Kurt Angle is celebrated as one of the greatest WWE Superstars ever but even he makes mistakes, as proven at SummerSlam 2002.
At the height of his career, Kurt Angle was a regular pay-per-view headliner, however, even his lower-card pay-per-view clashes are worth seeking out. In what is believed to be one of both Superstars’ best matches, the Olympic gold medalist wrestled Rey Mysterio to open the 2002 SummerSlam card.
Although Angle ultimately achieved the submission victory via Ankle Lock, Kurt repeatedly botched a spot in the match. Speaking on The Kurt Angle Show, the four-time WWE Champion recalled how he and Mysterio failed to achieve a Hurricanrana spot three times:
“Well, I messed up the first two times. [Conrad Thompson asks, ‘So that was on you then?’] Yes, yes. And actually, what’s crazy is the first time he did it, that’s when I cut my head. But the blood didn’t start coming out until after the third time. It wasn’t the third time that he hit me with it that my head started bleeding. It was the first one and it just took a while to start bleeding. Kurt Angle is not perfect, I make mistakes, yes I do, I had to do it three times.”
Kurt Angle defeated Rey Mysterio in roughly ten minutes, forcing him to submit with an Ankle Lock. The match marked the pair’s first and only singles match on WWE pay-per-view.
In the early 2000s, they were involved in the early history of the WWE Tag Team Championships, as Angle and Chris Benoit became the inaugural champions at No Mercy 2002, a match believed to be one of the company’s best attempts at tag team wrestling.
They last shared a ring as part of the 2019 men’s Royal Rumble match, during which Kurt Angle entered fourth and Rey Mysterio entered twenty-fifth. Angle lasted a little over three minutes, while ‘The Biggest Little Man’ survived for three times longer at twelve-and-a-half minutes.