Forgotten Favorites 07.20.10: SmackDown 2001 – Kurt Angle vs. Kane

Welcome back, wrestling fans. It’s time once again to turn the clock back and take a look at some great wrestling that hasn’t gotten its proper due over time. This week we’ve got a match that’s nearly a decade old and yet has tremendous relevance to the current circumstances of WWE.

Money in the Bank was, while probably not worth the outrageous WWE PPV price tag, nothing short of … interesting. Like many, I assumed Kane had zero chance whatsoever of even winning the MITB match, let alone cashing in on the same night and claiming his first World Title in twelve years. Who would have thought that Kane would be having one of the biggest nights of his entire career in 2010?

This week we’re going back nine years to take a look at a Kane that was a little different from the guy we’re used to these days. In November of 2001, the Big Red Machine was still sporting his mask, straight up chillaxing with his bro Biker Taker, and battling the IWC’s favorite stable, the Alliance.

It was a WCW title being defended on WWE television, with Kurt Angle putting his United States Championship up against the Big Red Machine. Could the American Hero’s actions in this match have relevance for a certain All American American on the current SmackDown roster? You be the judge.

Who wants great wrestling?

SmackDown – November 1, 2001
WCW United States Championship
Kurt Angle vs. Kane

WHY IT SHOULD BE REMEMBERED

When it comes to winning championships on the main stage of World Wrestling Entertainment, a competitor has two routes he may pursue in order to achieve his goal. There is the most frequently traveled avenue of the pinfall, where a challenger need only keep the champion’s shoulders on the mat for three seconds. And then there is the elusive submission, where a man is caught in such excruciating pain that — for the sake of the future of his career — he is forced to acknowledge the superiority of his opponent, forfeiting the gold he has fought so desperately to hold onto. Count-outs and disqualifications just don’t get the job done in determining whether or not a challenger is truly better than a title holder, and therefore it is a necessity that the hungry title-less athlete prove beyond a doubt that he is the superior wrestler.

Pinfalls have essentially been the norm throughout the majority of WWE’s history, yet there remains a certain aura that surrounds the submission victory. While anyone — more or less — could have an off night and, lacking focus, find his shoulders on the mat for the brief three-second count, not every competitor has the same threshold for pain. Similarly, not every wrestler has the ability to untangle himself from the clutches of his opponent and escape a career-threatening submission maneuver. So, while a pinfall may lead to the crowning of a new champion, the victory is nowhere near as decisive as one that may have come by submission, wherein the man walking in as the champion has been forced to acknowledge that his challenger — at least on this night — was the better competitor.

Kurt Angle is a guy who has made his name off of forcing his opponents into submission. Since his debut in the pro circuit over a decade ago, Angle has caused many a panicked hand to slap the canvas in utter agony, racking up championship after championship and establishing himself as one of the greatest of all time. These days, it’s a given among wrestling fans that whenever Angle steps into the ring for a high profile match — or basically any match — he’s nine-times-out-of-ten going to deliver the best performance on the card. His matches are wrestling perfection, strong works of art that are packed with more drama than TNT would know what to do with. A big reason for this — not the only reason, but still a mighty big one — is the flavor that the Ankle Lock adds to his matches. From the time the bell rings, everybody knows that Angle’s looking to get ahold of that ankle as quickly as possible, and once he locks it in, his opponent’s fate has been sealed.

Badassery.

The interesting thing about Angle’s Ankle-Lock-defined career is something that anyone who’s watched the Olympic Hero from his WWE beginnings is well aware of. For a guy whose career and performances are synonymous with the Ankle Lock, he didn’t even begin using the submission hold until well over a year after he had made his television debut. Angle had won every non-gimmick singles distinction that the WWE had to offer — from the European, Intercontinental, and WWE Championships to the King of the Ring Tournament — all before that fateful first time he pulled his straps down and hooked in the Ankle Lock. But if Angle had already conquered all that WWE had to offer without ever using the Ankle Lock, why did he suddenly become obsessed with forcing his opponents into submission?

If we’re talking storyline purposes, the catalyst for Angle’s transition into a more submission-based style was his first extended feud with Chris Benoit. Angle’s claims in early 2001 that he was the greatest wrestler in the world drew the ire of the Rabid Wolverine, who would test the Olympic Hero’s limits with his deadly Crippler Crossface. To prove that he was the superior grappler, Angle expanded his arsenal of moves and unleashed what he claimed he had been keeping a secret until the time was right: the Ankle Lock. For several months, it was the Crossface vs. the Ankle Lock, with Benoit and Angle trading wins and losses over the course of multiple PPV events.

