WrestleMania 19 Rewind: Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle

WrestleMania Rewind kicks off with the main event of WrestleMania 19.

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WrestleMania 31 is less than two months away! It is the greatest time of the year to be a WWE fan because of great story lines and terrific matches that are put on at the company’s biggest show.

While we will have plenty of WrestleMania content following WWE Fast Lane, why not start now?

This is the first of the WrestleMania Rewinds that you can find every Tuesday until WrestleMania 31 concludes. This inaugural post will feature the WrestleMania 19 match between Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle (c) for the WWE Championship.

Preview

Brock Lesnar was still one of the hottest things going in WWE in 2003. He already won the WWE Undisputed Championship against The Rock at SummerSlam 2002 and more recently won the 2003 Royal Rumble Match for the right to challenge for Kurt Angle’s WWE Championship, which was exclusive to SmackDown.

Angle toyed with Lesnar for the majority of the build-up to this WrestleMania main event.

First, the WWE Champion forced Lesnar to go through his Team Angle-mates Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin (a real blast from the past right there) in order to be eligible to challenge for the championship. Lesnar got through both men.

Eventually, on another episode of SmackDown, Angle put his title on the line against Lesnar. However, during this match, the former Minnesota Gopher got distracted by Haas and Benjamin outside the ring. While the referee was focusing on this, Angle pulled a switch-a-roo and swapped out his “stunt double” so he could surprise Lesnar with a roll-up pin for the victory. While Angle-Lesnar was still on for WrestleMania, the momentum seemed to be in Angle’s direction before they headlined WrestleMania 19.

The Match

Angle and Lesnar began the match with a lot of locking up and arm-bars, which led to a slow-build for this.

Lesnar took advantage early on with an arm-bar and power-slam to keep Angle in check, until the 1996 Olympic Gold Medalist countered with a suplex. However, Lesnar would pop right back up (similar to how he’s booked present day) and go right back on the attack.

Brock Lesnar’s strength is just unbelievable. He picked up Angle with ease and tossed him like a rag doll on his back. Following this, Angle pulled off a ridiculous suplex into the top turnbuckle, which aggravated Lesnar’s injured ribs (they were taped up prior to the match beginning). The ribs would be a constant target of Angle’s, which helped the great match psychology throughout the contest.

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Angle would continue to increase his momentum with a long choke-hold on the ground that appeared to have Lesnar fading. If you go onto the WWE Network and watch this part of the match, you once again see the great match psychology by these two. It was also explained very well by Tazz, who was on commentary for this main event.

Lesnar eventually was able to pick up Angle and slam him into two turnbuckles. It started looking good for the Beast Incarnate until Angle hit a devastating belly-to-belly suplex on him. It hurt the ribs again.

Just as Angle was going to tip the scales further in his direction, Lesnar popped up and hit a powerful spine-buster on the future Hall of Famer. He then started hitting some of his trademark suplexes that you saw on display at SummerSlam 2014.

Angle would then add in suplexes of his own with four consecutive ones that threw Lesnaron his back.

Then, out of nowhere, Lesnar gets Angle into an F-5! It looked to be over for the champion, until he countered, got Lesnar onto the ground, and put him into the Ankle Lock. Lesnar was able to get out of it, but was in plenty of pain. He was eventually able to toss Angle over the ropes to buy himself some time.

Angle would then return to the ring, only to have his ribs attacked by Lesnar. Angle then countered and hit an absolutely devastating German Suplex on Lesnar. After that, he hit the Angle Slam on the Beast, but he kicked out of it. It was apparently the first time that anyone has kicked out of it!

Following a quick attempt at a roll-up pin, Lesnar hit a beautiful F-5 on Angle, only for the Olympic champion to kick out. After this, Angle put a very strong Ankle Lock onto Lesnar that looked impossible to get out of. However, he was able to climb to the bottom rope to break the hold.

The action started getting very fast paced after that. They both countered each other’s finishing moves in a split-second. After that, Lesnar hit an F-5! It’s over, right?

Brock decided to climb to the top rope for some reason and went for a Shooting Star Press, which looked great in the air, but was avoided by Angle. It really looked like he landed on his neck. Lesnar kicked out of an attempted pin after that.

Moments later, Lesnar hit a third F-5. This time, Angle was not able to kick out of this one.

Brock Lesnar is the new WWE Champion!

Final Thoughts

March 30, 2003, was Brock Lesnar’s first WrestleMania match, which he was in the main event of. March 29, 2015, just one day short of twelve years later, will feature Lesnar defending the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Roman Reigns or Daniel Bryan. It may also be the second and final time that he main events a WrestleMania since his contract expires the following day.

As for this match that we highlighted, Lesnar and Kurt Angle were phenomenal in this. They are two fantastic wrestlers who shined in their opportunity to close out WrestleMania 19.

What did you think of this match? Let us know below!

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