Kurt Angle vs. The Rock

[8.0] "Man this match could have been soooo much better. Rock and Angle are truly doing their best, especially Angle who wants to end his reign on a high note. And during the moments they are allowed to wrestle were sharp, they were crisp, it flowed nicely. It was a nice back and forth contest, and while it was clear that Angle was gonna lose, for a few brief moments, you could doubt it. But, Big Show's random interference that would lead to nothing kills the pace, and Hebner's botch at the end also takes away from the match."

"L'alchimie entre les deux est trop forte, j'ai beaucoup aimé le match dommage pour l'intervention du big show et dommage pour le botch de kurt angle"

[7.0] "Good match overall with hot crowd but there are a couple odd moments that prevent this from being great. The big show interference was annoying and didn't add anything and the ref not counting 3 was frustrating as well. Even then still a very compelling match"

[9.0] "The interference from Big Show both added and would lead to absolutely nothing, and some of the refereeing was bad, but this was still a fantastic match between both men with amazing in ring work and chemistry between each other, the crowd was hot, and it was a great win for Rock becoming WWF World Champion for his WWF WrestleMania (2001) main event against Austin."

[8.0] "A great title match. I think it was a very competitive match from start to finish, there was a lot of intensity especially towards the end of the match with Angle swearing at Rock while Kurt applied the Ankle Lock. It just made it look more real and everything they did was so believable whenever they had a match. That nearfall when Angle sent Rock into the exposed steel and hit the Olympic Slam was one of the best I've ever seen. Rock kicked out at the last moment and the crowd was so into it. With that said, the one right after with Angle "kicking out" at two without actually kicking out was a strange moment. I think the match was hurt by Big Show's presence although I guess you could say it was like a way to split the match into two and then the restart in the second half was terrific. Rock winning the match was the expected outcome because it set the stage for Rock vs. Austin at WrestleMania, so I don't think the result upset the fans. It was what we thought it would be."

[8.0] "I thought this match was pretty great, honestly. The Big Show's interference added nothing to the match, but otherwise this was excellent. Really good time to see The Rock win the WWF championship."

[7.0] "Rock and Angle have insane chemistry, everything looked smooth as butter. Opening stretch started hot and showed particular intensity from Rock. Big Show interference was lame and unnecessary, and then it moved into the "let's just hit bombs" section which I enjoyed a lot until the bizarre finish that sapped all the momentum out of the actual win."

[9.0] "An incredible mach with the only concerning part being The Big Show's odd interference. Super underrated match that most people probably would overlook. Near fall after near fall and The Rock finally gets the job done after two rock bottoms."

[3.0] "[1.75*] that was weird. Really weird and I just don't know how to explain it. The structure is the classic one and I'm also not a fan of it, it's poor when it's done in a wrong way, or it's mostly poor genuinely, didn't liked this, really disappointing considering how high my expectations was for it, just really uninspiring stuff, lmao."

[9.0] "This was a fantastic match that had the potential to get a full 10/10 as Angle and Rock had tremendous chemistry in there and it's a great back and forth contest which ended Angle's first title reign on a high note in my opinion. The one thing that spoiled it a bit for me was The Big Show interfering in the middle of the match and chokeslamming everyone as it was feeling like it halted things just as things was going up another gear on it's own. Still, there was some good dramatic moments where Rock gets caught in the Ankle Lock submission and they both get very strong booking where they kicked out of each others finisher. Earl Hebner somewhat botched the ending when he doesn't count the 3 for a Rock Bottom which clearly was the finish so Rock gives Angle another one. Honestly this match was great and honestly if more faith was put into them just doing what they do best in the ring, this match might well have been a masterpiece as it's easy to see they had a match of that quality in them."

