[2004-03-14-WWE-Wrestlemania XX] Eddie Guerrero vs Kurt Angle

[cactus]

This starts out with some intense and gritty chain wrestling. Although I harped on Christian/Jericho fighting too technical when they were doing such a personal angle, these two made it work as they are so damn fierce and hot-blooded. I particularly loved Angle's body language before he would shoot for a takedown, it looked as if he was trying to psych out Eddie. After temporarily working over Eddie's mid-section, Angle focuses his attack on Eddie's ankle after he catches in a surprise ankle lock. The finish to this might just be my favourite ending ever. Eddie tries to loosen his boot to levirate the pressure, but Angle catches him in the act. The loose boot allows Eddie to escape the ankle lock and roll up Angle for the win. Genius stuff to cap off an incredible match! 
★★★★¼

[ohtani's jacket]

I have zero interest in this feud. It reminds me of the awful Raven vs. CM Punk feud. Eddie vs. Angle is the kind of matchup that sounds awesome on paper but ends up being awkward. The early matwork is decent, but not what the crowd wants to see. I can see the argument about how Smackdown video game style wrestling ruined WWE crowd heat. The crowd comes alive for the big spots, but this suffers in comparison to the Lesnar/Eddy match, and I didn't love the finish. The finish justified Angle's criticisms of Eddie as a champion and a person whereas I thought they should have put the WWE champ over cleanly. Not a bad match, but not particularly memorable. 

[fxnj]

Loved this one. First 10 minutes or so are almost entirely built around grappling, and it's great. They're nail the little things like Eddie making sure to wrench down big on a headlock or Angle bumping hard on a tackle, but then you also get some neat counters like Eddie hooking the leg to escape from an abdominal stretch. They continued to make things feel hard fought as they transitioned into high risk moves and suplexes. Eddie going for a flash frog splash, missing it, and selling big really helped get across the significance of the move when he finally hit it later in the match. Loved how they also went 14 minutes without throwing a single punch and when Angle finally used one that Eddie made sure to sell the hell out of it. Finish was something that I'd remembered as being great but it ended up being even better than I remembered. Loved Eddie mouthing "oh shit" when he saw Angle make his way back in from outside.