10 WWE Dream Matches That Happened On The Indies
3. Cody Rhodes vs. Kurt Angle
In 2006, compounding health and substance abuse issues forced WWE to come to terms with the release of Kurt Angle. In 2007, a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed youngster named Cody Rhodes made his WWE debut. This was the first of many near-misses between these two icons.
Rhodes left WWE in 2016, only for Angle to come a year later. When Cody made his return in 2022, it was four years after Kurt had retired. To get this clash of the uber-American heroes, we have to turn to the brief period when they were both free agents.
Angle was one of the names on Rhodes' famous wish-list when he struck out on his own. He ticked this name off thanks to our old friends NEW. The pair had a match in 2016, which the younger man won. Two months later, they faced each other again at WCPW's True Legacy show, with Angle getting his win back.
Finally, Angle and Rhodes faced off one last time in NEW in 2017. Cody's win in this steel cage match marked him out as the future of the business, and was also one of the last great matches of the Olympian's legendary career.