Minus-Star Match Reviews: The Undertaker vs. Kurt Angle – WWF Fully Loaded 2000

The Undertaker and Kurt Angle are two of the most widely revered and admired wrestlers in modern times. You don’t have to go far online to find wrestling fans old and new exclaiming how much they love and respect one or both of these men. But every wrestler has an off day and these two men were no exception.

The American Badass version of the Undertaker, or ‘Bikertaker’ as some people have called him’, is one of the more controversial parts of the Deadman’s storied career. This period isn’t looked at all that fondly nowadays; most people consider this a blemish on Undertaker’s career for a variety of reasons, from his questionable attire to an alleged poor match output that didn’t justify keeping him in main-event spots. But was it really all that bad?

The Story

A few weeks earlier Angle helped Edge & Christian retain the WWF Tag Team Championships when he attacked The Undertaker. This would’ve been bad enough but Angle was still in his early ‘geek’ phase while ABA Undertaker was all about throwing smaller people around and planting them six feet under with his Last Ride finisher. Angle’s geekiness led to him making another serious mistake: he spilled milk all over ‘Taker’s motorcycle and then tried to apologize by gifting him an electric scooter. Undertaker, naturally, threw the scooter off the stage and spent the next several weeks stalking Angle without ever actually getting his hands on him. Angle kept acting all scared and cowardly, but then he surprised everyone by pouring a caustic liquid onto another one of ‘Taker’s bikes and then attacked ‘Taker backstage with a wrench to the knee. In other words, Angle was taking Undertaker for a ride and knew exactly what he was doing the whole time.

This story had only a few weeks’ build but it was still done well enough to make people want to see these guys clash. Undertaker was still fairly dominant in WWF and was always orbiting the main-event as a credible threat. Meanwhile Angle was a rising star who made his gimmick work and riled people up enough to get them to want to pay money to see him get his ass kicked. It seemed like he was downplaying his own Olympic accomplishments to play a part on WWF’s TV shows, but that’s what was needed of him so he embraced that role as best he could. In the event that Angle playing the Olympic card lost steam he needed a personality or gimmick to rely on, so could he get that bit over in this match with the guy more synonymous with WWF than anyone else?

The Match

This took place on July 23, 2000. It was rated ¾* by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer.

Undertaker appears behind Angle during Angle’s entrance and blocks a wrench attack. ‘Taker throws Angle around the ringside area for a minute until the bell finally rings, at which point ‘Taker shuts down Angle’s attempt at overtaking him with a big boot and an elbow drop. ‘Taker breaks up his own pin, hits a vertical suplex, covers Angle, breaks it up again, and mouths off at the referee. Angle blocks a corner charge and applies a piggyback sleeper but Undertaker powers our and lands some corner shots. A corner clothesline/sidewalk slam gets ‘Taker a two-count as this time Angle kicks out with his own strength.

Angle hits ‘Taker’s knee with the wrench and the ref doesn’t see it. He goes after that leg once back in the ring but ‘Taker cuts him off with elbows. Angle ducks a clothesline and lands a sudden knee clip and starts working that leg over, leading to an “Angle sucks”. Undertaker literally kicks out and the two men trade punches. ‘Taker tries a chokeslam but Angle escapes and goes back to the leg. Angle’s legwork goes on for quite some time until ‘Taker counters with a knee smasher. More punching from both guys. ‘Taker lands a flurry of punches to Angle’s gut. Then he lands a huge chokeslam and an even bigger Last Ride to get the win in decisive fashion.

Winner after 7:33: The Undertaker

Review

If we take these star ratings at face value then it becomes easy to conclude that this match was shit, but it wasn’t. It was completely fine as a one-sided squash, which is technically what the story called for. A great way to look at this match is a schoolyard bully fighting a nerd but with everyone’s sympathy being with the bully. So given what Angle had done and how he behaved, it made sense for the match to be nothing more than a prolonged beat-down. And if that’s your thing then you’ll enjoy this match, especially since Angle bumped for ‘Taker very well and did a lot of the small things well to sell the idea that he was still this underhanded little gremlin.

I think a lot of people hated this match when they stepped backwards and looked at the wider booking. With Angle winning KOTR a month earlier losing this match came across as a clear step backwards that undercut Angle’s momentum. Reading the Observer from that time Dave seemed to be utterly flabbergasted by just how one-sided the match was and how little it helped Angle’s career trajectory since everything before it seemed to position Angle as a future top guy challenging the established guys above him. Maybe in hindsight having the winner of an important tournament lose his first follow-up PPV to an injured veteran was a bad idea, but in the moment I’m sure someone thought it necessary for Angle to show how he can bounce back from losing before he can get more credible wins under his belt.

Final Rating: *3/4

This is pretty underwhelming if you look at the wider picture but given the story of the feud it was serviceable for what it was. Yes, ‘Taker squashed a guy that probably didn’t need that speedbump in his road to the top but given the material both men were given they made it work as best they could. It was a short feud meant to put more eyes on Angle as a performer. If anything, the fact that he bounced back from such a one-sided situation and overcame it as emphatically as he did is further proof of his own greatness.

If you like seeing big dudes manhandle smaller guys around for under ten minutes I’m sure you’ll find something to enjoy here. If you’re a fan of Kurt Angle’s you might see this match as some kind of punishment or burial but it wasn’t. It was just a short match in a short feud that didn’t mean all that much. If anything this was a way for these guys to test the waters to see if they could work together. And considering what amazing wrestling they’d put on down the road, it’s a good thing tried that out here.

Thanks for reading.