But if we look at the Ankle Lock in the grand scheme of things, taking into account the new direction Angle’s career veered off on once the submission hold was brought into play, we see that the addition of the Ankle Lock to Kurt’s repertoire was absolutely necessary in his evolution as a wrestler. Of course, Angle had been a stellar athlete for the first year and a half of his career, entering into entertaining and captivating matchups with the likes of Chris Jericho, The Rock, and Triple H; but it was after the debut of the Ankle Lock that the Gold Medallist began to cement his spot as a go-to guy for classic wrestling contests. And not only did it add a bit of diversity to Angle’s matches — giving him an increased number of ways to showcase his abilities and seek out a win — but it added a new dimension to his (at the time) goofy and gullible character.

For the first phase of his career, Angle’s credentials as an athlete were never in question. Commentators and his opponents alike never shied from giving Angle his props as a world class competitor with Olympic gold to his name. But throughout his first year and a half of competition — regardless of how “good” he was often touted as being — he was still booked as a happy-go-lucky putz. Within the scope of his character, it made sense that he’d lack the “Integrity” he often claimed to possess, but at the same time he was also void of the “Intelligence” and “Intensity” that he bragged about as well. His rivalry with Triple H in the summer of 2000 saw a slight emergence of both qualities, from the mind games of the Stephanie situation to his violent sledgehammer attack, but in the end Angle still came off as a goof with an unconvincing mean streak.

Now fast forward ten years later and Angle’s icy blue-eyed stare is one of the most intense in the business. When he turns up the heat, the expression on his face suggests that he’d like nothing better than to break every bone in his opponent’s body. This is worlds removed from the Kurt Angle of 2000, and I chalk this up primarily to the wonders that the Ankle Lock did for the man’s career. This one submission move made Kurt Angle into a supremely awesome badass, a distinction he still holds to this day.

If you’ve been watching throughout his entire pro wrestling career, you already know what I’m talking about. Kurt Angle main evented two consecutive SummerSlam’s between 2000 and 2001, but to compare the Olympian’s style in his first PPV main event to the baddassery of his match with Steve Austin is straight up apples and oranges. The airheaded goofball that tried to move in on Triple H’s woman was not the wrestling machine that struck fear into the heart of the Texas Rattlesnake. The reason? The Ankle Lock. Throughout 2001 and 2002, Angle’s credibility as a legitimate ass-kicker grew as a direct result of incorporating the Ankle Lock into his moveset. The momentum grew and grew as time moved on, so by the time a blood-soaked Angle was dragging Stone Cold around by the leg at SummerSlam, Kurt was a bonafide badass, his goofiest times having passed him by.

In a year of great rivalries, this was one of the best.

In the latter months of 2001, while Angle had clearly risen above his less-than-threatening status of a year ago thanks to the Ankle Lock, he was still working on establishing himself as the very best submission wrestler in the game. Thus, he was still a work in progress when he stepped into the ring with Kane on this week’s particular November episode of SmackDown. Kane, a vicious and seemingly unfeeling force to be reckoned with inside the ring, wasn’t the kind of guy that fans were used to seeing submit to his opponent. If anyone at a size disadvantage was skilled enough to get one over on the Big Red Machine, he usually had to rely on his quickness, hopefully taking the big man off his feet and knocking his lights out for those crucial three seconds. But Kurt Angle went one further, doing what nobody in their right mind had expected him to even try doing: He made Kane tap out.

Making a score of undercard Alliance henchmen tap out was one thing; so was forcing the dastardly and (at the time) supremely cowardly Stone Cold to submit. But to take a freakishly strong monster — one who stands at nearly seven feet tall and weighs over 300 pounds — and reduce him to submission? That, kids, is badass.

And so you can probably see where I’m going with all this Ankle Lock love. When Angle first busted out the Ankle Lock, my first thought was, “SHAMROCK WHA?!” And now, over nine years later, I associate this move so strongly with Kurt Angle above all others, that upon seeing Jack Swagger bust this bad boy out a few weeks ago the only thing I could think of was Angle’s meteoric rise to the top of the business. Until recently, within the realm of the WWE, the Ankle Lock was Kurt Angle. But until the early months of 2001, the Ankle Lock was Ken Shamrock. My point here is that no one single submission move belongs to one single wrestler, and more often than not, fitting the right submission move (the trademark of a past star or not) to the right guy can lead a wrestler to heights that had previously seemed off limits.

