[2000-05-29-WWF-Raw] Eddy Guerrero vs Kurt Angle

[soup23]

Huge heat for Angle in Canada. Angle cuts a great promo saying Ben Johnson doesn’t count as an Olympic hero. He also rags on the Grizzlies. I love this guy. Lawler adds in that our salvation army could beat the Canadian army. It is an Angle 2000 match so you know what that means, quick but entertaining while it lasts. Again, this serves more as a preview for a longer feud between these two that we will see later in the decade. Angle hits a baseball slide on Chyna that she takes exception too. Chyna low blows Angle with the ref bumped and Eddy hits a scary rana that he almost wiped out on to win. *1/2

[GSR]

Kurt gets a sizeable ovation from the Canadian crowd then does a fantastic job in getting them to turn on him. First of all he talks about how they’re lacking in Olympic heroes (“and no, Ben Johnson doesn’t count!”) so it is therefore up to him to represent all of them too as ‘their’ North American hero. From there he references that it’s Memorial Day, something that they don’t have in Canada, and cleverly manoeuvres his way through the US celebrating their war heroes by having BBQs, that the people of Canada don’t have BBQs because they would get attacked by moose’s, caribous or grizzlies, before correcting himself that the Grizzlies (a local sports team) couldn’t beat anyone! They’re booing him out of the building after that line.

 

Leg trip takedown by Eddy but Angle cradles him for an early near fall. Eddy flips over to escape the belly to back suplex, forearms Kurt to the back and lands one of his own. Angle with a release overhead belly to belly which he immediately follows with a German suplex for two. He looks for the ‘Olympic slam’, but Eddy fights his way out of it with a series of knees to the head. A dropkick floors Kurt, however as Eddy charges, he backdrops him over the top rope to the outside. Chyna is around to check on her man but she gets nailed with a baseball slide, although Jim Ross is uncertain as to whether Angle deliberately meant it for her or was trying to catch Guerrero. After regaining her senses she enters the ring and as the ref tries to prevent her from going after Kurt, he’s accidentally clocked from behind by Eddy as Angle sidesteps a swinging right. Kurt sits Eddy on the top turnbuckle for a super belly to belly, but it never happens as Chyna gets her pay back with an almighty low blow. Leaping rana off the top and he retains his European title, though Kurt did have his foot under the bottom rope, something that was missed by the official.

 

An alright match given the time constraints that they were working with, but you expect and hope for more when these two are positioned against one another.