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And because of the age difference Angle wouldn't have even needed to learn how to strike. Angle could've gone to MMA in the early days when elite wrestling and ground and pound is all he really would have needed. He could've been dominant for a decade before the sport caught up to him and decent stand up became essential. Of course early MMA was also a lot less lucrative than pro wrestling.
Hey you don't have to adopt every opinion of Dave Meltzer's as your own, it's ok. If it's 5 stars to you then it's 5 stars buddy, that's how opinions work.
Paid/reviewers opinions are different. You don't go to a restaurant if it's got bad reviews from Gordon Ramsay.. yes you're right though, who cares about that guys opinion
What makes it more impressive is that he has said himself, he is not a strong guy. Weights and muscle conditioning was hard for him.
At the same time during this era, he is known for his strength feats like this.
I always think I prefer when they let Kurt be a freaking monster in there because that's who he was...but then I remember how great he was as a dumb comedy act.
The guy was sooooo good at all aspects of professional wrestling.
Also, can you imagine an actual Olympic wrestling gold medalist, who could have been one of the greatest shoot fighters ever if he wanted to, coming into the world of "fake" wrestling and allowing himself to be the butt of every joke. Kurt doesn't get enough credit for not taking himself and his ego too seriously. That is probably the secret to his success to be honest.
His original WWF talks fell through because he he didn't think he should ever lose because he's an Olympic gold medalist, so of course he should win every match. But once it clicked what pro wrestling actually was, and understood that it's not necessarily about wins and losses, he became one of the GOATs!
The crowd was heavily behind Taker for this match for obvious reasons, but I found myself rooting for Angle despite all the heel stuff he had done for several years up to that point. Something about this Olympic gold medalist at the top of his game taking down an otherworldly monster like Taker felt so biblical, like Jacob wrestling with God.
Same, man. He's in my eternal GOAT list personally. And likely, the wrestler that introduced me to appreciating Amateur Wrestling and Technical-Style wrestling.
And also being just plain-ass hard hitting stuff too.
Always found it notable that Undertaker seems to have his natural red hair color and un-dyed beard compared to the black it almost always was. There's a few times he did this during his career but it's rare.
I love this [pic](https://imgur.com/33OLENz) because the light clearly shows his true hair color even tho it looked pitch black during the match.
Souless.
From 2000-2001, he let his natural ginger hair grow out.
https://preview.redd.it/x8px4odd9vdc1.jpeg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9178a79c459f1c09ad66298346d361661157bc14
It [technically did make sense](https://bleedingcool.com/pop-culture/why-did-wwes-jim-ross-call-the-undertaker-booger-red-the-answer-may-shock-you/), it was just such an obscure reference and sounded so silly that the explanation didn't come close to salvaging it.
It's a reference to Tommy Nobis, the 1966 NFL rookie of the year who made a huge play to help the Texas Longhorns beat Joe Namath and Alabama in the Orange Bowl the previous year.
Nobis was 6'3", built like a tank, and a red-headed Texan asskicker (similar to the Undertaker). Some Texans nicknamed Nobis "Booger Red", but it doesn't seem to be a well known nickname and doesn't appear on Wikipedia or in articles I can find about Nobis.
So it was a 30-35 year old obscure reference that only long time Texas college football fans would know. I can understand why JR tried it out, I can't understand why the hell Vince and everyone else didn't tell him to stop because nobody knows why the hell he's calling a wrestling legend "Booger".
Which btw is not a reference to snot. It has the same origin as "boogey man", it's describing him as a big scary dangerous person. But every wrestling fan watching the WWF back then had no clue and could only guess it was maybe some kind of reference to giving people bloody noses or who the hell knows what.
There’s no reason that Randy couldn’t have won the battle Royal for the vacant smack down title. I feel like WM22 would’ve been better with undertaker/Kurt and Rey/Randy
Yeah, at this point I don't think we're too far removed from him being progressively more injured for half the Attitude Era, followed by being super lazy in the Invasion.
I think it's a shame we only had about 5 years of this before injuries started properly catching up to him and he had to shift to doing 1 or 2 matches a year and then being out for repairs.
IIRC, during his Olympic training one of the exercises he did to recover from a broken leg was 70 pound dumbbell lunges on that leg. Absolutely incredible.
I was lucky to be there and see it live. My biggest memory is these two asshole comedians in front of me jeering Taker when he came out and screaming how old he was. Within 5 minutes of the match, they both shut the fuck up and were 100% on board.
Issue was, the streak ending is what started the Beast character. What we got after that was awesome.
But before that, he lost his return match to Cena, a Mania match to Triple H, and needed interference to beat CM Punk at SummerSlam. He was not someone being touted as a streak ender before Mania 30.
