(Almost) 5-Star Match Reviews: Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels – WrestleMania 21 (20th Anniversary Review)

Twenty years ago Kurt Angle and Shawn Michaels had one of the best matches in not just WrestleMania history, or even WWE history, but all of wrestling history. To this day this match has been hailed as Angle’s magnum opus as an in-ring performer and it further cemented Michaels’ status as a modern legend in his own right. It has also been a prime example of the dubious validity of wrestling’s most notorious critic, Dave Meltzer. Many, many people believe that Kurt Angle deserved at least one five-star rating in his career but Meltzer, for whatever reason, never gave him. And even though Meltzer’s opinion is just that, an opinion, there are still enough people out there that, either genuinely or facetiously, take Meltzer’s word as gospel when it comes to modern professional wrestling.

With that in mind (along with having met Kurt in Toronto a few weeks ago), I figured it was appropriate to commemorate this occasion with a 20^th anniversary retrospective on the match that stole the show at WrestleMania 21.

The Story

Three months earlier, Michaels eliminated Angle from the Royal Rumble match. in response, Angle attacked Michaels on RAW to begin teasing a singles match down the line. At No Way Out, Angle lost to John Cena, failing to earn another shot at the WWE Championship. The next night Michaels officially challenged Angle to a match at WrestleMania which Angle accepted. This led to even more run-ins, surprise attacks, and open mockery, especially from Angle who mocked Michaels’ previous accomplishments and even did a cheesy rendition of Michaels’ theme song called “Sexy Kurt”. To be honest after two decades I’m astonished that bit of comedy is as over as it is. A good two hundred people chanted it at a local Toronto venue with almost as much passion and enthusiasm as his usual “You Suck” chant.

Anyways Angle kept claiming that he was the better wrestler and kept adding more mockery and insult with each passing week. He even put Michaels’ old valet Sensational Sherry in an ankle lock and cost him a match against Muhammed Hassan on RAW. Clearly Angle had the psychological advantage going into WrestleMania but it was still unwise to count Michaels out. He wasn’t called “Mr. WrestleMania” for nothing, and even though he and Angle had never had a one-on-one match before he knew he could pull out something special for this big show. And that’s exactly what he did.

The Match

This took place on April 3, 2005. It was rated ****3/4 out of five by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer. It would end up placing second in WON Match of the Year voting for 2005, losing to Kenta Kobashi versus Samoa Joe and beating Kobashi versus Sasaki from the Tokyo Dome by just a hair.

They tease locking up but Michaels instead decides to bitchslap Angle. Angle responds with an amateur takedown and some technical chain wrestling. He gets a ropebreak and some mild applause from the crowd along with a smile from Michaels. We get some more classic style grappling as an “Angle” chant breaks out. Michaels maintains a headlock for a long time, even through a back suplex and multiple attempts to shoot him off the ropes. More switches and counters from both men. shoulderblock by Angle followed by a hiptoss into a short-arm scissor by Michaels. More rolling on the mat. Angle basically deadlifts Michaels up in the air. Michaels counters into a sunset flip for two, gets a second two-count from a backslide, and does yet another headlock takeover. Both guys fight for control in a corner. The ref is forced to pull them apart, and a momentary separation allows Angle to clothesline the back of Michaels’ head to gain control.

Angle goes for an ankle lock but Michaels rolls through and clotheslines Angle to ringside. Both men tumble out and start brawling ringside. Angle teases a vertical suplex onto a commentary table. Michaels lands safely and chops Angle’s chest. He goes for a clothesline but Angle ducks, catches him in the Angle Slam position, and drives him spine-first into a ringpost (the replay shows that Michaels hits with his thigh instead).

In the ring Angle lands a snap suplex for some near-falls and applies a bodyscissor as a mixed chant breaks out. Michaels tries fighting back but Angle shuts him down, sends him hard into a corner, and lands an overhead belly-to-belly. Then another for a two-count. Michaels fights out of another resthold and slaps Angle’s mouth again, only for Angle to drop him with another clothesline. Michaels blocks a superplex but then misses a diving elbow drop. An Angle Slam is countered into an armdrag. Angle charges but Michaels ducks and sends him to the floor. Michaels climbs to the top rope…and dives to the floor with a plancha.

Michaels gets to the apron but Angle catches him and attempts a German suplex to the floor. Michaels tries elbowing out but Angle won’t let go so Michaels gets the ref in close so that he doesn’t notice Michaels hitting a back low blow. The crowd really hates that but they turn around as Michaels hits a springboard crossbody from the apron onto the announce table.

