WrestleMania 33: 10 Matches That Should Have Happened

3. Kurt Angle Vs Samoa Joe

John Cena Undertaker
TNAwrestling.com

Kurt Angle's Hall of Fame induction will be a worthy re-introduction of the 'Olympic Gold Medallist' into the WWE family, but with a generation of fans never having seen the legendary performer under the brightest spotlights, a contest with one of his fiercest rivals would have been an incredible spectacle.

By any metric, Angle and Samoa Joe had TNA's greatest ever rivalry. Their three battles upon Kurt's shocking 2006 arrival with the company yielded the most attention ever paid to the smaller organisation, and Joe's climactic TNA World Title victory at Lockdown 2008 drew one of the company's best ever pay-per-view buyrates.

Furthermore, their matches were absolutely outstanding. Hybrids of the pioneering X-Division style and WWE's modern main events, the contests were hard-hitting technical masterclasses, with the two forging immediate chemistry that would be constantly revisited in their TNA tenures.

With now both accessible to the roster and Samoa Joe currently frozen out of the WrestleMania card altogether, an in-ring comeback for Kurt a year out from a Hall of Fame induction would have meshed the company's penchant with returning superstars and the need to protectively feature NXT stand-outs.

A maiden WrestleMania victory for Joe over the iconic Olympian would have been an epic launchpad for the 'Samoan Submission Machine'.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett