Top 5 all-time matches from WWE Backlash/WrestleMania Backlash

Best Backlash matches of all time No. 4: Edge vs. Kurt Angle (Backlash 2002)

After the failure that was 2001’s Invasion storyline, WWE (still the World Wrestling Federation at the time), had entered a weird transition period in 2002. While many of the stars that brought them to unprecedented heights were still there (The Rock, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Triple H, The Undertaker, etc.), the company was also looking for young athletes who could carry the load once those names moved on.

Once wrestler WWE tried to position in this way was Edge. Now, we all know that future “Rated R Superstar” would eventually author a Hall of Fame career that’s still ongoing — even though it has gotten weird since he turned heel — but in 2002, he was still trying to establish himself as a top singles star after spending years in a successful tag team with Christian.

As a singles wrestler, Edge had a lot of things going for him, but he still needed that definitive program to cement him as a building block for the company. Enter Kurt Angle. After seeing his momentum dwindle toward the end of the Invasion, Angle was stuck in a holding pattern after facing Kane in a forgettable bout at WrestleMania X8, but as WWE’s ultimate utility player, he was the ideal choice to help Edge get over as a top babyface.

That started in this banger of a match. The former Team ECK pals’ chemistry shined through here with some crisp, fast-paced work. Even the smaller details, like Angle using suplexes for nearly all of his cutoffs — highlighting Angle’s wrestling prowess — or Angle countering and Edge-O-Matic with a punch to the kidneys to give him an opening to hit the Angle Slam, showed how comfortable they were with each other in the ring.

Angle picked up the clean win in this one, which led to a similarly great Hair vs. Hair match a month later.