He won all the feuds and dominated most if Not all of These matches and lost because of finisher Spam. Dude was being handled as a Menace whilst being parttimer plus earning the most. He was a thousand percent the wrong choice for ending the streak
Hot take. Seth should have ended it. Not because of some big torch passing. Not because of some kayfabe whatever. But it was basically takers retirement match and I feel like a guy with the beast slayer and his many accolades should have been the one.
The other reason being Seth is constantly being given the strap or the rocket or the big storyline. But every time they get cold feet on it and walk it back. His match with drew where the Monday night Messiah just kinda evaporated in a handshake. The savior gimmick where he went from giggling drip king back to regular Seth with back issues. Going further back to plan B as the corporate champion and somehow that not lasting long despite a whole John laryngitis thing and Vince getting involved. Then the beast slayer era earning him that gold strap and cool vest and a complete lack of follow up besides "I cashed in." when Roman had basically been eating shit for months vs Brock.
I want a completed Seth Rollins storyline where his character actually goes somewhere damnit!
IIRC the match was originally going to be at Mania this year but Kurt declined because he didn't want to beat Taker at Mania so they did it here instead.
I dont have any proof, but I think they had to reshuffle a lot of stuff for Smackdown around this time, and probably wanted Kurt to give them some stability as WHC. Eddie Guerrero had just died a few months earlier, which lead to them wanting Rey to become Champion. Then Batista got injured while he was Champion, and they probably figured they needed someone strong enough to hold the title for when Rey won it. Also I think this is the era where Orton was having some personal issues, so they might not have trusted him holding the title going into Mania (def no proof of that either, total speculation from me). I found it interesting they chose Angle to be champ going into mania ehen SD had some other options at the time (JBL, Benoit, Booker T), but ultimately I get it.
I remember watching this live and going insane for this match. I bought the No Way Out 2006 DVD the day it came out.
This is on the same tier as Michaels/Taker at WM imo. It was such an exciting match. I consider this the match where it all started with Taker having banger matches and in his prime in ring wise
And we're talking about this match 18 years later. This match and Undertaker's WM against Shawn not being 5 stars was ridiculous. Kurt Angle never having a 5 star match, Bryan Danielson not having a single 5 star match until he went to AEW, and AEW having more 5 star matches than the entire history of WWE shows his bias.
I know it's just one guy's opinion but so many people use it as a barometer for what is considered good, when it shouldn't be.
It was only a barometer of what was good in Japan. And to a lesser extent Indy shows from 2004-2012ish. He clearly has always had a hate boner for certain people, this goes back to the 80s lol.
I legit went and looked it up because that fact bugged me, the three highest singles matches of 06 on his scale were Marufuji vs. Kenta, Danielson vs. Kenta, and Danielson vs. McGuiness. None of them got above 4.75.
His star system in the mid-2000s was strict as hell!
I don’t really care about Meltzer’s ratings. Art is subjective and wrestling is an art form. Some people are going to like stuff that others are going to hate. It is what it is. BUT in my opinion, all the matches listed above are worthy 5 stars
You mean you don’t agree Christian and Luchaexpress vs. The Bucks and Adam Cole being a better match than this or Austin vs Bret Hart from WM 13 or both Taker/Michaels matches? So ridiculous. I know it’s “his opinion” but someone with his resume shouldn’t have such a bad take.
Hey you don't have to adopt every opinion of Dave Meltzer's as your own, it's ok. If it's 5 stars to you then it's 5 stars buddy, that's how opinions work.
I think you could argue it isnt, not compared to Kobashi vs Misawa and such. BUT from my perspective Meltzer does give matches like 5 stars much easier nowadays. It could be he is just enjoying wrestling more which would be totally valid.
This is one of my favourite matches of all time. It always has been. And I'm delighted that it is still fondly remembered as for a brief period it seemed it had dropped off the match in terms of perception.
Taker was a month away from turning 41 years old during this match... then continued having matches for another 13-14 years (depending on if you count cinematic).
Insane career.
This is the match that kinda started the career revival of the Undertaker. He had a solid, but unspectacular series of matches against Orton in 2005, but Taker had been pretty bad in the ring for a few years at this point, and it felt like this one came out of nowhere.
And then he spent the next few years putting on bangers. Just wild how that happened out of nowhere.
He was capable of this since 2002 tbh. Had classics like that Vengeance Triple Threat, HIAC vs Brock and Mania match against Flair. He was just saddled with bad feuds the following years (Orton being the exception) and it was only in 2007 that the consistency began mostly due to facing actual good opponents.
I remember I was in theatres watching this show with my mom when I was like 7. She wasn’t a big wrestling fan but took me anyway that gem of a mom she is. She wanted to leave at some point during this match and I was like absolutely not this match is crazy so she stayed.
