Kurt Angle vs. The Rock

[8.0] "A very good build up, cool to see the intersection between main and co-main event. Good story and great setup for future challengers. Great action and some smooth sequences. Probably match of the night, very competent in everything it does. Could be more in ring work but it's fine for the era. Went on quite a bit too long and I didn't need the rikishi bit. Closer to 7.5 than 8"

[8.0] "Honestly a really good main event here. I enjoyed this match throughout and I liked seeing Kurt come out on top. A lot of interference but that's kinda expected for this situation. Really just a great match and a good way for Kurt Angle to win his first world title."

[9.0] "This was a really good main event with Angle getting an upset on The Rock to win his first WWF Title. The action as you would expect with these two is really good. Angle selling the damage the Rock does when he targets the leg on the outside is really good. Angle was presented as a major threat in the buildup because of his new partnership with Stephanie and while she gets involved a lot in this match, the script does somewhat flip on that narrative because she gets too involved in the match, eats a Rock Bottom and Triple H comes out and beats the hell out of Kurt Angle, hits Rock with a Pedigree and leaves with Steph while Angle crawls in to pick up the scraps and Rock barely kicks out of it. Great sequence. Rock was looking favorite at that point and then a battered Rikishi shows up to help The Rock and Angle maneuvers it so he ends up hitting the Rock and gets the Angle Slam on both for the win."

[7.0] "Shave a good 5 minutes off it and spend a bit more time in the ring and it'd probably have gone down as a shining gem on a pretty poor card. As it is it's just as a good match on a pretty poor show."

[7.0] "A good main event and a fun title change. I wasn't personally a fan of all the schmozz but it made sense in kayfabe to get the rookie the win over the veteran multi time champ. Kurt looked great here and I know it's overstated but the fact that his debut match was less than a year before this night and yet here he is winning the top title and looking like a vet is truly remarkable. Solid 3 stars."

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[7.0] "A lot of interference hurt the match. This was common in this era for WWE. Well, it's actually still common now. But maybe it was necessary. While Angle was very good, he wasn't yet the wrestling machine he would later become."

[7.0] "The proto mid-2000's main event - impossible to be bad with room to be even greater. Action between Angle and Rock is great, gaga with Steph furthers the story nicely, but man that Rikishi run in is one of the funniest things of all time. Lots of fun. ***1/2"

[5.0] "So what if the action in the ring is good if half of the match is a mindless brawl all around the arena? I'm sick of these Rocky matches, especially since it's a No DQ Match and there's no way that we would keep his worst impulses in check. Nevertheless when they stayed in the ring it was obviously very good with a lot of nicely executed drama. Angle wins his first world title, but he will have better wrestling bouts in the future that are not mainly punches, kicks and furniture spots."

[9.0] "I actually loved this macth , the rock and Kurt angle always had good matches and Kurt working with the rock proved that the rock could be a great in ring wrestler, ithe ending I wasnt expecting Kurt to win at the time, but looking back at it now it topped off the best debut year in history of Kurt angle in his first year winning every single title, , not as good as there no way out macth which I feel was set up that way to build for Austin vs rock main event"

[8.0] "This was an attitude era Main event in a nutshell. Brawling all over the arena to start off the match Gets in the ring slows down, constant interference from Stephanie on the outside baby face comeback then here comes even more interferences From rikishi and hhh weaving in multiple storylines at once. Ending with the shock Kurt angle victory Overbooked maybe but damn it was entertaining 4/5"

[8.0] "Like the previous match this was a great technical wrestler versus more of a fighter, but here the opposite happened and the tichnical guy had to brawl to get the win. It was a no-DQ match with lots of interference, but most of the time it made sense, and while it was a bit overbooked it was certainly exciting. The contrast to the previous match helped as well, making for a great ending."

[8.0] "The culmination of a tremendous rookie year for Kurt Angle, where he and Stephanie McMahon played their heel roles beautifully, while the Rock was over like rover. It was the quintessential Attitude Era main event with the crowd brawling, the weapon shots and the interference (though some of it felt off in a No DQ match), but what put it above the previous match were those nearfalls that, even though I knew the result, still caught me by surprise. The combination of the two would do better in the future."

