[2001-01-21-WWF-Royal Rumble] Triple H vs Kurt Angle

[ohtani's jacket]

This was a decent match but when the most exciting part is a catfight between Trish Stratus and Steph, you know something's not clicking. They didn't seem to have faith in the wrestlers to deliver a dramatic WWF PPV bout. Instead, the heat was on all of the outside BS. Even the finish, which saw Austin get revenge on Triple H for interfering in his RAW title shot, took the heat away from the wrestlers and put it squarely on the outside shit. That sort of booking doesn't surprise me but they usually deliver a better match. Quite a step down from the previous year's Rumble if you look at it from that perspective. I think what surprised me the most is that while he worked a decent match, there wasn't that big star-making moment where Angle ascends to the next level. He still looks like a midcarder trying to get the big boys' attention while they continue with their feud. I wouldn't call this match a misfire, but it's not as good as the Austin TV match. 

[soup23]

This is a match I always go into expecting to hate and end up pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoy it. The finish is overbooked to hell but did help progress HHH vs Austin which feels appropriately heated and intense if you clear out the ridiculous stuff at Survivor Series and just pretend that the feud began at the onset of HHH interfering in the match with Angle. They also get Trish and Stephanie involved which was inevitable given the amount of time devoted on tv to that. Beyond the extra curricular stuff, I continue to be really impressed with Angle so far this year. A lot was made and observed by me about him in 2000 not working long matches for much of the year and them really beginning to stretch their legs out with him towards the end of the year and how credible he felt. So far in 2001 he has been paired with HHH and Austin and he’s held his own for sure inside the ring. I thought he outworked HHH here which over the course of HHH’s career may not sound like much, but HHH is clearly not at the peak he was at the start of 2000 so its interesting to observe from a tiering standpoint. ***1/2 (7.1)