Awards Moderator HarmonicGenerator Posted January 22, 2017 Awards Moderator Share Posted January 22, 2017 Some of you might remember a year or two ago, I did month-long match-a-day rematches of each of the Big 4 PPVs, picking a match from each year's event in the lead up to its most recent one. I can't comment on whether it was a good read but it helped me make the most of the Network. Â Since Kurt Angle's going into the Hall Of Fame, I thought I'd do something similar, but take it a step further. Between now and the HOF ceremony I'm going to try and watch all Kurt's WWE PPV matches, in order. I'll aim for one a day but I know there'll be days when I can't - but if I start this, I will finish it! Â (In the case of Royal Rumbles, I'll only watch his bits instead of the whole thing. I may do the same for elimination matches but it depends how long they are. And I'm not watching Luther Reigns matches just because Kurt's in his corner. I have to draw the line somewhere.) Â I hope that coming out of this I'll have got a fuller appreciation for Kurt and how he developed and how his career ebbed and flowed throughout his WWE career. Plus I've never tracked a particular wrestler in this way before so it will be interesting. Â If anyone wants to play along too, please join in! Â The matches Survivor Series 1999 - vs Shawn Stasiak Armageddon 1999 - vs Steve Blackman Royal Rumble 2000 - vs Tazz No Way Out 2000 - vs Chris Jericho WrestleMania 2000 - vs Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit Backlash 2000 - vs Big Show Insurrextion 2000 - vs Chris Benoit Judgment Day 2000 - with Edge & Christian vs Rikishi & Too Cool King Of The Ring 2000 - vs Chris Jericho, vs Crash and vs Rikishi Fully Loaded 2000 - vs The Undertaker Summerslam 2000 - vs Triple H and The Rock Unforgiven 2000 - vs Triple H No Mercy 2000 - vs The Rock Survivor Series 2000 - vs The Undertaker Rebellion 2000 - vs The Rock, Rikishi and Stone Cold Steve Austin Armageddon 2000 - vs The Rock, Rikishi, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H and The Undertaker Royal Rumble 2001 - vs Triple H No Way Out 2001 - vs The Rock WrestleMania X-Seven - vs Chris Benoit Backlash 2001 - vs Chris Benoit Insurrextion 2001 - vs Chris Benoit Judgment Day 2001 - vs Chris Benoit King Of The Ring 2001 - vs Christian, vs Edge, and vs Shane McMahon Invasion - with Stone Cold Steve Austin, Chris Jericho, Kane & The Undertaker vs Booker T, DDP, Rhyno and The Dudley Boyz Summerslam 2001 - vs Stone Cold Steve Austin Unforgiven 2001 - vs Stone Cold Steve Austin No Mercy 2001 - vs Stone Cold Steve Austin and Rob Van Dam Rebellion 2001 - vs Chris Jericho Survivor Series 2001 - with Stone Cold Steve Austin, Rob Van Dam, Booker T & Shane McMahon vs The Rock, Chris Jericho, Big Show, Kane & The Undertaker Vengeance 2001 - vs Stone Cold Steve Austin Royal Rumble 2002 - Royal Rumble match No Way Out 2002 - vs Triple H WrestleMania X-8 - vs Kane Backlash 2002 - vs Edge Judgment Day 2002 - vs Edge King Of The Ring 2002 - vs Hulk Hogan Vengeance 2002 - vs The Rock and The Undertaker Summerslam 2002 - vs Rey Mysterio Unforgiven 2002 - vs Chris Benoit No Mercy 2002 - with Chris Benoit vs Edge & Rey Mysterio Rebellion 2002 - with Chris Benoit vs Los Guerreros Survivor Series 2002 - with Chris Benoit vs Edge & Rey Mysterio and Los Guerreros Armageddon 2002 - vs Big Show Royal Rumble 2003 - vs Chris Benoit No Way Out 2003 - with Team Angle vs Chris Benoit and Brock Lesnar WrestleMania XIX - vs Brock Lesnar Vengeance 2003 - vs Brock Lesnar and Big Show Summerslam 2003 - vs Brock Lesnar No Mercy 2003 - vs John Cena Survivor Series 2003 - with John Cena, Chris Benoit, Hardcore Holly and Bradshaw vs Brock Lesnar, Big Show, A-Train, Nathan Jones and Matt Morgan Royal Rumble 2004 - Royal Rumble match No Way Out 2004 - vs John Cena and Big Show WrestleMania XX - vs Eddie Guerrero Summerslam 2004 - vs Eddie Guerrero No Mercy 2004 - vs Big Show Survivor Series 2004 - with Luther Reigns, Mark Jindrak and Carlito vs Eddie Guerrero, Big Show, John Cena and Rob Van Dam Armageddon 2004 - vs Santa Claus, and with Luther Reigns and Mark Jindrak vs Big Show Royal Rumble 2005 - vs Big Show and John Bradshaw Layfield, and Royal Rumble match No Way Out 2005 - vs John Cena WrestleMania 21 - vs Shawn Michaels Judgment Day 2005 - vs Booker T Vengeance 2005 - vs Shawn Michaels Summerslam 2005 - vs Eugene Unforgiven 2005 - vs John Cena Taboo Tuesday 2005 - vs John Cena and Shawn Michaels Survivor Series 2005 - vs John Cena New Year's Revolution 2006 - vs John Cena, Shawn Michaels, Carlito, Chris Masters and Kane Royal Rumble 2006 - vs Mark Henry No Way Out 2006 - vs The Undertaker WrestleMania 22 - vs Rey Mysterio and Randy Orton Judgment Day 2006 - vs Mark Henry One Night Stand 2006 - vs Randy Orton Vengeance 2006 - vs Randy Orton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator HarmonicGenerator Posted January 22, 2017 Author Awards Moderator Share Posted January 22, 2017 We begin with Survivor Series 