20 Incredible WWE Ruthless Aggression Era Moments Nobody Ever Talks About
18. One Of The Sickest Matches EVER
If Roderick Strong ever had cause to strangle out somebody's name, it wasn't when he was seeking the affections of AD-AM Cole; it was when he was getting pummelled half to death by Kurt Angle.
Before he made a name for himself in Ring Of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, Roderick Strong was sacrificed to Kurt Angle as part of the latter's Gold Medal Invitational. If the inexperienced chancer could survive three minutes with Angle, he'd take the gold. Angle asked Strong what his chances were. Strong said he didn’t know, but he did know that he could slap Angle in the face - and he did, really really hard.
This incensed Angle, who chased Strong around the ring. When they met inside of it, for two glorious minutes, they may well have worked the most violent match in WWE history. That's no exaggeration. Angle "worked" the match like it was a shoot. Even by his standards, his intensity was disgusting. After an absolutely fantastic near-fall, the red mist descended further when Angle came close to losing. He smashed Strong repeatedly in the back of the head after furiously paint-brushing his face with slaps. The closest wrestling ever got to the Hydrogen Bomb Vs. Coughing Baby meme, Angle battered the back of Strong's skull so viciously that it's a miracle his forearm wasn't covered in brain matter. Angle then held Strong in a Cattle Mutilation position before headbutting his skull, grinding his forehead on it, and then eating it. Thick platelets of blood somehow didn't pool on the canvas.
A disgusting suplex and ankle lock later, and the massacre was done - except it wasn't, since Angle hooked the ankle and refused to let go.
How did this make it onto WWE TV?
- MS