[7.0] "Lol at the cameraman tripping over while we got his live perspective. I have a few scrambled thoughts. I was enjoying the match until The Big Show appeared. I hate interferences when they are done like this. They won't commit to a DQ so they just use ref bumps so as to not end the PPV in an anticlimatic way. Well don't send the Big Show, then? Or send him after the match. Both Angle and the Rock continued to fight as if it meant nothing anyway. With that being said, the Big Show had the best Chokeslam in wrestling. His technique while lifting them and keeping them in the air with the other hand is the best. It makes it so that even heavier wrestlers can reach a respectable height. Underaker and Kane's, in comparison, looked like shit with no impact most of the time because they depended too much on the opponent's ability to jump and sell it. Another thought is that the ref bump condemned this match to have Hebner as a substitute. And I'm not talking about the ending (yet). Kurt was really good at kicking out barely at two. The same way Hebner fucking sucks and always sucked at hiding the fact that he knows when he's not supposed to touch the mat for the three count. He always made me cringe when he lifted his hand so obviously early, dramatically jumping the gun before the wrestler communicates even the slightest motion of moving their arms/shoulders. No exception in this match, the difference is notable and ends my suspension of disbelief. I don't know if he does it looking fo protagonism but he got it here. When things were getting heated up again, he botched the three count and ruined Rock's moment winning the title back. It was going for far too long anyway and they did too many finish bait. Like, come on. A title belt to the head (the most OP thing in WWE history), head first into the exposed turnbuckle followed by finishers, punch to the nuts, etc. They should have went home in the People's Elbow."

[6.0] "Wow, that botched count at the end was unforgivable. What was Earl Hebner thinking? Happy to see The Rock regain the title, but this was a lacklustre finish to an otherwise strong PPV"

[7.0] "Found this to be a slightly frustrating watch, good almost in spite of itself. The Big Show involvement is baffling, combining with the finish's unintentional miscue for an unnecessarily complicated main event. That's a shame, as the chemistry between these two is almost overwhelming, with clear signs that under different circumstances, they could've made magic here. Even still, their chemiistry and fire is enough for a good main event, with the positives very much outweighing the negatives. ***1/2"

[7.0] "The Big Show interference felt very weird and came at a strange time. I really don't think it needed to happen all together and kind of disrupted the flow. That being said, the action between Rock and Angle was pretty good. Angle is the king of kicking out on a nearfall at the very last millisecond and there's some great instances of that here. There's a ton of finisher kickouts here and that doesn't bother me here, nor does it bother me in 2024. Though I do think it's funny how some people act like finisher's never got kicked out of until the modern era. Regardless, a pretty good match and Kurt very much looked like he was on The Rock's level, which is good. A very, very stranged botched pin count at the end too."

[5.0] "It's the same thing over and over again with these early 2000s WWE PPV matches. Boring brawling and then some sort of ref bump and interference and then near the end they finisher spam and false finish. Honestly, it gets old pretty quickly. Not bad by any means, but just the same shit over and over and I don't like it. (**3/4)"

[7.0] "This was hurt by the Big Show interference but after that it picked up and was a good match. I think it was also hurt by the fact that Hunter vs Stone Cold felt much more like a main event than this. I get putting this last, as it was not only for the title but it send the fans home happy but still. The fans were really into this (they always were for Rock) which helped the match. While Angle was a natural he wasn't nearly in his prime yet."

[7.0] "The match was truly very good until Big Show's arrival in the first half of the match, completely unnecessary even though I understand the whole purpose and the mess that Attitude Era can be, it really didn't irritate me despite killing some of the pacing of the match until then. Kurt and Rock have great chemistry and connection with the crowd. Throughout the match the audience was hot, shouting for The Rock and he responded with facial expressions and mannerisms that drew the crowd even more to him, a very special pro wrestler and intelligent in his expressions, in his wrestling style, he is a showman while Kurt Angle had all his evolution as a heel, far from being Perc Angle, still carried by gigantic quality in the ring, his suplex always a good example of his quality and the punches that, despite being worse than Rock's, had the effect of turning the public against them. The two had excellent selling, especially Rock on his knee, running slower and jumping to apply the People's Elbow, and Angle selling the back well. The second half was great, full of excellent nearfalls and the two finding their way to cheat. What ended that whole climax was Herb's botch, I believe he thought Kurt should do the kickout, it ruined the whole moment, the crowd clearly didn't believe in this second Rock Bottom and they didn't even follow the count, The Rock was clearly furious. The match is very fun, it represents a bit of The Rock's peak and the last periods of the WWF and Attitude Era, but with crucial problems that lower the final score. [3.75*]"

[7.0] "This was a decent match until the finish. The two are good wrestlers with good chemistry. The Big Show interference was unnecessary and the botched finish was something. Rock got the title here."