1999, and Kurt's PPV debut against Shawn Stasiak. Â (I did review this already in my Survivor Series thread, but since I have to watch it again anyway I might as well write a whole new thing.) Â The match: Howard Finkel gives Kurt a big big introduction. The crowd, sadly, don't. Angle and Stasiak do some nice basic takedowns and counters to start, JR points out this is a different kind of action than they're used to seeing in the WWF, which the Twattitude crowd would agree with since we're about a minute in and they've already chanted "boring" and something about Redwings. Â Kurt hits the first big move of the match with a belly to belly and poses to the crowd, obviously not put off, and Lawler's pointed out something similar to JR which (and I'm getting deja vu writing this so I probably said it last time) either means they're trying very hard to cover for it, or it's part of the plan all along and Kurt's going to be a heel because he actually wrestles and doesn't just brawl and hit his finishers. We'll see. Â Stasiak's got the upper hand, and in response to another "boring" chant, sticks Kurt in a chinlock or a front face lock or whatever it's called. Kurt hits a clothesline and rolls out of the ring and gets on the mic to tell the crowd they do NOT boo an Olympic gold medalist. Good on him. It doesn't really rile them up, so Stasiak takes it back to the whatever lock. Kurt does a nice tiltawhirl counter and rolls Stasiak up for a two. He hits a couple of his soon-to-be signature right hands and a powerslam for two, then Stasiak hits a BLOODY F-5 for all intents and purposes, sowing the seeds for the Planet Stasiak vs Brock Lesnar feud in 2002. Â Angle hits the "Modified Slam", which is not yet Olympic or Angle, and which Lawler claims he stole from him. They're saying Angle's getting booed but I'm not hearing it. We'll see how he gets on next time. Â My thoughts A decent start. The 1999 crowd haven't got on board yet, but the WWF themselves seem to be. Â Angle Landmarks: First PPV match First appearance of his music First turn-around-arms-out entrance move thingy he does First belly to belly First Angle Slam First pinfall victory And, technically, the first time he pulls the straps down, but it's after the match, so it only half counts. Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.E Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 I only just saw that match myself recently, and its so random. The crowd aren't into at all, and despite Kurt being fairly new to Pro wrestling at the time, you can tell he's got something special that will develop nicely (as it did obviously). A good showing for Angle, with him trying his best to get some heat from the crowd as well.  A weirder thing that I found was their hype of Stasiak going into this. Was this pre or  post "Meat"? I presume the hype was to give Angle more cred in beating him, but I don't recall anything about Stasiak being pushed at any time really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members ElCece Posted January 23, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted January 23, 2017 Well he did get a wee push in WCW as a the new Mr Perfect. Good idea HG. Will be interesting to see if Angles style wears on you eventually Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heatseeker Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 I love this idea. Do you have a list of his ppv matches? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator HarmonicGenerator Posted January 23, 2017 Author Awards Moderator Share Posted January 23, 2017 I went through Wikipedia last night checking which ones he didn't appear on so I know the order I've got to go in. I've got a clean run of every show for a while - he didn't miss a PPV until Insurrextion 2002! And as far as I can tell his last one was Vengeance 06. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merzbow Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 Has there ever been a bigger workhorse than Kurt? He seemed to put his all into pretty much every match he had even when working a seemingly throwaway match on an episode of Impact. Only saw him a couple of times live on house shows and even then he went for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator HarmonicGenerator Posted January 23, 2017 Author Awards Moderator Share Posted January 23, 2017 Next up, we go to Armageddon 1999, and it's Kurt Angle vs. Steve Blackman. I'm looking forward to this, I liked the Lethal Weapon.  The match: Before actually starting the match, I've been distracted by two things.  1) The set of Armageddon '99 is fantastic! Looks like a proper bit of movie set stuff. Doesn't often get mentioned when the 'best PPV set' discussion comes up. 2) The opening tag team battle royal. The Dudleys, Hardys, E&C, Acolytes, Too Cool, Godfather & Menry, the Headbangers and the Posse. AND there's two other tag matches on this card. That's a division with some depth, and it feel like today could compete to some extent. Where there's no comparison, however, is the fact at least four of those teams gets MONSTER pops by today's standards. It's impressive.  