10 Genius Ways Wrestlers Outsmarted Their Opponents
10. Kurt Angle - Survivor Series 2000
Kurt Angle had the best rookie year of any wrestler ever. He started it at Survivor Series ’99 by defeating Shawn Stasiak after declaring to the crowd “You do not boo an Olympic Gold Medalist!” and finished it at Survivor Series 2000 defending his newly won WWF Championship against The Undertaker.
Even though Angle had accomplished a lot going into the match he was still looked as the underdog who was likely going to get beaten senseless by The American Badass. Undertaker dominated the match early on, only for Angle’s Team ECK allies Edge and Christian to interfere.
As the referee ejected them, Angle took advantage of Undertaker’s leg. Still, ‘Taker got the momentum back and threw Angle over the top rope, at which point Angle crawled under the ring to hide from his beating. Undertaker dragged him back out and performed the Last Ride, covering him afterwards only for the referee to stop his count shy of 3 when he realized it wasn’t Kurt ‘Taker was covering but rather Eric, Kurt’s older brother.
Eric Angle looked considerably like Kurt and was in the same Olympic singlet as him, hence the easy mix-up. As Undertaker cornered the referee amidst the initial confusion, Kurt sneaked back in the ring and quickly rolled-up ‘Taker from behind for the win. Kurt then hightailed it out of the ring and joyously celebrated.
This was such an expert finish WWE repeated the ending to the match in Kurt’s feud with Brock Lesnar on SmackDown in 2003.