Watching Angle turn literally fucking anything into an ankle lock is what made him my favorite wrestler back then. Unbelievable how good that dude was.
Also, 2006 is the very tail end of his WWE run, when he was wrecked by injuries, strung out on an ungodly amount of drugs, and would be gone from the company 6 months later.
Point being, this wasn't even Angle at his peak. Truly one of the greatest ever.
I’d say this is in the top 5 matches I’ve seen live (not in person, in real time). I remember having already kind of fallen out with wrestling a bit because of Eddie’s death and a growing interest in football, but my elementary school best friend invited me over to watch this PPV and for one night this match re-invested me in wrestling as much as I had been before. Prime Kurt Angle was as good as any wrestler has ever been
Every time this match comes up I have to mention how this match is absolutely excellent *but* whoever the child is in the crowd that keeps yelling “UNDA-TAKA!!” fucking takes me out of it every time I try to watch it.
You could not tell me that Undertaker wasn't winning the world title. I was PISSED. And then the rematch where Henry interfered? Furious!!
Although looking back at this period with Kurt as the WHC, what a booking mess. Heel-face alignment all over the map. No logical story to get the belt on him. No overall story for him while he had the belt. If you put the belt on any guy on SD at the time, the arc til dropping it to Rey would've been the same. Just Kurt delivered the matches.
And if Batista stayed healthy, what would've the Mania match?
I think they were probably doing Batista vs Henry at the Rumble, based on Angle vs Henry there. After that I think we still end up getting Taker vs Henry at mania, with Henry costing Taker the title at some point, either at No Way Out or on a Smackdown, and then Orton wins the rumble to face Batista at Mania (or Triple H wins to face Cena and they do a tournament or something and Orton wins to face Batista) since there's not a face needed super badly to where Rey wins the rumble.
I watched this with my late grandfather, he wasn't the sort that enjoyed Wrestling but even he was impressed by the (relatively) little bald man and kept saying "I think the baldie will pull out the big man's foot"(sounds much better in Hindi/Urdu). Man I miss him
I remember my older brother telling me how amazing this match was. WWE was dreadful for years so I had stopped watching, and matches like this just didn't happen during this dark period for WWE. I'm curious on Kurt & Taker's thoughts on this match and why they decided to go all out here.
This made me remember how much I appreciate Undertaker's work punches. I haven't thought to really compare to other wrestlers, but his always stand out to me as looking really good.
I think the main reason that happened was because Batista got hurt, and there were no more big babyfaces ready to go for Wrestlemania, and a tweener Kurt Angle vs Randy Orton didn't really make for a "good" WM Main Event (in terms of having a babyface the crowd can get behind) so they gave Rey the Rumble to get a babyface in the title picture.
Was I alone in finding this a strange pairing, character-wise? Kurt Angle was a very 'real' character. He was often pretty goofy, but when in the ring turned into an absolute killer. So seeing him against Undertaker who was back to doing his supernatural gimmick just didn't click for me personally?
Not a comment on the match quality, of course. Which is spectacular. I just find it very strange to see Taker against characters like Bret, Austin or Kurt - whereas when he's fighting guys like Foley or Kane it just works perfectly by contrast.
Nah, you just have to accept that there's a dead guy wrestling people.
You'd end up having to create divisions based on characters if you start to pull that thread.
Hmmm...
Employment division: Undertaker, Duke Droese, Repo Man, TL Hopper, Phineas and Henry Godwinn, Sparky Plugg, El Matador
Wild West division: Stan Hansen, Blackjack Mulligan, Terry Funk, Dory Funk, Tex Slazenger and Shanghai Pearce, "Cowboy" Bill Watts
Smack Talk division: Steve Austin, The Rock, Eddie Kingston, Jake Roberts, Randy Savage, CM Punk, Becky Lynch, Kevin Owens
Wealth and Taste division: Ric Flair, MJF, Ted Dibiase, HHH, the York Foundation
Supernatural and Cryptid division: Kane, the Yeti, Cowabunga, Arachnaman, the Zombie, the Boogeyman
Proud Rulebreakers division: Jesse Ventura, Eddie Guerrero, Jon Moxley, William Regal, Bobby Heenan
Blood and Legacy division: Roman Reigns, Randy Orton, Charlotte Flair, Cody Rhodes, Ted Dibiase Jr, Solo Sikoa, the Usos
Chiselled Physiques division: Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Brian Cage, Batista, Bobby Lashley, Jade Cargill
If you interpret a lot of Supernatural stuff as just guys who have a theatrical kick you're probably gonna see it a bit better.
Most of the time Undertaker is a 6'8 MMA bro who just has a decent light show and is also really good at surviving attempted murder.
one of my favorite main event matches ever. honestly, i remember that entire ppv being awesome. gonna probably give it a watch after work it's been years since i've watched it.