[7.0] "Angle gets a chair shot on the floor. Back in Rock hits a Samoan drop and Angle bails. They fight to the back and Angle gets tossed through the backdrop by the entrance door. Angle whips Rock into the electronics area and back to the ring we go. Rock attacks the knee and goes for the Sharpshooter, but Steph distracts the ref so he can't see the tap out. Rock chases Steph and gets suplexed for his trouble by Angle. Rock dumps Angle for more brawling outside. Steph distracts the ref again and Angle wallops Rock with the belt and gets a 2 off it. Angle goes upstairs and gets crotched and superplexed for 2. German suplex sets up the BIG moonsault which usually misses, and does. Rock comes back with his flip around ddt for 2. Belly to belly sets up the spine buster, and Stephanie tries to interfere, but gets Rock Bottomed for her troubles and the crowd goes nuts! Angle sneaks off and HHH runs in to beat on him, then stops to Pedigree the Rock for hitting his bitch. Kurt crawls back in and covers for 2. Another DDT gets 2 for the Rock. Angle bails, and now Rikishi runs in to help Rock but ends up avalanching him by mistake then super kicking him so Angle and Olympic slam them both and pin Roc to win his first world title. Didn't care for all the run ins and it was painful to watch Rock drop his title because the thong wearing fatty was so inept."

[8.0] "This was a fun brawl despite the constant interferences that tried to ruin the flow in this, some logic bits that don't make any sense like Stephanie distracting the referee in a no DQ match. The start of the match was nice with Rock being all intense and ramming Angle into the stage multiple times. The drama down the stretch with all the near falls had the crowd on its feet. Pretty historic match as it's Kurt's first ever world title win.****"

"Good match, exciting because of the storyline. Hot crowd, good near falls. Like the Stephanie McMahon spot. It's hard trying to beat The Rock one on one. 7/10"

[8.0] "An all time great heel performance by both Kurt Angle and Stephanie McMahon. Rock keeps the crowd hot throughout, it's a fun main event with it being a wild brawl and is pretty overbooked. They made the right choice giving Angle the strap seeing how great his rookie year has been, would have been a bigger moment for Angle if he did win clean though."

[7.0] "This match was pretty good. It got slow at times, had some weird moments such as Stephanie distracting the ref so Angle could hit Rock with the belt (despite it literally being a no DQ match), but despite that this ended up being a really enjoyable match. Angle and Rock worked very well together, with Angle doing some great heel work. All and all good match. ***1/4"

[8.0] "Can you say typical Attitude Era main event? I think you can. It has crowd brawling, it has an overbooked finish, but it also has some damn good near falls in there too. Loved the spot near the start of the match where Rock throws Angle through the stage set twice, once from both sides, almost foreshadowing the Shane/Angle match at KOTR 2001, only this time the stage set was actually properly gimmicked. There are some logic holes in the match though, like Stephanie distracting Hebner while Angle manages to hit Rock with the title belt, even though it's No DQ. Bits like that take you out of the match, but insane near falls off an HHH interference and a DDT of all things really bring you back in. The finish involving Rikishi didn't give Angle that much credibility as champ right out of the gate, but it helps protect Rock so it's a double edged sword really. Still, this match was one hell of a way to cap off a rookie year for Angle. ****"

[6.0] "This was a good match but not great, yet fairly entertaining, with most of the heat coming off of Stephanie McMahon interfering throughout, in her role as Kurt's advisor. Triple H made an appearance, casually dumping Kurt over the top rope and laying Rock out."

[4.0] "Ugh not my thing at all. 70% of this match was just a dull brawl, and 30% of it was constant interference. The few moments of actual wrestling were very uncreative too. The interference from Rikishi at the very end was so contrived; it was obvious all 3 men were setting up for Rikishi to accidentally take out The Rock to allow Angle to get the win. They threw in some forced near falls in the final 5 minutes, but they all felt hollow. **"

[8.0] "It's an important match which has a good brawl but sometimes it's too slow. Some spots are okay and the final minutes are really enjoyable. No DQ that works fine and the story is interesting with Kurt Angle getting the top spot of the federation. ****"

[7.0] "This will be remembered for being the first Angle world title win, Stephanie played her role well and Angle was booked to be weak, while the interferences was bad to some guys, made sense especially for Triple H worried about his wife, not the best between the two but still a good match."

[1.0] "Yeah, didn't like this. The brawling between Rock & Angle was not good, Angle submitting to Sharpshooter about 10 minutes into the match made him look weak (even though he ended up winning the whole thing). Really your typical back & forth main event style match with some interferences by Rikishi & Triple H. Not a good match. Didn't like it at all. *"

[8.0] "A good match. I really enjoyed it, there was quite a bit of interference but I didn't mind too much cause it was all built into the story and it was interesting to see all 3 main feuds/story lines at the time intertwine like such though I can see it being confusing if you didn't watch the PPVs prior to this one. This was a good match that saw Angle win his first WWF title though with it taking so much to Pin the Rock (Rikishi Superkick, Pedigree, belt shot and an Olympic Slam (Not in that order)) it kind of made Angle look a bit weak especially how the Rock didn't sell his injuries much and was up on his feet soon after the pinfall. A good match however, I agree with the rating ****1/4."

[8.0] "For a No DQ Match, this didn't really feel like one at first. But my rating for this match stands correct."