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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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3. VS Rey Mysterio – SummerSlam 2002

Let’s wind the clocks back to July 25. 2002. Rey Mysterio has just made his WWE debut and in this context, audiences are not very familiar with the masked luchador. Die hard fans of WWE have probably never seen the Leader of the 619 ever wrestle before, while fans coming over from WCW watched Mysterio take Ls from the nWo for years on a regular basis. WWE needed a way to warm up new fans to the new fans without immediately putting him in the box of a “little guy wrestler.”

Enter Kurt Angle.

A month after his SmackDown debut, Mysterio had his PPV debut against Angle in what is still fondly remembered as a tremendous clash of styles.

Angle had always been a great guy to put in the ring with to put someone else over – his previously mentioned bouts with Edge were a great example – but he had his work cut out for him with this match. At this point, Angle wasn’t accustomed to battling smaller athletes on a regular basis. If anything, the only smaller wrestlers he wrestled might’ve been jobbers meant to put him over. Now, he was being tasked with making a new star out of a 5’6 170-pounder.

It was a challenged indeed, but it’s safe to say that the mission was accomplished. Even in defeat, Mysterio looked like a million bucks; quickly evading Angle’s offense either with swift dodges or lucha-rific counters.

This match, in many ways, would set the stage for Mysterio eventually being considered for a main event run and a few World Heavyweight Title reigns some years down the line. His match with Kurt Angle proved that even an underdog can hang with the big dogs.

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