8. John Cena Vs. Kurt Angle – WWE Championship (2005)
Kurt Angle was the perfect opponent for a young John Cena in more ways than one. They shared a lot of history – after all, it was Angle who faced Cena in his WWE debut – and had already delivered tremendous PPV matches at No Mercy 2003 and No Way Out 2005.
When Cena finally won the WWE Championship for the first time at WrestleMania 21, no one expected that the former Doctor of Thuganomics would start getting booed just a few months later. But that’s exactly what happened, and when it did, Kurt Angle was trusted to be the veteran who could bring out the best in Cena and help him win back the fans.
While management had every reason to be worried about Cena’s negative crowd reactions, overbooking a story that wrote itself wasn’t the answer. After beating Cena by DQ at Unforgiven, Angle introduced Daivari, Muhammad Hassan’s former manager, as his new personal referee.
The reason? Well, people used to hate Hassan & Daivari, so randomly adding him to the story would surely get the fans on Cena’s side! Cena and Angle obviously had the chemistry to steal the show on any given night, and the crowd was really loud at WWE Survivor Series 2005. Cena and Angle did the best they could, even with the constant ref bumps and interruptions, and still had a solid match, but it ultimately stands as their weakest PPV encounter due to the overbooking.
- Match Rating: 6/10
