One WWE Match You MUST Watch From Every Year 1984-2024
18. 2006 - Kurt Angle Vs The Undertaker, No Way Out
There have been countless cases over the years where wrestlers have been ships passing in the night between promotions, injuries or other absences, robbing audiences and the performers themselves of potential dream matches that could and should have taken place on stages custom-built for the showdowns.
The Undertaker's failed bid to dethrone World Heavyweight Champion Kurt Angle at No Way Out 2006 is very much one of those things, even though it didn't seem that way on the approach. It's realistically why the match was such a powerful statement and surprise package rolled into one. Within six months of this, Angle would be gone from WWE and - in a seismic shock for the time - TNA-bound. Within a year of this, Undertaker would improbably complete a metamorphosis into a workrate version of himself. Nobody foresaw it, even if the clues were wrapped within this ultra-competitive zero fat classic.
'The Deadman' had become an MMA enthusiast on the side, and in Angle had the perfect opponent to flex what he'd learned with a variety of submissions and strikes largely alien to the gimmick previously. Kurt meanwhile was a stripped back 'Wrestling Machine' in 2006 when the bell rang. His range never left him during promos or vignettes such the situation warrant it, but this wasn't the clownish goofball that Undertaker had flattened in some of their previous interactions.
A must-see sign of things to come in every respect, this highlighted more than just the futures of the two in the ring but the very shape of combat pop culture and wrestling's place firmly out of that loop. The world was moving towards UFC and the like and a long way away from the market leader. In hindsight, this match was a gem but the style they worked was all too hidden.