WWE: 10 Times When WrestleMania Matches Actually Lived Up To The Hype

2. Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels - WrestleMania 21

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32g2RHksPbk When Shawn Michaels hit Kurt Angle with a Superkick at the 2005 Royal Rumble I thought that would be an incredible match. I remember reading online at the time that there was some talk of doing it, but with Michaels as a Raw guy and Angle as a Smackdown guy it would be hard to set it up. Then Angle went back into the ring, eliminated Michaels and beat him up outside the ring. It was on now. A dream match. Those are so rare, but it became a reality. It was a matchup where they had two guys face off that were two considered the best professional wrestlers alive. Angle was an experienced top guy by that point while Michaels was reborn in his second career run. Personally speaking, they're two of my three favorite wrestlers ever along with Steve Austin. Everybody was ready for this match. Could they live up to the hype? To borrow a popular phrase from Daniel Bryan, the answer was a resounding "yes" in terms of living up to the hype. Most of the matches on this list had obvious outcomes. The good guys usually won. In this match, there wasn't a sense that one guy was really favored. It was such an even match going into it. That played into the story because they went back and forth as they wrestled what was essentially the perfect match. When Angle made Michaels tap out, fans weren't really mad that Michaels lost. Both guys were so popular that they didn't have to win matches. All that mattered was we got to see a classic, which we did. These all time greats had one of the best matches ever that definitely matched the anticipation that we all had for it. It doesn't get much better than this.