2. Eddie Guerrero vs Kurt Angle - 'WWE Championship Series' - WWE Smackdown - 14th April 2005
After winning his first WWE World Championship in an outstanding match from Brock Lesnar at No Way Out 2004, Eddie Guerrero found himself firmly cemented as one of the figureheads of the Smackdown Brand. The following month at Wrestlemania XX in what would be his first PPV title defence he would take on fellow Smackdown kingpin the Olympic Gold Medallist Kurt Angle. As you would expect from two talents of their calibre they would put one of the best matches of the year. Wrestlemania XX would also be the event where Brock Lesnar unceremoniously left the company not to return for another eight years. With Lesnar gone, the brand extension taking most of the established names to Raw and John Cena still a year away from becoming the biggest star in the company, Eddie and Angle along with the newly repackaged John Bradshaw Layfield would spend the majority of 2004 and early 2005 carrying the Smackdown brand on their shoulders. On the 14th April 2005 episode of Smackdown Eddie and Angle would meet yet again. Hot off the heels of his infamous clash with Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania XXI, Kurt Angle was on a career high. By this point Eddie Guerrero had already guaranteed himself a place among the all-time greats in the business. In the build up to this match John Cena had just won the first of his many WWE World Championships. His first PPV challenger would be decided in a WWE Championship Series. Latino Heat and Angle would meet in the first round of the tournament where the winner would go on to face JBL and also the winner of a Big Show vs Booker T match in a triple threat match for the #1 contendership. In the end interference from Rey Mysterio would decide the contest. This would set the foundations for a Rey Mysterio vs Eddie Guerrero feud that would dominate Smackdown throughout 2005. Speaking of Eddie Guerrero vs Rey Mysterio.
