WWE: Brock Lesnar’s six best career matches

3. vs. Kurt Angle – Iron Man Match – SmackDown, Sept. 18 2003

Every wrestler has their ideal “dance partner” – so to speak – who they can always have a pitch perfect, instant classic of a match with and are destined to basically fight forever because of it. The Rock had Stone Cold, Kevin Owens has Sami Zayn and Brock Lesnar had Kurt Angle.

You’d be hard pressed to find a bad match featuring these two. Even their WrestleMania XIX headliner was exquisite, despite the fact the match was overshadowed by Brock’s plummet onto his head from an ill-advised Shooting Star Press attempt. They managed to have an even better match some months down the line at SummerSlam. This time, with heel-face allegiances switched and this time, the Olympic Hero was the one to pick up a win.

With their score tied 1-1 in PPV singles victories, it was time to up the ante with a special match stipulation for the tie-breaker: the Iron Man Match. A match like this is hard to book because it’s hard to get the crowd invested when they know the stakes aren’t crucial until the match’s final minutes, but from the very start – thanks to some hellacious chair shots from Lesnar – this felt like an action thrill ride from beginning to end. Arguably the best Iron Man Match ever.