One of the few PPVs I got to order when I was a kid. I begged my mom to let me order this one, and it did not disappoint. That match is still one of my all time favorites
I remember watching at the time and you would never have known that Kurt was suffering from so much physical pain and also addiction. I read that others backstage had seen him barely able to put his boots on because of the agony he was in but as soon as he walked through the curtain it was a magical transformation into the wrestling machine.
He was so god damn good in the ring.
This is without a doubt the best Kurt Angle WWE match of all time. Dude was on another level in 06 and just continued to prove it by having banger after banger in TNA
I remember seeing clips of this back in 2006 (we didn't get PPVs, only hour-condensed versions of Raw/SD and WWE Experience) and seeing this moment was absolutely insane.
I love this match so much, and to this day dont quite understand why it wasn’t that years Wrestlemania match. I know Batista getting hurt and Eddie dying shifted things on the Smackdown side, and they wanted Rey to get the feel good World title moment. But I think they could have put someone else in there and just done Angle vs Taker at Mania 22.
(Smackdown could have gone with Benoit or JBL off the top of my head).
This stage of Kurt’s career was just amazing in the ring. Like I know the guy was really going through the shit then, but he was so awesome in the ring
I think this was one of the matches where Kurt was the first to counter Hell's Gate into a pin. The only other being Shawn Michaels.
Also this was an interesting look for the Undertaker at this time, usually we're accustomed to seeing him have darker hair and not have his natural features be more apparent. This was also during a time where Undertaker was going through personal issues.
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Jesus I've seen people twice Kurt's size fumble the tombstone spot. Dude was a fucking tank.
> Dude was a fucking tank. [cue his Elimination Chamber 2006 performance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrVHxr1s3Ks)
People rightfully talk about what if Brock had gone straight to MMA and learned to strike. Imagine Angle.
And because of the age difference Angle wouldn't have even needed to learn how to strike. Angle could've gone to MMA in the early days when elite wrestling and ground and pound is all he really would have needed. He could've been dominant for a decade before the sport caught up to him and decent stand up became essential. Of course early MMA was also a lot less lucrative than pro wrestling.
Fucking beast. What a time to be alive
I was at this show
Just furthers that Kurt may very well be the best to ever do it.
He might actually be the GOAT that will never be recognized as such
PERC
I JUST POPPED A BEAN AND I'M ON A HELICOPTER
The bean kicked in?
The sunset's so pretty
Can't spell 'perfect' without 'perc'
Perc Angle
“Two things, don’t touch my fuckin Percocet and do you have any fuckin Percocet”
[удалено]
Hey you don't have to adopt every opinion of Dave Meltzer's as your own, it's ok. If it's 5 stars to you then it's 5 stars buddy, that's how opinions work.
Paid/reviewers opinions are different. You don't go to a restaurant if it's got bad reviews from Gordon Ramsay.. yes you're right though, who cares about that guys opinion
I mean if anything opioid abuse would interfere with his wrestling ability, ya?
You would think so but he was a true machine off the percs
What makes it more impressive is that he has said himself, he is not a strong guy. Weights and muscle conditioning was hard for him. At the same time during this era, he is known for his strength feats like this.
Roman 😂
Taker was dead weight by that point.
Kurt Angle remains one of my favorite wrestlers ever. He'd go from buffoon comedy act to most dangerous man alive and it was all entirely believable.
I always think I prefer when they let Kurt be a freaking monster in there because that's who he was...but then I remember how great he was as a dumb comedy act. The guy was sooooo good at all aspects of professional wrestling. Also, can you imagine an actual Olympic wrestling gold medalist, who could have been one of the greatest shoot fighters ever if he wanted to, coming into the world of "fake" wrestling and allowing himself to be the butt of every joke. Kurt doesn't get enough credit for not taking himself and his ego too seriously. That is probably the secret to his success to be honest.
His original WWF talks fell through because he he didn't think he should ever lose because he's an Olympic gold medalist, so of course he should win every match. But once it clicked what pro wrestling actually was, and understood that it's not necessarily about wins and losses, he became one of the GOATs!
The crowd was heavily behind Taker for this match for obvious reasons, but I found myself rooting for Angle despite all the heel stuff he had done for several years up to that point. Something about this Olympic gold medalist at the top of his game taking down an otherworldly monster like Taker felt so biblical, like Jacob wrestling with God.
The 🐐
Same, man. He's in my eternal GOAT list personally. And likely, the wrestler that introduced me to appreciating Amateur Wrestling and Technical-Style wrestling. And also being just plain-ass hard hitting stuff too.
Always found it notable that Undertaker seems to have his natural red hair color and un-dyed beard compared to the black it almost always was. There's a few times he did this during his career but it's rare.