Anyway, let's get to some Angle.  After a short, confident video, he's heading out, and he has a proper entrance video and the US flag on his singlet and everything. Kurt gets on the mic and begins to tell the crowd about the Three Is, but is interrupted by the BOOMBA-CHICKY-BOOMBA-CHICKY-BOOMBA-CHICKY-BOOMBA-CHICKY of Steve Blackman's entrance music, which is great music. He gets a good reaction, Angle kind of got booed but it's the quietest one I've heard on the show so far (possibly even the Posse got slightly more).  Blackman belts it straight down to the ring and we're on, he kicks Angle in the gut and strikes him in the corner. JR makes a good point of it being Blackman's martial arts style against Angle's Olympic wrestling style. MIXED MARTIAL ARTS?  Anyway, this match has a backstory of the two of them having been partners but they had a falling out or lost a match on SmackDown or something, JR did explain but this match is going at mega pace so it's hard to keep up. Blackman's hit a missile dropkick and missed with a top rope headbutt and it still doesn't slow down. Workrate!  Angle takes advantage with a clothesline and a dropkick, then puts his arms out to the crowd, and THERE'S the booing. They don't like him showboating, that's for sure. A bodyslam and Angle signals to the turnbuckle. He gets booed again… could this be … Yes!  Well, no, because he missed it, but there's the Angle Moonsault! That is a thing of beauty. It's just a lovely looking backflip off the top.  The pace slows for the first time as Blackman does his bow and arrow lock that looks even more painful than it did on SmackDown 2, and Angle gets thrown into the turnbuckle with such force he gets knocked over. Backbreaker by Blackman and he locks in another submission I remember from the games. DDT by Kurt gets two, so does a suplex, aaaand for fuck's sake, there's a "BORING" chant, but I think by this time it must be a thing done to annoy Kurt, like "You Suck" would come to do, because he reacts to it and they stop for a bit to boo him.  Brawling on the outside! He gets chucked into the steps! Shawn Stasiak this is not. It's a pretty decent match, this. Lovely sunset flip over the ropes by Blackman, Angle hits a cross body, it's rolled through, double arm suplex, and a "woo!" from Kurt. Blackman gets choked by Kurt's foot in the corner, "Angle Sucks" chant. Blackman back on offence, and this is remarkably back and forth, I was expecting this to be a one-sided 'make Angle look strong' match but you wouldn't be surprised to see Blackman win this.  A few moves later, Blackman goes up top, misses, Angle tries a rollup, hits a German Suplex… and GETS THREE! Who needs Suplex City when one will do the job?  (Come to think of it, why did Kurt need to start doing loads when one should be enough?)  Kurt's celebrating like he's won the fight of his life, Blackman whacks him with his nunchucks and the loser walks out while the winner lies around in pain.  My thoughts: Very surprised how dominant Steve Blackman looked for a lot of this. Having not seen much of Kurt's very early stuff before, I'd assumed he was always positioned really strongly for how quickly his rise up the card came, but maybe that's not the case. Good match though, lots to enjoy.   Angle landmarks: First appearance of the classic entrance video First PPV mention of the Three Is First Moonsault First little "Woo!" from Angle First German Suplex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trout Stain Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 Eagerly awaiting the Taz match which by my reckoning should be up next. Last time I watched that one must have been about 10 years ago but I distinctly recall it being excellent, not least for the reaction Taz got after a classic Angle promo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 Was Blackman a face for that match then? I distinctly remember 'Blackman sucks' chants in the Rumble Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator HarmonicGenerator Posted January 24, 2017 Author Awards Moderator Share Posted January 24, 2017 Was Blackman a face for that match then? I distinctly remember 'Blackman sucks' chants in the Rumble  It certainly seemed that way.  Trout Stain - we're about to find out! I watched this one about a year ago but don't remember much except the result. Here goes, Royal Rumble 2000 against Tazz!   The match: BIG boos for Angle in Madison Square Garden. I think he's over now. Angle's out with his straps down. Howard Finkel is still doing the "only Olympic gold medallist to grace a WWF ring, most celebrated" etc full intro. Kurt gets on the mic and is roundly and soundly booed.  He gets a bit of New York cheap heat, followed by an "It's True", which I reckon's the first time we've heard that on a PPV … in the ring at least.  