Greatest Matches in SmackDown History is our short series which looks at some of the arguable contenders for the distinction of “Greatest Match in SmackDown History”. With SmackDown a decades old show boasting well over 1,000 episodes, this is, of course, purely opinion based. Today, we take a look at one of the greats from SmackDown’s Ruthless Aggression era: the 60 Minute Iron Man Classic between two of the all-time greats, Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar (September 18, 2003).
Kurt Angle vs Brock Lesnar, Iron Man: September 18th 2003. Raleigh, North Carolina
In the years following the buyout of WCW, things were rocky to say the least for WWE. Without any real competitors, the company was left to its own devices, being the only promotion left that was accessible on a global scale. The company no longer needed to create riveting television to keep people tuned in, because there was nobody else to tune into, for most. Due to this and other scandals, such as a lawsuit with the World Wildlife Fund over the acronym of WWF which forced them to change to the WWE, as well as several poor management decisions, by 2003 the company was in a very obvious stagnant period.
By 2002, when they started to finally acquire some of the bigger WCW stars – like Goldberg and Kevin Nash, after their Turner contracts ran out – the company somehow had a roster that was both bloated yet lacking in big star attractions. By early/mid-2002, it was clear that Steve Austin and The Rock were clearly phasing out of full-time competition, and the only stars WWE had left were mostly above the age of 35, leaving them to scramble for whatever young talent they could find. Enter Brock Lesnar, whom at the young age of 25, was having what can only be described as arguably the best debut year in pro wrestling history. He debuted in April of 2002; won the King of the Ring tournament in June and was WWE Champion by August.
In beating The Rock at SummerSlam, Brock Lesnar became the youngest WWE Champion in the company’s history at that time, defeating the biggest attraction they had in doing so. There was no question about the fact that WWE wanted Brock Lesnar to be their next big star and would waste absolutely no time in making him such, making it no surprise when he won the 2003 Royal Rumble after dropping the title to Big Show, who would in turn drop it to Kurt Angle, setting Brock up for the main event of his very first WrestleMania, where he could attempt to take the belt back from Angle.
Angle and Lesnar were SmackDown’s biggest and best stars through the year of 2003, and feuded with each other for the majority of that year – even through Kurt Angle’s neck injury prior to WrestleMania, which forced him to take two months off after dropping the title to Lesnar. When he came back, the company decided to put the title back on him in a triple threat with Brock and Big Show at the inaugural SmackDown PPV Vengeance in July, setting up for a heel turn for Brock and a rematch at SummerSlam, where Kurt would retain the WWE Title by tapping Lesnar out with the Ankle Lock, clean in the middle of the ring. This was their rubber match, on a September episode of SmackDown in 2003. A 1-hour long Iron Man match, for WWE Championship in the main event of the show. It was only the third hour-long version of the match the company had done at the time, and the first and only to be broadcast on free television.
The beauty of this match is not just in its execution, but in its presentation as well. With the two men having legitimate backgrounds in NCAA and Olympic wrestling, the decision to treat the match as legitimately as possible was a wise one to be sure. Things like a pre-match tale of the tape, heels and babyfaces watching and taking bets on the match and the commentators, Michael Cole and Tazz (of whom the former was at his career best at the time), discussing what each man’s preparation and style would be like as well as saying UPN had given them permission to go into overtime in case of a draw (though with the show being pre-taped this was far from believable) helped carry the feel of this match a long way.
As the challenger and champion make their respective entrances, emotions and tensions are high; as the crowd senses the potential for a title change. On the subject of emotions, the most interesting note of this match really isn’t even on the match itself, but the fact that Kurt Angle’s sister had passed away just one night prior to the match, making much of the emotions he exhibits in the match quite genuine, and proving a true testament to the man’s dedication. As the match begins, the heel Lesnar attacks Angle as he enters the ring before the bell sounds and begins clubbing and kicking him, before throwing him off the ropes; catching a big clothesline for his troubles, but he doesn’t leave his feet.