[7.0] "Damn good match apart from Hebner's botch and Big Show's interference that killed the momentum a little. They still managed to recover though and delivered a very exciting bout that made Angle look like a proper main eventer. Kurt showed so much more aggression and seriousness than usual in this, the prime example being his facials when he locked in the Ankle Lock. Really good main event, especially considering the fact that they had to follow Austin vs Triple H."

[7.0] "Solid match with a pretty screwy finish, not sure what Earl Hebner was thinking at the end there. I would rate this a little higher if not for The Big Shows unnecessary interference. It's a shame to see Angle's title run end here but it makes sense to get to the main event of Wrestlemania that year. Solid 3 star match."

[6.0] "Like many of The Rock's matches, this clearly worked for the crowd, but I couldn't call this anything higher than just good. Angle has just debuted his ankle lock finish and that plays into the match well. Angle teases it early, but Rock is able to get to the ropes. This made the move feel like a big-time threat. Angle treats this move differently than he would later in his career. He softens the leg up by slamming Rock's knee into the canvas and Angle takes control by kicking Rock's injured leg to gain control again. In a moment that I have zero recollection of happening, Big Show's music hits and he comes out to drop Angle, Rock and the referee with chokeslams. He heads to the back and the match continues and this moment is quickly forgotten about. The interference and ref bump was not needed here and you could have trusted both Angle and Rock to put on a good B-tier main event without all those bells and whistles. The botched finish is unfortunate as you could hear how it angered the audience and they have to rush to do another finish on the fly."

[6.0] "6.5/10 This match definitely has its strengths. Hot crowd, Rock and angle have great chemistry and the final few minutes of the match up until the botched finish were fantastic and very entertaining. But I think the negatives out way the positives here. A randomly and ultimately pointless big show run in and did no one any favors. Then The rock who is the baby face hits angle with the title belt while the ref isnt paying attention which just doesnt make sense and lastly the botched finshed where Earl thought angle was supposed to count out when it was actually supposed to be the finish. Unfortunately all that keeps it from being higher but its not a bad match just had a few too many mistakes. 3.5/5"

[4.0] "Wow, i didn't liked. It was a match were the tougher man will get the win, they really recover for a lot of damage, from a superplex, the Big Show attack, the exposed turnbuckle, each other finisher, but Angle looked really strong, he survived a sharpshooter, a title impact and 2 finishers (even if it was botched). He should've stay on the floor, period. The first half was kinda interesting with both having momentum and the Rock been intense but didn't contribute at all at the end. Clever kick from Angle during a sequence, considering the Ankle lock and the Irish Whip with Rock landing on his leg, but the lack of selling didn't help. An overbooked match, but exciting, the crowd was really into it. **1/4"

[7.0] "This reached a pretty hot peak but is let down by a somewhat slow start, a Big Show interference that was a bit strangely executed and felt pointless in the end, and the botched finish where I guess Hebner thought they were meant do more but they didn't so Rock just did his finisher again. ***1/2"

[9.0] "Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. The Rock is gonna take the title from Kurt Angle and there's nothing Angle can do about it. Aaaand, Rock was right! At least Angle can have a great match with everybody. Who cares if the match was predictable. Predictable doesn't mean bad"

[8.0] "This was nearly a great match, and as it was it was a very good one, but the unnecessary interference and the rare botch by replacement ref Earl Hebner take it a notch below that. Angle was just about reaching his peak here, and the Rock was at his, so it's a shame they didn't quite manage a classic here."

