When you watch WrestleMania XIX, one of the greatest ever entries into the canon, it is impossible to come away from it with anything but a sense of profound respect for the business. Angle was one of many to battle through physical limitations or agony—career-threatening agony, in his case—to put on a hell of a show.
Deftly side-stepping his broken neck with a fluid, early exhibition of amateur wrestling that doubled as an engaging storyline pissing contest, when the time came, Angle summoned every last drop of his unreal toughness to gut it out, and put over big the Next Big Thing. Lesnar looked like it too, when delivering a total Vince-popper of a deadlift gorilla press slam.
Everybody remembers that disastrous spot—but remember instead Angle’s incredible F5 into a takedown/Ankle Lock counter, for its excellent adaptation of amateur legitimacy to pro wrestling pageantry.