Seeing how ineffective the clothesline was, Angle goes low instead; dropkicking Brock in the back of the knee and dropping him to set up for a belly-to-belly suplex – throwing him across and out of the ring. In only the first minute of the match, we have seen a summary of everything that we’ll need to know in this match: Brock Lesnar is a bully with a size advantage; Angle is intelligent and will need to outsmart him and Brock’s weak-point is his leg, which Kurt will take full advantage of. This ties in with the added layer of Kurt having been the only man in WWE to beat Lesnar via submission at the time with the Ankle Lock, which Brock Lesnar would have to desperately avoid. After getting knocked out of the ring once more after this, Brock becomes frustrated and refused to enter the ring if Angle gets near him.
Realizing Brock will only enter the ring on his own terms, Kurt takes a seat at the turnbuckle at the opposite of the ring as him, waiting patiently for him to re-enter as we pass the five-minute mark. When he does, Kurt wastes no time in going for a single leg and immediately into an Ankle Lock, prompting Brock to scramble like a madman out of the ring even more frustrated than before, much to the chagrin of the North Carolina crowd. Lesnar makes several attempts at seizing control of the match but all come up short. Finally, after clotheslining Lesnar out of the ring and hurting his leg again, Angle gives chase and goes outside after him to put the beat-down on him – being sure to break the count before 10 while doing so. This proves to be a mistake however, and Lesnar catches him and drives him back first into the ring apron and then the post, finally gaining full advantage of the match.
After throwing Kurt back into the ring, Brock appears to suddenly have an idea. He bullies a ringside official off of their chair and bring it into the ring, beating Angle down with it and getting disqualified in the process, making the score now 1-0 in favor of Angle, though only in terms of points. During the mandatory “15-second” rest period, Lesnar takes a beat outside the ring, even asking Cole and Tazz for a bottle of water while he waits, all while Angle lays unconscious in the ring. When the rest period ends, Lesnar re-enters the ring and simply toys with Angle for a few seconds, kicking him around the ring and clubbing him to ground. Finally, in an almost unnecessary act, Lesnar F5’s Kurt for a pinfall over him, evening the score back up almost instantly to 1-1. He continues to toy with Kurt before putting him in his own hold, the Ankle Lock, for a tap out fall over him, bringing the score up to 2-1 in favor of the challenger Brock Lesnar as we go into commercial break.
When broadcast returns from commercial, we see Brock attempted to gain another fall on Kurt using another one of his moves, the Angle Slam, to no avail. Brock dominates the next chunk of the match, bullying and mugging Angle in the corners, eating up all of his space and smothering him with clubbing forearms and monstrous shoulder blocks to the stomach. Angle attempts multiple comebacks with suplexes and forearms, but is thwarted by Brock’s conniving ways every time, eventually getting thrown out of the ring by the tights. After following and then brawling with Kurt on the outside, Lesnar hits a devastating F5 on the floor and rolls back into the ring for a count out fall over Angle, bringing the score to 3-1 in favor of himself. Brock continues to dominate the match even further after this, chipping away at Angle’s stamina with simple yet effective offense like elbows and suplexes.
Angle does a superb job of selling the exhaustion of the match as well, even selling a near-fall from a standing elbow drop at one point. In the midst of this methodical onslaught, Kurt manages to pop off an Angle Slam out of nowhere to Brock, for a quick and sudden fall on him making the score 3-2, still in favor of Brock. As the rest period ends, Angle goes immediately onto offense, desperately doing anything he can to damage Lesnar enough to get another fall on him. After punching and suplexing Brock around the ring for a while, Kurt pulls down his singlet straps to signify the Angle Slam. He attempts it only for Brock to land on his feet and attempt an F5. Kurt also lands on his feet, and ducks just in time to avoid a giant clothesline from Lesnar that instead annihilates referee Brian Hebner, rendering him unconscious. After an Angle Slam- but with no referee to count the pin from it – Angle gets caught with a low blow from Lesnar and a shot to the head with the title belt for another fall for Lesnar, making the score 4-2 in favor of him with almost half the match passed.