[8.0] "Rock gets a clothesline and Russian leg sweep for 2. Rock comes out of the corner and into the Angle Lock. Rock makes the ropes easy enough. Angle gets a belly to belly, but Rock answers with his own. Rock hits nasty clothesline and goes to the sharpshooter. Angle makes the ropes. Samoan drop gets 2. Angle comes back with a belly to back suplex and goes upstairs, but gets crotched. Superplex gets 2 for Rock. Angle dumps Rock, who hurts his knee on the landing. Fight outside then back in where Rock gets a ddt and Big Shows music hits. He walks out and choke slams the ref and both guys and leaves. That was pointless, except cheapening the match somewhat. Some refs come out and as they tend to the dead referee, Rock blasts Angle with the title for 2, Hebner drops the ko'd ref to jump in and make the count when needed. That's dedication! Rock gets caught in the Angle lock and Angle gets a little carried away, dropping an f bomb on camera and calling him a SOB. Rock finally makes the ropes, Rock gets a spine buster out of nowhere, followed by the People's elbow for 2. Crowd can't believe. Angle low blows him and removes the turnbuckle pad. Rock Bottom is countered by a shove into the steel turnbuckle and Olympic Slam, but Rock barely gets a shoulder up. Angle is losing it here and charges and gets thrown to the exposed turnbuckle, Rock Bottom gets a 2 and the crowd kinda boo's on that one, it's okay another Rock Bottom wins Rock the belt. Great finish to the night!"

[8.0] "That flat as fuck finish literally reduces this match by a solid 2 points. Otherwise, it would be perfect. Damn you Hebner, you screwed Bret and Rocky!"

[8.0] "This match did not reach its full potential due to the fact that Big Show just interferes, lays down Rock and Angle but other than that this was good. The brief portion where Angle works on the leg of The Rock was good, Rocks selling was pretty good as well. Angles trash-talking towards the end with the Ankle Lock locked in was great. Hebner clearly botched the ending as it was obvious Angle wasn't supposed to kick out.****1/4"

[2.0] "This match was absolutely awful because of it's structure. There's about 7-8 minutes of back-and-forth exchanges. Both men have nice energy with their offense and bumping, no matter how basic all that offense is. Once Big Show interferes for no reason other than it's the Attitude Era this match went from mediocre to awful at an alarming rate. There's a ref bump, a visual pin and overbooking galore with everything feeling contrived and sports entertainment. There's submissions, finisher spam, low blows and barely any of it is sold and happens for a cheap pop only. The Rock has no idea how to transition from one move to another so he just punches with that annoying slap on every punch. The finish was seemingly botched but that didn't make things any worse than they already were. Just a generic Attitude Era match with little to no wrestling, interference and finishers. *1/4"

"Hey, this match was awesome. The storyline wasn't the most interesting but it was something real about The Rock telling Angle his days of champion was counting down. I also like how Kurt was becoming a little meaner. Anyways. The match was exciting, explosive, psychology even with the chaos. It's the little things for me. Kurt was going toe to toe with The Rock. Nuff said. 8/10"

[9.0] "Kurt Angle has stated that this match was a changing point seeing as his character inside the ring became more serious. You can see that due to the intense style that he uses throughout, and it shows that by 2001, Angle was slowly closing in on being the best wrestler in the company. I could have gone without The Big Show interference. But this is just 16 minutes of great action, and a great story of who wants it more as both Rock and Angle give it their all. Both of their styles mesh well, and they share great chemistry. A fantastic bout to help set up the biggest main event in WrestleMania history."

[6.0] "This was a good match to me, but not very interesting and not worthy of being a ppv main event. Kurt Angle did a good performance and The Rock was okay, the kickout of the Olympic Slam by The Rock didn't bother me since it was to make him win the title at the end. However, Big Show's interference was truly useless. ***1/4"

[4.0] "Kurt tried his damnedest here but between the flow ruining Big Show interference, Earl Hebner's pin count botch and The Rocks rather sloppy wrestling and poor selling it was nought. The match was just rather poor and very disappointing."

[4.0] "Angle tries to carry the Rock, hard to do even if you're Kurt Angle, and overbooking the match will not take away Rock's weak wrestling"

[7.0] "This was a good match but it had two major issues. The first is the random Big Show interference and the second is the finish with Hebner, who was the referee of the match, botching the ending. With that being said, it was an entertaining back and forth match, with Kurt targeting The Rock's leg. I do think this match gets too much of high ratings, but it was still a good match. ***1/2"

[8.0] "This was great match that a thoroughly enjoyed. Loved the chemistry between these two, with Angle using his wrestling ability to dominate Rock early on, but the Rock had some amazing comeback sequences with the crowd behind him entirely. It was a great back and forth match with some great nearfalls. In the end it takes the Rock two Rock Bottems to finally put away Angle. ****"

[7.0] "a pretty good match until Big Show comes out to interfere with teh good flow Rock and Angle had built, thankfully they managed to get it back until the very end when Hebner botched the finish requiring Rock to hit a second Rock Bottom. despite these small flaws its still a solid ***1/2"

[6.0] "Match was alright but nothing special really--and Hebner legitimately messed up the finish cuz angle definitely DID NOT kick out of that first Rock Bottom. Big Show's interference was pointless too and added nothing to the match. A very overrated match in my book."