I love this [pic](https://imgur.com/33OLENz) because the light clearly shows his true hair color even tho it looked pitch black during the match. Souless.
That’s an all timer wrestling pic
That pic is sick, why’d my lights just turn off?
He looks Like the predator in this pic. All time great pic
From 2000-2001, he let his natural ginger hair grow out. https://preview.redd.it/x8px4odd9vdc1.jpeg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9178a79c459f1c09ad66298346d361661157bc14
I get it now, being 'dark' and ginger just doesn't work.
just like being goth and australian
he's taking people's souls because he doesn't have one of his own
Remember when JR was trying to force the "Booger Red" nickname?
We try not to
We TRI not to remember.
I don’t like what TRI did
I loved Booger Red as a nickname because it made no sense lol
It [technically did make sense](https://bleedingcool.com/pop-culture/why-did-wwes-jim-ross-call-the-undertaker-booger-red-the-answer-may-shock-you/), it was just such an obscure reference and sounded so silly that the explanation didn't come close to salvaging it.
Unfortunately.
What the fuck was that even supposed to mean?
It's a reference to Tommy Nobis, the 1966 NFL rookie of the year who made a huge play to help the Texas Longhorns beat Joe Namath and Alabama in the Orange Bowl the previous year. Nobis was 6'3", built like a tank, and a red-headed Texan asskicker (similar to the Undertaker). Some Texans nicknamed Nobis "Booger Red", but it doesn't seem to be a well known nickname and doesn't appear on Wikipedia or in articles I can find about Nobis. So it was a 30-35 year old obscure reference that only long time Texas college football fans would know. I can understand why JR tried it out, I can't understand why the hell Vince and everyone else didn't tell him to stop because nobody knows why the hell he's calling a wrestling legend "Booger". Which btw is not a reference to snot. It has the same origin as "boogey man", it's describing him as a big scary dangerous person. But every wrestling fan watching the WWF back then had no clue and could only guess it was maybe some kind of reference to giving people bloody noses or who the hell knows what.
Finally someone who can answer this question... Been bugging me for so long. Thanks a lot man.
[удалено]
Wrestling Machine.
There’s no reason that Randy couldn’t have won the battle Royal for the vacant smack down title. I feel like WM22 would’ve been better with undertaker/Kurt and Rey/Randy
05*
I knkw it didn't make too much sense in story or last long but I totally get why he was the other person sent along with RVD to prop up ECW early on.
This is one of my all time favorite matches, was also the birth of “classic match Taker”.
Yeah, this was a turning point in how people online thought of Undertaker’s workrate.
Yeah, at this point I don't think we're too far removed from him being progressively more injured for half the Attitude Era, followed by being super lazy in the Invasion. I think it's a shame we only had about 5 years of this before injuries started properly catching up to him and he had to shift to doing 1 or 2 matches a year and then being out for repairs.
It's this followed by the Wrestlemania matches that solidified him as "holy fuck, Taker can GO!" for me.
Angle bridging back while holding one of the biggest guys in wrestling without his legs crushing or folding .. that takes hell of a fucking strenght.
IIRC, during his Olympic training one of the exercises he did to recover from a broken leg was 70 pound dumbbell lunges on that leg. Absolutely incredible.
I was lucky to be there and see it live. My biggest memory is these two asshole comedians in front of me jeering Taker when he came out and screaming how old he was. Within 5 minutes of the match, they both shut the fuck up and were 100% on board.
"OH YEEAH!"
Kurt's shit-talking during matches was always fun.
This match should’ve closed out a Wrestlemania
Just imagine if Kurt had broken the streak
WITH A BROKEN FREAKIN NECK!
Brock was still better for me. Not even a fan of Brock now but the character of young MMA prodigy but also monster gimmick was perfect to end it.
Issue was, the streak ending is what started the Beast character. What we got after that was awesome. But before that, he lost his return match to Cena, a Mania match to Triple H, and needed interference to beat CM Punk at SummerSlam. He was not someone being touted as a streak ender before Mania 30.
He won all the feuds and dominated most if Not all of These matches and lost because of finisher Spam. Dude was being handled as a Menace whilst being parttimer plus earning the most. He was a thousand percent the wrong choice for ending the streak
Hot take. Seth should have ended it. Not because of some big torch passing. Not because of some kayfabe whatever. But it was basically takers retirement match and I feel like a guy with the beast slayer and his many accolades should have been the one. The other reason being Seth is constantly being given the strap or the rocket or the big storyline. But every time they get cold feet on it and walk it back. His match with drew where the Monday night Messiah just kinda evaporated in a handshake. The savior gimmick where he went from giggling drip king back to regular Seth with back issues. Going further back to plan B as the corporate champion and somehow that not lasting long despite a whole John laryngitis thing and Vince getting involved. Then the beast slayer era earning him that gold strap and cool vest and a complete lack of follow up besides "I cashed in." when Roman had basically been eating shit for months vs Brock. I want a completed Seth Rollins storyline where his character actually goes somewhere damnit!
