Kurt Angle vs. Ric Flair

[9.0] "I had my doubts going into this about how could they possibly make a competitive, compelling match between an old man and an Olympic Gold Medalist. Well, these are two of the GOATs and that old man is Ric fucking Flair. He is so slick and intelligent, always finding a way to tilt the balance of the match in his favour, taking advantage of the leniency of the referee. They sell the shit out of each other, and Flair bumps like a 25 years old. He is ruthless and in shape, and his pedigree as the Greatest Champion of All Time is in full display in this match. Angle is incredible, too: so fiery but so generous at the same time. This was great."

[7.0] "(***3/4) This was a great, if somewhat predictable, match. The story drives the action as Flair tries every trick in his repertoire against Angle. It starts slowly, with both men attempting to outwrestle each other. As the match progresses, it turns into a brawl, with Flair and Angle laying into each other with hard chops and uppercuts, leading to some great bumps from both. The ending is excellent: Ric tries to finish Angle off, only to get caught in the Angle Lock and, with nowhere to go, is forced to submit. My only criticisms--aside from a noticeable botch--are that they go outside the ring a bit too often and the pacing drags at times. That said, the crowd, psychology, and in-ring work make this a great match that anyone with 20 minutes to spare should watch."

[9.0] "Ric Flair was always going to look a million bucks fighting Kurt Angle wasn't he. This felt very different to anything I've seen from either of them and as Ric Flair matches go, this was easily one of his most physical as he uses every dirty trick in the book to get out of wrestling Kurt Angle's style of match and the fans was just eating it up. Even though it seemed like it was obvious who was going to win, the storytelling in this match is great because it plays of off the idea that not only are you hoping for the Flair upset, but the match was wrestled in a way where it would have been believable if it did happen. It is very dramatic to watch and some of the striking, particularly the chops in the corner looked painful. He was really at his best in this one, and Angle is reliable in how he has to adapt to a different style as well as the selling really putting Flair's offense over. I honestly couldn't imagine the match being any better than it was! It was a big time match put on TV."

[6.0] "This was pretty good before the standard WWE booking kicked in (it's a shame how often that's the case). The story of the match was quite compelling, following Angle as the aggressive and athletic specimen up against past-his-prime veteran Flair's cheap and outright illegal tricks. Flair's posturing early on was quite entertaining, and it smartly enraged Angle to the point that he over-committed on attacks and thus allowed Flair to catch him off guard to briefly gain control. It was fun seeing Angle get pissed off in response and then become more aggressive and disrespectful. I really enjoyed him using his technical-wrestling skills to dominate, though I do wish we'd seen more of that. Flair sold his pain and exhaustion really well whenever Angle was in control, and he showed good focus and determination in his comebacks, while Angle showed good killer instinct as he continued to hunt and and wear Flair down. They clearly botched their spot on the turnbuckle but they recovered pretty well. I obviously hated how the match then became typical WWE BS with Flair eating an Angle Slam only to rather effortlessly kick out of it, and then he likewise quite easily survived Angle's immediate Ankle Lock follow-up, being perfectly alert and up on his feet soon after despite having just taken 2 of Angle's finishers. It was at least cool to see Flair continue fighting so dirty, since that story of how he could only hang with the younger and more athletic guys by cheating was quite endearing, especially with the crowd cheering for it all because Flair was still the underdog babyface despite his cheating, since he was so well-respected by the fans just for being such an accomplished legend. Despite the annoying final 1/3rd, as almost always typical of WWE, this still had a good story and some good character work to keep this mostly engaging. ***1/4"

[8.0] "Kurt Angle was Kurt Angle here delivering his usual good performance but Ric Flair was actually the MVP of this match. He took some wicked bumps in this match for his age, him doing anything dirty imaginable like biting Angle's finger, or grabbing a handful of his testicles. Angle won after countering the knee breaker into the ankle lock.****"

[8.0] "This was NOT your run of the mill WWE style TV match. It sort of was built around both guys using underhanded tactics and it was a really gritty, physical match overall. Great bumping from Flair too, especially from a 50-something year old man. It might not have been the prettiest match in the history of wrestling but I was thoroughly entertained. Such a unique style of match especially compared to the typical WWE TV stuff around this time period."

[7.0] "Two of the greatest ever. It's a shame this the only time we got these two in the ring together but they make it worth it. Especially for a what could have been a throwaway TV match."

[10.0] "One of my favorite matches of all time. Love to imagine the conversation between Flair and Angle in the lockerroom discussing the crotch-grabbing spot."

[6.0] "Nice little TV match. Flair plays the role of the veteran, willing to do anything to win and Angle the role of the younger, faster, stronger opponent that constantly gets outsmarted. Final spot is great"

[5.0] "Fun TV match between two of the greatest of all time. Ric Flair was awsome it is antics. Unfortunately we never se a proper feud between these two."