Kurt's opponent is to be announced, but the crowd already knows it's Tazz. The heartbeats and the 13 and the video start playing and it's a ridiculous for pop as he comes out with his towel on his head. I guess if he came in today that pop would happen in Full Sail, but maybe he'd have been that rare guy who went straight to the main roster.  Anyway, he's got the first strike in and thrown Angle over the top rope, showing the aptitude for Rumble style eliminations that he never used when he was actually in one. He tries to suplex Kurt on the outside but Kurt reverses and hits one of his own. Two brawls in a row on PPV for the Olympic wrestler.  JR points out he's had no time to prepare for Tazz but he's got the upper hand - "he's an Olympic gold medallist", points out Lawler, and so he doesn't need to prepare for anyone. Angle hits a belly to belly, goes up top, Tazz hits the ropes and it's a BOOM! Second rope Tazplex. Tazz gets a three but Angle cleverly puts his foot on the rope. He tries a rollup, doesn't get a pin - by my count, he's tried that in every match so far and it hasn't worked - and a clothesline lays Tazz out. German Suplex, this beat Blackman, but it doesn't beat Tazz!  He tries for the Possibly Not Yet Named Slam, Taz counters and hits a brutal release German that flips Kurt all the way over, and then an equally brutal belly to belly, and Kurt looks finished here. BOOM! A T-Bone! Has Tazz made clear his thoughts on the whole Suplex City gimmick? Because I hadn't really realised it before, but the whole Human Suplex Machine gimmick is kind of a forerunner to Lesnar's thing at the moment.  TAZZMISSION! TAZZMISSION! They're not calling it that but it's the Tazzmission! Hand down once, twice, three times… Kurt Angle has been beaten. The streak… is over.  And it's a stretcher job. They've brought out an oxygen tank as well. They're dragging Kurt's limp body out of the ring onto the stretcher and sticking a mask on him. My goodness, if you want to put over a submission finisher that's how you fucking do it. I'm terrified of the Tazzmission after that. Beautiful selling by Angle.  My thoughts: Super quick match, all things considered, and really a vehicle to put Tazz over as a killer more than anything. Interesting that Angle was picked as the best guy to help do that. The fact he was undefeated must have been a big part of that, but I wonder if they already thought of him as a good enough hand that he could play that role of ensuring the new guy looked great. He did that, for sure.  Angle landmarks: First time in the opening match First "it's true" (in the ring) First finisher kick out (the German Suplex finished the Armageddon match, so until the Slam's properly established, this counts) First loss First loss by unconsciousness  PPV record so far: 2 wins by pinfall 1 loss by unconsciousness Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lenin Posted January 24, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted January 24, 2017 I love this idea. Do you have a list of his ppv matches? Angle vs Jericho vs Benoit for the European/Intercontinental belts was one of the best matches I've ever seen. 2/3 falls as well. Apart from Jericho turning blue in the crossface isn't great in hindsight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobra_gordo Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 I've always loved that Rumble match against Tazz. He's really got the holier-than-thou, smarmy heel thing down to a tee by this point, makes Tazz look great but still looks good in defeat in the promo from the locker room afterwards when he's claiming he's still undefeated because it was an illegal choke. Â Looking forward to the review of the Armageddon 6 man hell in a cell. It's in my top ten favourite matches and I've fawned about it before on here so looking forward to your spin on it HarmGen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted January 25, 2017 Paid Members Share Posted January 25, 2017 Looking forward to the review of the Armageddon 6 man hell in a cell. It's in my top ten favourite matches and I've fawned about it before on here so looking forward to your spin on it HarmGen. I loved that match. Not especially because of Angle but the sight of bloody Rock and Austin turning to face each other and the place going mental. The very definition of something legitimately being big deal, in stark contrast to the number of times they've tried to revisit Cena v Orton and present it as the same level of epic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator Onyx2 Posted January 25, 2017 Awards Moderator Share Posted January 25, 2017 I haven't seen the 6 man in ages. I think I'll put it on and join in HG's reminiscing! Â Â I remember being stunned when Angle dragged his arm over for the pin. I felt sure one of the big 4 in that match were winning. Â (Spoiler for the finish of this 16+ year old event in case you wanted to watch it now) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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