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Top 7 Potential Kurt Angle WrestleMania Opponents

March 14, 2019 | Posted by Steve Cook
Raw Kurt Angle 3-11-19

Kurt Angle’s farewell match will be taking place at WrestleMania. It might have been nice if they didn’t wait until after the Fastlane show to mention that, but I suppose 28 days is enough time to build the Olympic Hero’s final match in WWE. We’ll be talking more about Kurt Angle in the weeks to come, but I think this week requires a discussion of who will be standing across the ring at WrestleMania.

Who should be Kurt Angle’s final opponent in a WWE ring? Here’s seven WWE Superstars that popped into my mind…

7. Baron Corbin

I mean…it’s tough to argue in favor of Corbin for anything as far as WrestleMania matches go. But Angle pointed him, Bobby Lashley & Drew McIntyre as options. McIntyre will probably be occupied with Roman Reigns. Lashley already had Angle’s last Impact Wrestling match & I doubt they want to repeat that. Corbin & Angle do have some history, and Corbin actually isn’t as terrible in the ring as he gets credit for. He’s just a tremendously boring personality when not on Talking Smack.

Angle working a little defense and coming back to beat him in under 10 minutes wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

6. Shelton Benjamin

We’re talking about one-half of Team Angle here. Shelton broke into WWE alongside Charlie Haas as proteges of Angle at the end of 2002. Other than a handful of matches in 2005 & some Royal Rumbles & battle royals, Shelton & Kurt haven’t met too many times since their time as student & mentor.

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Shelton recently re-emerged from obscurity at the behest of Brock Lesnar’s advocate, Paul Heyman. He’s been under contract with WWE for awhile & occasionally appearing for a good match here & there, but hasn’t been given anything to sink his teeth into. A match with his mentor at WrestleMania would provide good eats for Mr. Benjamin.

5. Sami Zayn

Unlike the other gentlemen mentioned here this week, there is zero prior history between Sami Zayn & Kurt Angle. I shouldn’t say zero, as they did cross paths while Angle was General Manager of Raw & Sami was competing on the show, but there was nothing substantial there. Other than Kurt suggesting that Sami & Kevin Owens check if TNA was hiring. This wouldn’t be a call-back to anything in Angle’s past or have anything to do with the rest of his career.

It would just be an awesome match. You know Sami would give his all & make Kurt look like a million bucks.

4. AJ Styles

You might remember there was a time in Kurt Angle’s career where he went to TNA, and there were people writing on this very website that they were afraid that the guy would die. Didn’t happen. What did happen was Angle having more classic matches with more opponents, one of them being the Phenomenal One.

AJ already seems to have Randy Orton on his mind, so the odds of this happening at WrestleMania are slim & none. But it’s amazing to me that WWE hasn’t had Styles & Angle go at it in one of their rings at some point while they’ve had both men under contract. Can we at least get this booked on a Raw or SmackDown sometime in the next month?

3. Samoa Joe

Speaking of folks Angle had dealings with in TNA, Joe was his first opponent under the auspices of that company.

Joe & Angle had multiple battles during that time period, including a showdown at Lockdown 2008 that’s widely considered to be the climax of the best buildup to a main event in the history of TNA/Impact Wrestling. Somehow, Angle & Joe have managed to avoid running into each other in WWE over the past year. Wouldn’t it make perfect sense for the Olympic Hero to face the United States Champion in his final match?

2. John Cena

John Cena’s first opponent in WWE was Kurt Angle.

Cena accepted Angle’s open challenge to “anybody he hadn’t faced before”, and proclaimed himself to be full of Ruthless Aggression. Almost seventeen years & almost seventeen world championships later, John Cena is one of the greatest WWE Superstars of all time. It was launched from a match on SmackDown with Kurt Angle.

It would be fitting for Angle to be Cena’s first WWE opponent, and for Cena to be Angle’s last WWE opponent.

1. Chad Gable

This is probably the least likely of any of the options I’ve listed here. But it makes so much sense if you think about it. Gable competed in the 2012 Olympics & followed in Angle’s footsteps by transitioning into professional wrestling. He found his niche in NXT as part of American Alpha alongside Jason Jordan, and they made their way to the main roster together. They were treading water on SmackDown until the team was split & Chad was left to the wolves.

See, Kurt had Jason moved to Raw after he found out that Jason was his illegitimate son. Jordan got pushed until he got put on the shelf with a neck injury. Like father like son, right? Gable had to scratch & claw to eventually get into a tag team with Bobby Roode. Gable’s career was sacrificed at the altar of Kurt Angle’s feelings for his illegitimate child.

The least Kurt Angle could do for Chad Gable is the honor of competing in his farewell match.

Who do you think Kurt Angle should face at WrestleMania? Let me know on the Twitter or Ye Old Comment Section Below.