Hey, I remember that guy!

Just like Kurt Angle was able to transform into an unpredictable and dangerous submission specialist by making all shapes and sizes of opponents tap out, so too can Jack Swagger use the Ankle Lock to establish the legit tough-guy aspect of his character that, at the moment, hasn’t been completely fleshed out. And based on the current SmackDown roster, it would make perfect sense for the E to take a page out of their old Kurt Angle playbook in an effort to get Swagger over in the very same submission-focused way.

Sure, after a series of ambush attacks and underhanded tactics, it’s completely believable at this point that Jack Swagger could make a smaller and weaker opponent like Rey Mysterio tap out. The same goes for the Christians, Kofis, and Matt Hardys of the SmackDown roster, assuming that in each case Swagger has weakened his rival beforehand. But at this point in the game, I do not look at Swagger’s Ankle Lock in anywhere near the same capacity as Angle’s. Of course, it’s still early in the game, and Swagger’s only recently added the maneuver to his moveset, but at this point I do not see Swagger as a guy who could go in there with a fresh and healthy name wrestler (face or heel) and force him into submission. This doesn’t mean he won’t be at that level eventually, but he’s still a far cry from Angle’s credibility, since the Olympic Hero can go in the ring even now and believably make anyone tap out in a matter of minutes.

So how does WWE establish Swagger’s ability to destroy an opponent’s will to continue a match? They go back and take a look at this week’s Forgotten Favorite. For Angle to defeat Kane at that time wasn’t so miraculous, but for him to force the Big Red Machine to tap out was quite the mind bender at that point. If Jack Swagger were to accomplish a similar feat on an upcoming episode of SmackDown, the result would be ten times as surprising, as well as even more effective in establishing dominance.

Sure, Swagger has developed his character at an insane rate in the last few weeks, the Ankle Lock being the primary reason for his evolution. And yeah, his attacks on Rey Mysterio have showed a more ruthless side to the All American American. But even then, I still don’t buy him as an expert in the area of submissions, and I still don’t (yet) equate Jack Swagger with the Ankle Lock in the same way that I once did with Shamrock and still do with Angle.

Not there yet, but time will tell.

The solution here seems extremely simple. Angle looked like one bad mofo when he made Kane tap out in 2001. It just so happens that this same freak of nature still happens to enjoy wreaking havoc on the WWE’s blue brand, and coincidentally enough he’s had more than one run-in with the All American American in the last several weeks. Even more intimidating in size than Kane — and even more involved in Swagger’s affairs — is a certain bald-headed, bear-enthusiast named Big Show. If Swagger were to step in the ring one-on-one with either of these giants and earn a clean submission victory, the bar would then be set. WWE can run several weeks of Swagger making equal-or-smaller sized guys tap out to the Ankle Lock, enhancing Swagger’s image and solidifying the move over time. Or, WWE can have Big Show or Kane tap out to the Ankle Lock on an episode of SmackDown, and in one night Swagger would become a guy who could believably force anybody into submission.

Now that we’re fresh off of Money in the Bank with Kane as the newly crowned World Heavyweight Champion, the opportunity is even greater for WWE to make Jack Swagger into a legit submission superstar, should they play all of their cards correctly. While a submission World Title victory over Mysterio would have meant, uh, worlds for Swagger’s image, his reputation would benefit a hell of a lot more if his second World Title reign were to begin with the Big Red Machine’s hand slapping the canvas. The likelihood of such a thing happening is up in the air and open for debate at this time, but there’s no denying that the whole scenario has win written all over for it for Swagger. If WWE is serious about making Swagger into their next Kurt Angle, this is a prime opportunity to make it happen.

WHY IT ISN’T REMEMBERED

A lot of people take giant steaming dumps on the Alliance angle. They say it was the biggest flop in the history of wrestling. They say it was nowhere near the ultimate payoff to the Monday Night Wars that everybody had been praying for. I hear these dumps being taken, and it saddens me. Like so much unnecessary garbage, it activates my inner Native American and causes a single tear to roll down my cheek. The criticism thrown against the WCW/ECW Invasion and Alliance storylines is oftentimes way too harsh, completely ignorant of (or at least conveniently forgetful of) the classic wrestling matches that took place at the time. Generally speaking, I am not one with the anti-Alliance IWCers in their most common complaints against the angle.

