Eight years before Brock Lesnar became 'the 1 int he 21-1', The Undertaker had volunteered to lay down for Kurt Angle at the Showcase of the Immortals. After years of battling stiffs at the big event, Undertaker decided that he wanted to have a five star WrestleMania match, a true classic that would be remembered for all time. He had a decent match with Triple H at WrestleMania X-7 and the Flair match at 18 was also pretty good, but neither of them could really be called 'classics'. He felt that the only person who he could have that match with was super-worker Kurt Angle and requested that the match happen at WrestleMania 22. Not only did Undertaker want to wrestle Angle but he also said that he didn't mind taking the loss, so long as the match itself was off-the-charts. As Angle explained in a 2011 interview:
Undertaker really wanted to have that match, he asked Vince to push our match back from No Way Out to WrestleMania and, since I was champion they wanted me to keep the title, Undertaker was willing to take the loss. To me that meant a lot because Undertaker had a lot of respect for me and I had more respect for him than he did for me.
Since it's coming from the mouth of Kurt Angle, take it with a pinch of salt, but it seems as though 'Taker really did want to wrestle Angle on the show. Instead, the two clashed at No Way Out the month before 'Mania and had something of a minor classic and The Undertaker's best match in ages, maybe ever. The great irony of this? The Undertaker was, once again, matches against a lumbering big man in the shape of Mark Henry, whom he defeated in a weak casket match.
