Kurt Angle’s Top 10 WWE Matches
By Tim Sherry
WWE.com
8. vs. Steve Austin – SummerSlam 2001
One good word to describe this tilt from the 01′ Summerslam: heat. After turning on Angle at the Invasion pay per view a month earlier, Austin spent the next few weeks being stalked by his opponent from city to city trying to wrest the belt away from The Rattlesnake. All the back and forth finally came to a head this night in San Jose as the two legends tore into each other with reckless abandon.
Austin played his role perfectly. He was the vicious, yet cunning heel, cutting every corner he could so he could retain his title. Angle fought valiantly wearing the crimson mask throughout most of the second half of the match. The emotions were intense as Austin pounded the mat and screamed in frustration as he couldn’t put Angle away. Finally, when he realized that he couldn’t defeat the challenger, Austin did what he had to do: got disqualified. And he didn’t just get disqualified, he punched one ref, stunned another, hit Angle between the legs, and then assaulted a third referee with the world title belt. That’s how dire the situation had become.
Angle’s hard work this night paid off in spades as just a month later he would capture the belt for the second time from Austin at Unforgiven. That night was a crowning moment for Kurt as he became the champion in front of a sold-out hometown crowd in Pittsburgh. But it was this main event at SummerSlam that opened that door for him and firmly entrenched him as a top flight, main event type player.