Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Stasiak

[5.0] "Great to see the debut of Kurt, for his first match in the company for PPVs, it's actually a solid match, Stasiak actually followed the game Angle was playing and a good fast match for 6 minutes. 5/10 [***]"

[4.0] "The wrestling is great but this is Kurt's debut and the crowd could care less until Angle finally wakes them up a bit by getting on the mic and telling them not to boo him."

[7.0] "Sells angle as a helluva competitor with some great amateur skills - not bad for a debut on a big 4 ppV!"

[5.0] "I'm so glad that Kurt Angle has arrived in the WWF at this point. I was losing interest quickly due to overexposition of X-Pac and Road Dogg at this time. Kurt Angle taking the mic and telling everyone they can't boo an Olympic gold medalist was hilarious. Stasiak wasn't long for this world. He was on his way to WCW soon, so this matych was not very good. But welcome to the WWF, Kurt Angle."

[3.0] "I mean, it's Kurt Angle's first ever singles match, but is it anything special? No. It's just a low-stakes exhibition to put a new character out there, and it does its job okay to sell Angle as the athletic and legitimate technical threat, but the result is never in any doubt and there's nothing really interesting or memorable here, other than Kurt Angle's first match and first win."

[5.0] "Kurt Angle's debut is as good as you might expect it to be. He instantly shows promise. It was a bit confusing, because it didn't seem like they were sure if they wanted him to be a heel or a face. The Attitude-era crowd isn't into technical wrestling, so Angle decides to do something SO intelligent that is vastly underrated. Because he knew people weren't into the match, he rolls out of the ring and cuts a short heel promo to get him boos, which draws the fans back in a bit. He was smart enough to realize that a negative reaction was better than no reaction for him. The match itself was solid for a short debut match with two new guys. The early part with the mat wrestling was better than when they started more typically brawling, but the crowd wasn't having it. A fine debut for Angle."

[5.0] "A decent enough match for Kurt Angle's WWF televised debut. You can tell it's the Attitude by how the crowd instantly shits all over this technical match and start chanting for their hockey team and booing. Good performance by both guys and you can tell Angle was destined to be a major player down the line. 3 stars at best."

[5.0] "Given how well it worked out in the end, it's hard to appreciate how risky it was to send Angle out there to purposely get the Rocky Maivia negative fan reaction. It's only the mid-match promo, called on the fly by the back and communicated to Angle via the referee (you can see him giving long instructions during the first chinlock), that makes the segment land, and all anyone seems to remember about what is actually a crisply worked debut"

[6.0] "This was a very polished performance from Kurt Angle on his first televised match and he leans into the bad crowd reactions he gets and established himself as a heel when he tells the crowd off for booing him on the mic mid match. His moveset with the different suplexes he lands looks smooth as hell and I also liked how his arrogance occasionally gave Stasiak some breif offence. Angle showed a lot of potential here."

[5.0] "Kurt debut match he got booed because fans don't want technical wrestling at that time.Shawn also dominate many portions of the match.In the end angle hit Olympic slam not sooner rename angle slam.During match Kurt got onto mike and said he got digusted by fans for their reaction"

[5.0] "A solid squash match, but that's all it really is. Kurt proves he's got the spark, Stasiak holds up his end of the bargain as a warm body to make Kurt look good. Simple, which is all it needed to be."

[5.0] "A very good debut from Angle. He has charisma, his facial expressions are perfect, moves like a pro and understands the importance of the crowd's reaction. The fans didn't care, so he tried to get them going a little by grabbing the microphone, which didn't really work, but it was a good try. It would have been a bit better with the crowd's involvement, but it was still pretty good, with even Stasiak looking decent."

[4.0] "**Π- not good. Not ppv worthy. But it's OK. Angle shows his potential already and looks pretty good"

[4.0] "I like Finks grand introduction for Kurt Angle. Angle makes his official WWF debut on this night. Mat stuff to start and the fans have pegged Kurt a heel already. He rolls out to tell them they shouldn't boo him. Angle busts out the suplexes and Stasiak gets his token stuff here and there. He goes up top and gets crotched. Angle brings him down and the Olympic slam finishes it. I don't think Angle ever had a terrible PPV match, so let's call this match his "worst" by default. If you're worst showing on PPV is 4/10 stars, then you are something special!"

[4.0] "Kurt Angle's first filmed match, and it showed to be honest. He had the technical chops but struggled to excite the crowd. Stasiak didn't do much to help him though, making for a mediocre match."

[4.0] "The crowd isn't into this at all which is kind of a shame because this was a pretty solid PPV debut for Angle. There's some solid technical exchanges here, and everything Kurt does looks smooth so he doesn't look like a guy who had only been doing this for about a year. Kurt's mid match promo was pretty funny.**1/2"

[5.0] "This is Angle's televised debut. I love his 'clean-cut babyface but actually a heel' gimmick he debuts with. It's rather subtle and it seems like the fans didn't pick up on it straight away. Stasiak and Angle had worked plenty of dark matches leading up to this, and it results in Angle looking like a pro and not a man who actually only has a year of experience. They work in a lot of impressive technical sequences, but the crowd isn't buying it. Despite not doing anything that a heel would typically do, Angle is able to get a sizeable chunk of the audience to boo him because of how clean-cut he is. He leaves the ring and lectures the audience for disrespecting a gold medallist. Angle still needs to add some finishing touches to his gimmick, but it's clear at this point that he shows a lot of promise."

[4.0] "For a first pro wrestling match Angle did an awesome job. Stasiak didn't do his job of making him look great for one second, working only when he get a chance to take the spotlight. Mid way promo was surprising and pretty good way to showcase this new character."

[3.0] "Very below average debut especially considering the career Angle would have, this was very forgettable"

[4.0] "It was basic stuff. The promo by Angle mid-match was pretty funny because you didn't see guys doing that very often. You may think that an Olympic gold medalist would be a face, but it was smarter to book him as a heel. I thought Angle did really well here. (**)"