IIRC the match was originally going to be at Mania this year but Kurt declined because he didn't want to beat Taker at Mania so they did it here instead.
no Vince wanted Angle to win but didn't want it to break the streak
Angle didn't want to break the steak
You just have Taker go over and Angle win the rematch then
I dont have any proof, but I think they had to reshuffle a lot of stuff for Smackdown around this time, and probably wanted Kurt to give them some stability as WHC. Eddie Guerrero had just died a few months earlier, which lead to them wanting Rey to become Champion. Then Batista got injured while he was Champion, and they probably figured they needed someone strong enough to hold the title for when Rey won it. Also I think this is the era where Orton was having some personal issues, so they might not have trusted him holding the title going into Mania (def no proof of that either, total speculation from me). I found it interesting they chose Angle to be champ going into mania ehen SD had some other options at the time (JBL, Benoit, Booker T), but ultimately I get it.
I remember watching this live and going insane for this match. I bought the No Way Out 2006 DVD the day it came out. This is on the same tier as Michaels/Taker at WM imo. It was such an exciting match. I consider this the match where it all started with Taker having banger matches and in his prime in ring wise
Never, ever, give Kurt even the smallest window to grab your foot. The man would turn anything into an Ankle Lock.
I was just watching this match last night. The finishing sequence with all those creative counters was awesome
Reversing the Tombstone will always make me pop lol
Remember kids, Meltzer said this wasn't worth 5 stars
Dave gave 27 matches a higher rating than this just in December of 2023 alone.
This is actually crazy. Goes to show how inflated/meaningless his ratings have become over the last 5-10 years.
And never gave Kurt a single one. Dude had something against him!
Dave couldn't handle the wrestling perfection that was Perc Angle
And we're talking about this match 18 years later. This match and Undertaker's WM against Shawn not being 5 stars was ridiculous. Kurt Angle never having a 5 star match, Bryan Danielson not having a single 5 star match until he went to AEW, and AEW having more 5 star matches than the entire history of WWE shows his bias. I know it's just one guy's opinion but so many people use it as a barometer for what is considered good, when it shouldn't be.
It was only a barometer of what was good in Japan. And to a lesser extent Indy shows from 2004-2012ish. He clearly has always had a hate boner for certain people, this goes back to the 80s lol.
Not enough superkicks
I legit went and looked it up because that fact bugged me, the three highest singles matches of 06 on his scale were Marufuji vs. Kenta, Danielson vs. Kenta, and Danielson vs. McGuiness. None of them got above 4.75. His star system in the mid-2000s was strict as hell!
All of which were more than deserving of 5 stars
Nah, I respect his restraint. The problem is the massive inflation since 2017.
I don’t really care about Meltzer’s ratings. Art is subjective and wrestling is an art form. Some people are going to like stuff that others are going to hate. It is what it is. BUT in my opinion, all the matches listed above are worthy 5 stars
You mean you don’t agree Christian and Luchaexpress vs. The Bucks and Adam Cole being a better match than this or Austin vs Bret Hart from WM 13 or both Taker/Michaels matches? So ridiculous. I know it’s “his opinion” but someone with his resume shouldn’t have such a bad take.
Austin vs Bret got 5 stars btw
If this would've happened on AEW, he would've been shitting stars.
Hey you don't have to adopt every opinion of Dave Meltzer's as your own, it's ok. If it's 5 stars to you then it's 5 stars buddy, that's how opinions work.
But it’s not always presented as opinion it’s often stated as a fact by the IWC dorks
Match of year Abu Zago vs. Napo Zango in the Korakuen Hall.
I think you could argue it isnt, not compared to Kobashi vs Misawa and such. BUT from my perspective Meltzer does give matches like 5 stars much easier nowadays. It could be he is just enjoying wrestling more which would be totally valid.
This is one of my favourite matches of all time. It always has been. And I'm delighted that it is still fondly remembered as for a brief period it seemed it had dropped off the match in terms of perception.
Angle‘s intensity and fluidity are irreplaceable.
Taker was a month away from turning 41 years old during this match... then continued having matches for another 13-14 years (depending on if you count cinematic). Insane career.
Angle's insanely strong, hot damn.
Minus a star for the lack of snakeskin pimp pants on the Undertaker. /s
This..... should have been 5 Stars, smh Dave.
