411’s WWE Untold: Shane and Angle’s Brutal Battle Report

-Quickly, thanks for all the comments on my Ultimate Card series. I’ve appreciated the feedback and will continue working my way through as many shows as possible.

-Now on to the matter at hand as the WWE Network has released the 4^th episode of their Untold series. This time we journey back to 2001 and take a look at the Kurt Angle/Shane McMahon classic from King of the Ring. At the time it seemed insane to have Shane McMahon in the ring with Angle, but they ended up delivering a classic that featured one of the most brutal sequences you will see in a WWE match.

-For those unaware of the format, this show is just a bunch of talking heads talking over video of the topic at hand. For this one our disembodied voices are: Kurt Angle, Shane McMahon, Bruce Prichard, Mike Chioda, and Al Snow

-This is WWE Untold!

-Bruch Prichard starts and the idea for the match came from Shane and Kurt as they wanted to have a match with each other. Next they had to find a way to get there and Kurt’s Olympic medals were always an easy way to start any story with him. It all started with Shane interrupting Kurt’s Olympic Gold Medal Ceremony and eating an Angle Slam off a medal podium for it.

-Shane puts over Angle’s background in wrestling, but also having the ability to put himself out there. Angle laid down the challenge for a Street Fight at King of the Ring. Prichard tells us the idea was to give us something different and unique that you wouldn’t expect from the two. Angle puts over Al Snow for laying out the match and Snow says he was flattered and honored to help Shane and Kurt with the match.

-For both of them it was a chance to show their talent on a big platform and they wanted to knock the door down. Shane talks about that it had all the makings of a good match and especially since the WWE doesn’t do many matches like this. Al brings up that Shane wanted to learn how to do the Shooting Star Press and he took him through it step by step.

-The match is set for KOR in New Jersey and the booking was pretty ingenious as Kurt was in the KOR tournament and had 2 matches prior to the one with Shane. Angle says he didn’t really prepare much for those matches as the Shane one had his attention.  Working Christian and then Edge probably made it easier as well. Shane actually helped Angle win the first match over Christian to make sure he had to work another match and then cost him that one vs Edge to add even more to their match. It was also a nice out as it gave Shane an advantage going into the match which made it believable he could hang with Angle.

-Kurt was proud of the 2 tournament matches and said he felt no pressure with Shane since he had 2 great matches already. Angle talks about the early moments of the match where Shane caught him with a potato that made him bleed. Angle wasn’t happy as you would expect and that only added to the intensity of the match.

-Weapons are soon introduced which is something you never saw in an Angle match, but again, gave Shane something to make it believable. They fight to the aisle and Angle takes a suplex on the floor that breaks his tailbone. Chioda says he knew Kurt was hurt, but he didn’t know how bad. Angle says it wasn’t broken off, but it was cracked. He says it came at the worst time because the next spot was throwing Shane through the glass stage.

-Now this is where the match gets insane as Kurt doesn’t have his usual power and Shane just bounces off the glass and lands on his head on the concrete. Kurt and Prichard tell us that the stage hand forgot to gimmick the glass and instead used reinforced glass as he was worried the pyro would blow it out. Shane talks about how hard the glass was and it is just crazy to see the way he bounces off of it and the sound of his head cracking the concrete.

-The replay it and the thud is just amazing. Apparently Shane called Angle a wuss as a way to fire him up and this time Shane goes flying through the glass. Angle is bleeding from the shoulder now and Shane is bleeding from the head.

-Prichard tells us that Vince wanted the match stopped and he was the one trying to let the ref know. Well, they didn’t get the memo apparently as Kurt is know trying to suplex Shane’s lifeless body back through the glass wall and the first two tries sees Shane bouncing off again, but Kurt is able to catch him each time. Kurt says at that point he said screw it and just decided to toss Shane face first through the glass. Makes sense! I must point out that JR and Heyman were great on commentary!

-Prichard said it was painful to watch and Chioda talks about Vince cussing like crazy from backstage. He was screaming for Chioda to tell them to stop with the glass and apparently Kurt can’t hear out of his one ear and that’s the one Chioda kept talking into. Amazing!

-They get back in the ring and things keep going as nobody wants the match to end outside of Vince and Prichard (since he is sitting next to Vince). Things finally end as Angle hits a Super Angle Slam off a piece of board on the top rope. Chioda with a nice bit of inside information as he did what he could to keep his hand on the board to help steady them while not being obvious about it. They tend to do the same with ladders in those types of matches as well.

-Angle gets the pin and he whispers to Shane, “thank God” when the three count is made. Prichard was relieved the match was over and that both guys could walk. Kurt didn’t see Vince after the match as apparently he was so upset that he walked away from the Gorilla.

-Shane says that after the match he brought out some Iron City Lite since Angle is from Pittsburgh. They shared the beers while in with the trainers and were laughing that they would be heading to the hospital soon.

-Kurt says he is proud of the match as it was something he doesn’t normally do. He doesn’t like gimmick matches as he likes straight wrestling matches, but this match was special for him. Snow is proud of both of them for getting through the match and is honored to have played a small part. Shane finishes up by saying what the match meant to him and looking back he just tells himself, “Man, what a ride!.”

-The string of fun episodes in this series continues. The match is a great piece of business that stole the show and one that is fondly remembered to this day. At the time a lot of news came out about how furious Vince was and some figured Shane was done working in the ring, but here we are 18 years later with the ideas floating from some that he is going to win the WWE Title. Funny how things work out in the world of profession wrestling.

-As always thanks for reading!