Both men crawl into the ring and Angle has blood coming out of his mouth. They start brawling and Michaels begins his comeback, including the flying forearm, atomic drop, and a successful diving elbow. He teases Sweet Chin Music. Angle catches his foot and applies the ankle lock. Michaels gets a ropebreak and the crowd boos as Angle’s forced to let go. Michaels counters another Angle Slam but this time Angle counters the sunset flip with another ankle lock. Wait, no, Michaels turns around into a victory roll for two. Angle charges for a clothesline. Michaels ducks and attempts SCM. Angle blocks and lands the Angle Slam. One, two, Michaels survives. Angles goes to the top rope. Diving moonsault…misses. Michaels goes to the top rope. Angle hits an avalanche Angle Slam…for yet another near-fall. Angle’s frustrated beyond words and starts trash-talking Michaels…which leads to a successful superkick. Both men collapse. Michaels crawls over for the count…and gets two. Michaels struggles to his feet. Angle waits for the opportune moment and applies the ankle lock again. Michaels writhes around like an animal trapped in a bear trap. He tries and tries and tries, but in the end, after two full minutes he has no choice but to tap out. Angle wins!

Winner after 27:25: Kurt Angle

Review

I love this match. I don’t care it wasn’t as realistic as Japanese wrestling or shootstyle, as ludicrously acrobatic or frenetic as old school lucha libre or 1990s joshi, or if it didn’t have the same molten crowds as peak Steve Austin. This was promoted as a dream match, lived up to the hype when it first happened, and still holds up incredibly well after two decades. It was one of those once-and-done self-contained matches that didn’t need any huge time investment to enjoy because the entire story was told over the course of one match. There are plenty of reasons to appreciate a match like this, from its pacing and flow, to its inherent and unshakeable sense of competition and believability, to Michaels shifting from babyface to heel as needed depending on the crowd’s reactions, to all the crazy high spots. But what’s perhaps most impressive about this match was that it wasn’t scripted or pre-arranged. According to Kurt Angle there was barely a skeleton of a framework agreed to by both men beforehand and 99% of the match was left to spontaneity:

“Shawn and I, we never met in the ring prior to that. We never had a match. We never locked up. We didn’t even go over anything physically before the match. We might have talked a few things out, but you have that whole week before WrestleMania to get prepared for the match, and while a lot of wrestlers are going over mat stuff, technique and moves, Shawn and I just sat down and got to know each other. I am still amazed that two athletes were able to have that type of chemistry without ever having wrestled prior to that night.” – Kurt Angle, March 31, 2017

One of the things I’ve come to hate about modern wrestling is when things are clearly rehearsed and there’s no attempt from the performers to hide that fact. At the same time, calling a match on the fly is a dying art because of the increasingly controlled environment. This is why Flair/Steamboat is still hailed as much as it is: like these two men, Flair and Steamboat called their matches on the fly and the results were far more impressive than stubbornly going through specific pre-arranged sequences regardless of the crowd’s reaction. So when two people can leave pretty much everything to in-the-moment decision-making and pull off something this great, their talents become that much clearer.

At the same time, there’s certainly an argument to be made that this could be described as a “spot-fest” but I don’t think that’s entirely true. Yes there were many high-spots during the second half , but those big moments played into each wrestler’s growing frustration and sense of desperation. Since both Angle and Michaels had each other scouted it was much harder for both guys to land their biggest moves. They kept countering each other and hitting surprise moves out of nowhere no differently than a more recent New Japan main event. They kept getting going for bigger and bigger moves and kept pushing forward. Even though Michaels walked the line between heel and babyface and Angle came into this match as the clear heel, both guys were cheered by the end out of pure admiration for what they were doing, all for the sake of showing each other who was the better man.

“I knew that the expectations of the Angle match were really high. That was a match people wanted to see. Kurt was really talented. He’s incredibly technically sound. I needed to be able to match and enhance his technical attributes. That’s not something I do on a regular basis, so there was a lot of pressure. Whether it was earned, I had a WrestleMania reputation. And Kurt had one, too. So if we hadn’t delivered on the match, it probably would’ve made more news than we actually ended up doing.” – Shawn Michaels, November 8, 2013

Final Rating: *****

This is a much-appreciated classic that really deserves as much praise now as it got twenty years ago. It wasn’t as blistering or excessive as many of the so-called classics to come in its wake, nor was it too on-the-nose with storytelling, nor did it have the token “this is awesome” chanting that has devalued crowd reactions in the last few years. But in terms of bell-to-bell action few matches under a WWE banner match this one. Angle and Michaels were tailor-made for each other. Even with such a short build and simple premise these two men pulled off something special and magical. It’s exciting, entertaining, silken paced, and doesn’t hit you over the head with any over-the-top storytelling. What more could you ask for out of something aptly described as a “dream match”?

Thanks for reading.