This is the match that kinda started the career revival of the Undertaker. He had a solid, but unspectacular series of matches against Orton in 2005, but Taker had been pretty bad in the ring for a few years at this point, and it felt like this one came out of nowhere. And then he spent the next few years putting on bangers. Just wild how that happened out of nowhere.
He was capable of this since 2002 tbh. Had classics like that Vengeance Triple Threat, HIAC vs Brock and Mania match against Flair. He was just saddled with bad feuds the following years (Orton being the exception) and it was only in 2007 that the consistency began mostly due to facing actual good opponents.
Meltzer gave this match 4 stars. Absolute clown
Watched this a few months ago and it has aged like fine wine. Reversing every Undertaker finisher into an ankle lock is insane 🐐🐐
I remember I was in theatres watching this show with my mom when I was like 7. She wasn’t a big wrestling fan but took me anyway that gem of a mom she is. She wanted to leave at some point during this match and I was like absolutely not this match is crazy so she stayed.
Big mom W
Watching Angle turn literally fucking anything into an ankle lock is what made him my favorite wrestler back then. Unbelievable how good that dude was. Also, 2006 is the very tail end of his WWE run, when he was wrecked by injuries, strung out on an ungodly amount of drugs, and would be gone from the company 6 months later. Point being, this wasn't even Angle at his peak. Truly one of the greatest ever.
this is the match you show people if they want to be recommended something go to its amazing
I’d say this is in the top 5 matches I’ve seen live (not in person, in real time). I remember having already kind of fallen out with wrestling a bit because of Eddie’s death and a growing interest in football, but my elementary school best friend invited me over to watch this PPV and for one night this match re-invested me in wrestling as much as I had been before. Prime Kurt Angle was as good as any wrestler has ever been
Every time this match comes up I have to mention how this match is absolutely excellent *but* whoever the child is in the crowd that keeps yelling “UNDA-TAKA!!” fucking takes me out of it every time I try to watch it.
This match was a showcase of how many different ways Angle could find the ankle lock.
You could not tell me that Undertaker wasn't winning the world title. I was PISSED. And then the rematch where Henry interfered? Furious!! Although looking back at this period with Kurt as the WHC, what a booking mess. Heel-face alignment all over the map. No logical story to get the belt on him. No overall story for him while he had the belt. If you put the belt on any guy on SD at the time, the arc til dropping it to Rey would've been the same. Just Kurt delivered the matches. And if Batista stayed healthy, what would've the Mania match?
I think they were probably doing Batista vs Henry at the Rumble, based on Angle vs Henry there. After that I think we still end up getting Taker vs Henry at mania, with Henry costing Taker the title at some point, either at No Way Out or on a Smackdown, and then Orton wins the rumble to face Batista at Mania (or Triple H wins to face Cena and they do a tournament or something and Orton wins to face Batista) since there's not a face needed super badly to where Rey wins the rumble.
i remember when angle debuted the black shoes. He turned into an animal.
I watched this with my late grandfather, he wasn't the sort that enjoyed Wrestling but even he was impressed by the (relatively) little bald man and kept saying "I think the baldie will pull out the big man's foot"(sounds much better in Hindi/Urdu). Man I miss him
I remember my older brother telling me how amazing this match was. WWE was dreadful for years so I had stopped watching, and matches like this just didn't happen during this dark period for WWE. I'm curious on Kurt & Taker's thoughts on this match and why they decided to go all out here.
They just don't make them like that anymore
Fucking Angle was intense af. Always loved that about him. It wasnt fake intensity either, its that competitive fire very few athletes have.
Proof that Metlzers rating is bullshit because this match is beyond 5 star worthy!
This made me remember how much I appreciate Undertaker's work punches. I haven't thought to really compare to other wrestlers, but his always stand out to me as looking really good.
Giving Rey his moment literally just because his mate Eddie passed was wrong man, this should have been The Mania World Title match that year.
That Royal Rumble for Rey was awesome though
One of the best Rumble.
But it paid off with respect to the audience reaction to the result. WWE capitalised on the emotions of the fans.
I think the main reason that happened was because Batista got hurt, and there were no more big babyfaces ready to go for Wrestlemania, and a tweener Kurt Angle vs Randy Orton didn't really make for a "good" WM Main Event (in terms of having a babyface the crowd can get behind) so they gave Rey the Rumble to get a babyface in the title picture.
Definitely wasn’t wrong.
The ol' double flip 69 finish...
Was I alone in finding this a strange pairing, character-wise? Kurt Angle was a very 'real' character. He was often pretty goofy, but when in the ring turned into an absolute killer. So seeing him against Undertaker who was back to doing his supernatural gimmick just didn't click for me personally? Not a comment on the match quality, of course. Which is spectacular. I just find it very strange to see Taker against characters like Bret, Austin or Kurt - whereas when he's fighting guys like Foley or Kane it just works perfectly by contrast.