[6.0] "First and foremost, I enjoyed the match. However, the Big Show interference turned me off. It was pointless and had nothing to do with storytelling. Also, the botched 3 Count by Hebner was a head-scratcher as well. With that said, Rock and Angie did a fine job. ***3/4"

[6.0] "This was a good match, but marred by several things. The Big Show ran in to chokeslam both wrestlers and the referee for no apparent rhyme or reason. It didn't affect the match at all, rendering the whole thing pointless. Also hurting the match was that every transition was a punch. That's indy-level, "I don't know how to transition so I'll just punch" stuff. Rock and Angle also never even tried to hide their spot-calling, and when they did call spots the fans in the fourth row could have heard them because they were so loud."

[5.0] "If WWF/E is your go-to for soap opera melodrama, then this match will satiate that desire. This wasn't for me, though. It's a shame because I really enjoyed the first few minutes where both guys were really energetic, running all around and performing strikes and power moves with real conviction. I was excited for the rest of the match. And then... the Big Show came down and laid them both out. That totally brought the match to a halt and it never really recovered. I guess WWF thought that having an interference in a match is equal to 10-15 minutes of solid wrestling, because immediately after Big Show left, both Angle and Rock started going for big moves/spots and near falls. It all felt incredibly rushed. So first we got a terrible, terrible, ref bump spot where Angle covered Rock after Rock had been choke-slammed by Big Show, and 1 of the 3 refs took damn forever to get in the ring and actually count, and it was obvious this was all for the cheap pop of Rock kicking out at the last split second. Then Rock used the title on Angle, which sort of ruined any real babyface appeal he previously had in the match. Then both guys went to spam their finishing moves and get near falls. This was fun, but dumb fun, where I knew it wasn't actually a well-told, well-paced style of match, but hey, their finishing moves were cool and the crowd liked them. The ref totally botched the finish as he didn't count 3 when Rock covered Angle after the Rock Bottom, which was a really awkward moment. I definitely can't recommend this match to fans of 'work-rate' matches, but if you love everything Attitude Era then probably give this a go. **1/2"

[8.0] "Not the great classic as it's been described by many, the match is slow and uninteresting until the arrival of Big Show (that has no real impact on the match). After that, it's a full clash of the best moves from both wrestlers that don't seem to be effective. In the end it's great, but before is not a really good match. Still recommended, Kurt Angle is at his best. ****"

[5.0] "A solid match in my estimation. Some solid back and forth work before the stupid Big Show interference which made absolutely no sense. Once that got passed and over with it picked up a bit for me and I did appreciate the bit of leg psychology that was present in this one and Angle smartly played it nicely into setting up the Ankle Lock. The ending though takes a bit out of it for me as the ref tried to make it go longer which was just ridiculous honestly. Crowd was invested though which was a plus. (**1/2)"

[1.0] "Uninteresting back & forth before the Big Show interference, and then the Big Show interference happened, and after that Rock & Angle move onto the nearfall section of the match, and it wasn't good. Just some "epic" finisher kickouts. All in all, just like their No Mercy match, this was just bad, in my opinion. Not a good one. *"

[9.0] "A fantastic main event, these two have great chemistry, the atmosphere was great as was the intensity between the two. Very smooth reversals and just a high excitement match, the big show interference made sense with him losing out on the chance to be in the match. The ref botch at the end was quite bad but apart from that, a great match and worth a watch, my rating ****1/2"

[9.0] "Of course the only downside was the stupidity of the Big Show interference. Other than that this was great match. The near falls at the end were fun although I think kinda ruined the finish and took the suspense away from the moment. ****1/4"