Of course, that’s all generally speaking. I won’t argue at all with the fact that the booking towards the conclusion of the storyline was all kinds of mixed up and unnecessary. And one guy who was a serious victim of this mixed up and unnecessary booking was the man who had, for the majority of the storyline, been leading the charge for the WWE against their most evil invaders.

Kurt Angle had long been vying for the spot of Vince McMahon’s right hand man when WCW and ECW wrestlers joined forces to eliminate the WWE. However, the apple of the chairman’s eye had been Stone Cold Steve Austin ever since the Rattlesnake had sold his soul to the devil himself(!) at WrestleMania. When Austin joined the Alliance at Invasion in July of 2001, the man who McMahon had been counting on to save his company had revealed his true Heyman-hugging colors. Finally, Angle had his opportunity to prove his worth to Vince, a feat he accomplished admirably by beating the snot out of Austin for a couple of months before taking his WWE Championship.

Angle was the hero of the day. He was the savior of the WWE, the cure to the spreading disease of the Alliance. Over the course of his quest to the WWE Title, Angle became the man in the WWE, and his popularity soared to previously unimagined heights. On a roster with fellow faces like The Rock, Chris Jericho, and Undertaker, Kurt Angle became one of the most popular wrestlers in the company, oftentimes outpopping his do-gooding colleagues.

And then?

Then this happened …

And so, even though Angle had spent months hating Austin’s guts and seeking his total destruction, the Olympian switched sides because he suddenly looked up to the Rattlesnake. He now wanted to be on what he thought would be the winning team in the long run, the Alliance.

Or did he?(!)

In a move that suggests Vince Russo was quite possibly still on the company payroll, WWE had Angle turn on his Alliance partners in the Survivor Series main event, revealing that he had been “planted” within the enemy camp all along as a spy of sorts. And so, a nonsensical heel turn was all of a sudden explained away with a nonsensical face turn.

Or was it?(!)

The next night on Raw, with all of that messy Alliance stuff conveniently in the past, WWE hit the closest thing they possibly could to a reset button. Two wrestlers turned all kinds of upside down were the men who had been at the forefront of the WWE vs. Alliance angle just a month earlier, Steve Austin and Kurt Angle. Although the Alliance had been run “out of business,” Austin was still able to remain on the WWE roster due to holding the WWE Title. However, one night after he had been the dastardly heel fighting the Federation’s heroes, the Rattlesnake had returned back to the lovable, evil-combating ass-kicker of old, without any real rhyme or reason whatsoever. Similarly, Kurt Angle — who one night earlier had revealed he was swerving the Alliance and was one of the good guys all along — was all of a sudden playing the villain again.

This week’s Forgotten Favorite remains on the back burner of the recognized WWE history because it happens to have taken place during a mind-bendingly confusing period in Kurt Angle’s career. All of the character development that had taken place over the course of the summer, with Angle rising from the position of not-so-threatening McMahon-lackey to supremely devastating badass, it had all been undone with the absolutely retarded decision to have Angle go “undercover” within the Alliance, where he ended up being reduced once again to Stone Cold’s sidekick. Even after Survivor Series, when WWE had the chance to right the wrongs they’d done to Angle, they still continued to pour on the retard sauce. Having been revealed as a mole within the Alliance, Angle might’ve reverted back to the character he portrayed immediately before “defecting,” the image of a heroic and no-nonsense ass-kicker. His less-than-admirable actions as a member of the Alliance might have been explained away as Angle merely playing his part and not wishing to rouse suspicion. Only problem here was that, after Survivor Series, Angle remained the slimy heel that he’d been “pretending” to be by joining the Alliance.

Basically, if I am to believe wrestling is real (and it is, of course), and if I am to try and understand Kurt Angle’s decisions throughout this period, I am left with no choice but to conclude that Mr. Angle suffered (or suffers) from some sort of severe multiple personality disorder. He involuntarily changes from hero to coward, from badass to jokester, from gentleman to dick. Poor guy.

– –

BONUS MATCH(!)

Raw – October 22, 2001
WCW United States Championship
Rhyno vs. Kurt Angle

– –

That’s gonna do it for this week. If no feedback makes you sad, don’t worry, I feel your pain. Look for me to make it up to you next week. Also, look for me to have lied to you in the last sentence.

As always, stay safe and out of the wretched wasteland that is Dundalk.