Kurt Angle’s Top 10 WWE Matches

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credit: WWE.com

3. vs. Brock Lesnar – Iron Man Match – Smackdown

60-minute Ironman matches can be tricky sometimes.  Trying to keep fans interested and compelled for an entire hour is a daunting task that doesn’t always work.  But not only did Lesnar and Angle keep the fans glued to their seats in this WWE Championship match on SmackDown, they made the match into an art form.  The Angle/Lesnar feud carried SmackDown for the better part of 2003 beginning with their aforementioned Wrestlemania XIX match.  But at the 2003 SummerSlam, Angle reclaimed the belt and this ironman match was the blow-off to this amazing rivalry.

Without question the best match in their program, these two monsters brought the big fight feel and had one of the best matches ever recorded on cable television.  The match had it all.  Pinfalls, submissions, a count out, a disqualification, an unconscious ref, a chair shot, you name it, they did it.  And wow, these guys played their roles so well.  Lesnar, now the heel showed that there was no limit to what he’d do to be champion and Angle was the valiant, fighting titlist who stuck to his guns.  Just magnificent stuff.

On this night it was Lesnar who managed to pick up the win 5-4 after refusing to tap out to the ankle lock in the closing seconds.  It was his 3rd world title win and his last for over a decade and Angle made him earn every ounce of it.  Six months later Lesnar was out of the WWE and foraying into the world of professional football and it’s a shame.  Had he stuck around these two undoubtedly would’ve had made more magic like this.  Either way, 14 years later this still holds up as the best ironman match of all time.