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Top 5 - Favorite Kurt Angle Opponents (Video)


Duo Dreamer

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For me #5 is probably Austin and #1-4 is easily Rey Mysterio. Every match Angle had with Rey was good and Rey did more than I think anyone else to reign in Angle's bullshit and make him somewhat resemble a pro wrestler.

 

In general I think Angle works best when he is facing someone small/young/new/an underdog in some way, because he plays a kind of veteran and/or bully type guy and shelves the no selling, spot-fu and finisher killing to a large extent. Stuff like the Rey matches, that PPV match with Lethal, the Jannetty match, and so on. Anything that forces him to reign it in and stop being...Kurt Angle.

 

I like WMXX a lot too but generally he and Eddie were hit and miss. The Shawn matches are disappointing. Joe matches are disappointing, although I do like the Lockdown match. The Benoit matches are frustrating as shit for me. Haven't seen the Brock matches in forever.

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Steve Austin is a clear #1 for me. Had easily his best match at Summerslam 01 and there is also the cool match built around the piledriver and a bunch of fun TV matches from 2000/2001. The Benoit matches tended to be a little overdone, Lesnar brought out the worst in his style. Mysterio is a good shout, the matches never went long enough to descend into the usual suplex marathons with a million near falls, and Rey bumped brilliantly for all Angle's stuff. Angle is a fantastic base, he always makes offence look good due to his athleticism.

 

Probably only watched about twenty minutes of his TNA run though. The Lethal match seems intriguing, I used to dig Lethal as a fiery underdog face in the indies.

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I'm going with Viscera. They had a 3 minute match. Angle ate Viscera's offense really well. The transition was good. His entire offense was three nice looking dropkicks. and it had a Steve Blackman cameo.

 

That's about all I want from a Kurt Angle match.

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^^^

 

There is actually an early Kurt Angle match with Mark Henry fairly identical to what you describe there. It's on the Raw with that famous ten man tag, and only goes about four minutes. Really enjoyable. They also wrestled a short fun little match on Smackdown in 2002 straight after the draft split.

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Guest TheGreatPuma

A list of my favorite opponents that I enjoy to see Kurt Angle work. Feel free to give me your own list.

 

Welcome Duo Dreamer.

 

My top 5 would be and this isn't accurate because I haven't seen all of Kurt's work. I rate Kurt pretty highly overall. Just so you know, Kurt is rated overall higher by the overall wrestling fanbase than what he is rated overall here.

 

1)Benoit. Matches were constructed so, so well.

 

2)Austin, Edge, Mysterio, Undertaker and Jarrett are other great Angle opponents. I felt they gelled with Angle the best. I'm not really sure who I'd rate ahead of who after Benoit. I'd have to check all the matches again. I'd like to give a shout out to the Edge matches because those matches (and the legendary tags) helped Angle and Edge so much in the eyes of the audience as being special workers. Kane also did well with Angle.

 

And yes, I agree with your video on the Shane match being so great. Whenever you hear fans talk about that match, it's done with so much passion in their voice. People remember it years later.

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1)Benoit. Matches were constructed so, so well.

I don't want to go all crazy on everything pro-Angle here (as I am prone to do), but I will take issue with this. Last time I watched Rumble '03 I was struck by how poorly that match was structured. By the end of it was I relieved when they went into killing finishers because the first half of the match is a meandering mess that went nowhere and made no attempt to...be anything. Other than "Hey look, Angle and Benoit in the ring together!" Bored the shit out of me.

 

That match in particular frustrates the hell out of me because I really like the Smackdown Six period and the Angle/Benoit tag team angle, so I am desperate to like the match that it led to as well. But I can't. And their other matches were made of much of the same.

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Guest Staples

1)Benoit. Matches were constructed so, so well.

I don't want to go all crazy on everything pro-Angle here (as I am prone to do), but I will take issue with this. Last time I watched Rumble '03 I was struck by how poorly that match was structured. By the end of it was I relieved when they went into killing finishers because the first half of the match is a meandering mess that went nowhere and made no attempt to...be anything.

 

I haven't seen it in years, but the initial positive reaction may have been due to the match following that awful Steiner/Triple H match.

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