After baiting Brock outside the ring by playing possum, Angle gains the advantage in the match with a massive double axe handle from the top rope to Lesnar on the floor – shades of Macho Man Randy Savage. After a near fall from a beautiful and deadly looking missile dropkick, however, he misses a moonsault to Brock and loses the upper-hand again as a result. After a few attempts at a comeback, including another Ankle Lock, Kurt catches Brock limping on the outside with the steel ring steps in his arms and baseball slide dropkicks them into his face for a pair of near falls before commercial break. When we come back from break, however, we see once again that it wasn’t meant to be for Kurt, as he fell victim to yet another fall for Lesnar due to a superplex from the top rope, bring the score up to 5-2 in favor still of Brock Lesnar with a mere fifteen minutes left in the match.
In an attempt to up the punishment, Brock brings Angle outside the ring to F-5 his leg into the post, something he had been doing to injure mid-carders and main eventers, including Angle himself, for months – but Kurt slips out behind Lesnar and drives him head first into the ring post, and F-5s him into the ring post for a brilliant spot. Not only did it tie in with the selling of Brock’s leg throughout the match, but it also tied in with the story they had been running for the last few months. At this point, the crowd was rabid and willing to buy anything the two men sold them at, including the idea of Brock Lesnar submitting to a half Boston Crab.
After sustaining continuous punishment to his debilitated leg, Brock hits an F-5 out of nowhere, more out of desperation than anything else, for a close near fall. He then goes to the top rope, calling back again to their WrestleMania match and the infamous Shooting Star Press he missed, only for Angle to jump to his feet, then sprint and vault like a cat to the top rope and belly-to-belly throw Lesnar across the ring, and finally get a pinfall over the challenger, taking the score to 5-3, Lesnar in the lead. After the rest period and with only ten minutes remaining, both men stood in the middle of the ring and simply traded punches until Angle got the upper-hand, beating Brock all the way into the corner and off of his feet. Finally having found his groove, Angle doesn’t let up on the offense, attempting all of his big moves and suplexes, and staying mostly on offense and in control.
Brock hits a belly to back suplex and makes an attempt for another, but Angle seizes the momentum again with a victory roll into an Ankle Lock with less than five minutes left in the match. Lesnar writhes and screams in the hold, his leg damaged after almost an hour of punishment and competition. He struggles to the ropes on one side of the ring for a break, only to get pulled back to the center of the ring by Angle. He fights yet again to another side, and is once again pulled back to the center in pain. Finally, with nowhere left to go and no other means of escape, Brock Lesnar is forced to tap out once again to the Ankle Lock, bringing the score to 5-4 with Angle only one point below Lesnar, and with only about three minutes left to go.
As soon as the rest period ends, Angle goes to lock the hold in once again but gets sent through the ropes by Lesnar who rolls out of it, only for Angle to recover immediately and jump back in the ring for another Ankle Lock. He can’t get the hold however, and opts instead for a freestyle bow and arrow hold, grape-vining the leg and chin-locking the neck, forcing Brock to elbow his way out of the hold as a last resort. With only two minutes left and one point more than Kurt, Lesnar does everything he can to simply eat up the remaining time, running around the ring as Kurt chases him and catches him in yet another Ankle lock on the floor outside, but when he rolls Brock in the ring Brock rolls immediately back out the other side, doing everything he can to avoid Kurt Angle and run out the clock.
Finally, with less than a minute and half left, Kurt throws Brock in the ring and catches him with three big German Suplexes before he manages to escape again. While attempting another suplex, Lesnar grabs the referee and moves him out of position to mule kick Angle in the groin with only forty seconds left to go. Angle however, grabs Brock’s ankle and bars it in one more excruciating Ankle Lock as the clock hits ten seconds. As the clock counts down second by second, Brock Lesnar gets closer and closer to either winning, or submitting a final match-tying point to Angle. As the clock hits zero, with the score still at 5-4, Brock Lesnar runs out the clock to become the new WWE Champion over Kurt Angle.
This match was certainly one of the best matches in SmackDown history, and was even the best Iron Man match the company had done at that point. The heel Lesnar exhibited great talent when it came to winning while also making his opponents look better in defeat, a talent he still has to this day. Instead of seeing the hour-long time limit as a crutch, both men took it as a way to come up with creative finishes one wouldn’t normally see at the time, including super-plexes and countouts. This would ultimately be the last match the two would have together in the company, though they would wrestler for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship several years late, and would both find themselves back in the company by the late 2010’s.
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