7 Best Kurt Angle WWE Feuds

There are very, very few professional wrestlers who can compete with Brock Lesnar when it comes to amateur wrestling, what with The Beast Incarnate being a former NCAA Division 1 Heavyweight Champion and all. Of course, Kurt Angle is a two-time NCAA Division 1 champion and won a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics with a broken freakin' neck, so he has the edge there (even if he isn't a former UFC Heavyweight Champion).

It was obvious when Lesnar debuted on WWE television in 2002 and received the monster push that a match - or series of matches - with Angle were in his future. How could WWE not put these two amateur standouts in the ring together? They knew there'd be much interest in the bout and held off on promoting it until WrestleMania XIX, where the two men headlined in style.

Amazingly, Angle nearly didn't make it to the match at all, suffering serious effects from his long-term neck issues and risking paralysis by even taking a bump. After the show, Angle took a break to get surgery and when he came back he managed to recapture the WWE Title by defeating Lesnar. That caused The Next Big Thing to turn heel on him, setting up a further grudge match at SummerSlam.

As good as the 'Mania and SummerSlam matches were, their greatest accomplishment was probably going a full hour in a compelling Iron Man match on the September 18, 2003 episode of Smackdown. Not many can say they were able to do that, and Kurt and Brock made sure it was compelling for the full sixty minutes. After both men left WWE, they had one final match for Antonio Inoki's IGF promotion in Japan.

If Angle were to make a WWE return at any point, fans would be clamouring to see him tackle Lesnar one more time.