, back suplexes and everything else you expect form these two. It looked like Angle might tap out the Crippler Crossface, but he ended up countering it into an Ankle Lock, which led to Benoit countering to the Crossface. They kept on countering each other. Benoit won the match with a rollup by putting his feet on the ropes. It was cheap, but it fit the story that they were going to do whatever they could to win the match. Angle usually won their matches because he was a bigger star, so it was nice to see Benoit get the win in this one even though it was a cheap ending. That's okay because it fit the story.
John Canton
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John wrote at WhatCulture from December 2013 to December 2015. It was fun, but it's over for now. Follow him on Twitter @johnreport. You can also send an email to mrjohncanton@gmail.com with any questions or comments as well.
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