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WWE: Ranking The Top 10 Kurt Angle Matches

By Joe Anthony Myrick

31 Jul 1996: Kurt Angle of the United States holds the American flag at the free-style wrestling competition during the Summer Olympics at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
31 Jul 1996: Kurt Angle of the United States holds the American flag at the free-style wrestling competition during the Summer Olympics at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia. /
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10. VS “Stone Cold” Steve Austin – SummerSlam 2001

A big reason why Kurt Angle is as over as he is today – apart from the fact that he’s a phenomenal wrestler, of course – is much due to his 2001 story arc with Stone Cold Steve Austin. While he had already won the WWE Championship a year prior, seeing Angle bounce dialogue and chemistry off with Stone Cold is what made him a main eventer for life.

Their comedy skits together was the first time audiences truly caught glimpse of how charismatic the athlete could be and when it came time for him to turn face to feud with the brawler over the WWE Championship, he rose to the occasion in a believable manner. We never thought for a second that it was silly for a doofus in a cowboy hat on a milk truck to feud with The Rattlesnake. Like a switch, Angle was able to flip back and forth from hilarious comedy guy to legitimate, horrifyingly intense wrestling machine.

A perfect example of this was their match at SummerSlam. It felt less like a wrestling match and more like a fight between two dudes who hated each other and were willing to kill each other to get the title standing between them. The match ends on a bummer of a DQ finish, but before the final bell rang, we got one exciting battle before the first bell even began.

Their rematch at Unforgiven a month later may be the more significant of their encounters, especially for Angle as he would go on to win the WWE Championship in his hometown of Pittsburgh. However, me personally, I’m always gonna prefer the SummerSlam match despite its lackluster ending.

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