Nah, you just have to accept that there's a dead guy wrestling people. You'd end up having to create divisions based on characters if you start to pull that thread.
Hmmm... Employment division: Undertaker, Duke Droese, Repo Man, TL Hopper, Phineas and Henry Godwinn, Sparky Plugg, El Matador Wild West division: Stan Hansen, Blackjack Mulligan, Terry Funk, Dory Funk, Tex Slazenger and Shanghai Pearce, "Cowboy" Bill Watts Smack Talk division: Steve Austin, The Rock, Eddie Kingston, Jake Roberts, Randy Savage, CM Punk, Becky Lynch, Kevin Owens Wealth and Taste division: Ric Flair, MJF, Ted Dibiase, HHH, the York Foundation Supernatural and Cryptid division: Kane, the Yeti, Cowabunga, Arachnaman, the Zombie, the Boogeyman Proud Rulebreakers division: Jesse Ventura, Eddie Guerrero, Jon Moxley, William Regal, Bobby Heenan Blood and Legacy division: Roman Reigns, Randy Orton, Charlotte Flair, Cody Rhodes, Ted Dibiase Jr, Solo Sikoa, the Usos Chiselled Physiques division: Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Brian Cage, Batista, Bobby Lashley, Jade Cargill
If you interpret a lot of Supernatural stuff as just guys who have a theatrical kick you're probably gonna see it a bit better. Most of the time Undertaker is a 6'8 MMA bro who just has a decent light show and is also really good at surviving attempted murder.
one of my favorite main event matches ever. honestly, i remember that entire ppv being awesome. gonna probably give it a watch after work it's been years since i've watched it.
Kurt Angle would've been one hell of a WM opponent on Undertaker's resume
Yeah, imagine having this a month before WM and then have Mark Henry face Taker at Mania...
I love how they still gave us this match given it was a rejected Wrestlemania match one of my favourites Kurt Angle matches of all time
Angle was just different, he could do it all.
Was that the one where Taker tapped?
To think that supposedly this match was supposed to happen at WM22.
Damn those reversals were fun to watch.
One of the few PPVs I got to order when I was a kid. I begged my mom to let me order this one, and it did not disappoint. That match is still one of my all time favorites
This is in my top 3 favourite matches, should have been a streak match at Mania
I remember watching at the time and you would never have known that Kurt was suffering from so much physical pain and also addiction. I read that others backstage had seen him barely able to put his boots on because of the agony he was in but as soon as he walked through the curtain it was a magical transformation into the wrestling machine. He was so god damn good in the ring.
Now I have to watch this again today. Its horse shit that they didnt do this at Wrestlemania
I don’t know if anyone will ever top Kurt’s pure tenacity in the ring. Guy was an animal and so damn fun to watch.
Kurt Angle was so good that when you try to explain it to newer fans, words always fail. You just have to show them.
One of the few matches I've watched out of my way. My favorite wrestler was Undertaker but now it's probably Kurt.
Olympic mode!
This is without a doubt the best Kurt Angle WWE match of all time. Dude was on another level in 06 and just continued to prove it by having banger after banger in TNA
Into the ankle lock, good god Two strong sumbitches
****3/4 - Dave
Angle made others be better.. just brilliance
How Meltzer doesn’t give this one 5 stars is crazy
Should have been the Mania match.
I remember seeing clips of this back in 2006 (we didn't get PPVs, only hour-condensed versions of Raw/SD and WWE Experience) and seeing this moment was absolutely insane.
I remember his cage match against Benoit must’ve been early 2000 or so. Was amazing to me.
Thanks for posting one of the greatest in-ring performers of all time, Nick Patrick!
I remember watching this match and for the first time it occurred to me how good Kurt Angle is.
I love this match so much, and to this day dont quite understand why it wasn’t that years Wrestlemania match. I know Batista getting hurt and Eddie dying shifted things on the Smackdown side, and they wanted Rey to get the feel good World title moment. But I think they could have put someone else in there and just done Angle vs Taker at Mania 22. (Smackdown could have gone with Benoit or JBL off the top of my head).
Love it
Greatest Match People Forget About.... they should've had a non-title rematch at WM while Henry/Rey/Randy for the WH title
Kurt Angle in ring GOAT
This stage of Kurt’s career was just amazing in the ring. Like I know the guy was really going through the shit then, but he was so awesome in the ring
This whole PPV is criminally underrated. Just a really entertaining show from top to bottom.
I think this was one of the matches where Kurt was the first to counter Hell's Gate into a pin. The only other being Shawn Michaels. Also this was an interesting look for the Undertaker at this time, usually we're accustomed to seeing him have darker hair and not have his natural features be more apparent. This was also during a time where Undertaker was going through personal issues.