How Good Was Kurt Angle Actually?

Rivalries

Angle was an outrageously entertaining comedy character and super-intense wrestling general type with an undying will to win. It was either a bit of a laugh or all business with him - which should mean that he doesn’t score too highly in this category. He’s never been a part of something as intensely personal and layered as CM Punk Vs. MJF, for example.

And yet, his most famous programmes were awesome.

His 2005 feud with Shawn Michaels was a masterpiece of plotting, character work, and action. It was the composite Kurt Angle experience: he was a goofball in the build and a killer at the payoff. His 2002 feud with Rey Mysterio was stellar, too; Angle couldn’t sanction that a smaller guy, a “little boy”, could get the better of him - and when Angle was upset, he was at his best. The sting of humiliation morphing into murderous vengeance: this escalation was Kurt’s specialty.

He was part of one of the Attitude Era’s most beloved storylines, at least until Triple H panicked and grew terrified by the idea that a fictional character might prefer having intercourse with somebody other than him. His series with Brock Lesnar ended up being great (eventually).

In TNA, Angle’s matches with Samoa Joe represented the commercial peak of the entire promotion, and lived up to the most optimistic Dream Match expectations The two hard-as-nails bastards gave each a pounding to get their matches over as sicko-friendly fare. They knew they had to lose brain cells during those matches. They knew they had to be transgressive, and deliver a level of physicality that transcended the mere “stiff”.

Impossible to watch back now, but his stuff with Chris Benoit at the time was staggeringly great. The sports entertainment world of WWE felt like the best and most realistic pure wrestling outfit going when those two shared the same ring.