The wrestling staff of Back Sports Page have carefully selected what they believe to be the top 41 matches in WrestleMania history. This series will detail the backstory, match review, and aftermath of each match, along with how the outcomes shaped the careers of those involved.
Backstory: WrestleMania X-7 is arguably the greatest WrestleMania of all time, and one of its best matches was thrown together at the last minute. Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle are two of the greatest in-ring technicians of their era, but in the lead-up to X-7, neither man had anything major going on. Both men fought for titles at the previous month’s No Way Out PPV, but neither was able to win their respective matches.
They didn’t have much time to build up the feud before the show, so instead of the feud revolving around a deep-seated hatred between the two men, they based their match on who was the better technical wrestler. Angle commented on the build for the match on his podcast “The Kurt Angle Show.”
“I’m not sure they even thought of it until a week or two before WrestleMania,” Angle said (h/t to Blake Lovell of 411Mania). “Benoit and I got put together because we were both top performers in the company, and neither one of us had a match. So, the company said, ‘Let’s put the two best technicians in a match together; they’re going to have an incredible match. ‘ We don’t need much of a buildup, so let’s just throw it on the card.”
Match Review: Angle cut a masterful promo before the match, priming the all-American Houston crowd to boo an American Olympic gold medalist and cheer the most Canadian looking man that has ever existed. Benoit and Angle put on a technical masterclass for the fans that night. The two spent much of the early portion of the match exchanging amateur wrestling maneuvers. Angle and Benoit are right at home wrestling like that. It’s a great change of pace on a show in an era where this type of wrestling isn’t in fashion.
The second portion of the match gets more intense. Angle dumps Benoit with brutal belly-to-belly suplexes before each man trades vicious chops in the corner. Benoit hits a superplex that gets all of Houston on their feet, and Paul Heymen on commentary calls the move “Dynamite Kid-esque.” Benoit hit a series of belly-to-back suplexes to set up the final section of the match. They traded their signature submissions back and forth, including Angle visually tapping out to the crossface. Ultimately, Angle emerged victorious thanks to countering Benoit’s pin attempt with a roll-up of his own.
Aftermath
- Kurt Angle continued to feud with Benoit over the next few PPVs, losing an ultimate submission match but winning the deciding two-out-of-three falls match. He then feuded with Shane McMahon and had an excellent showing in the King of the Ring tournament. He would go on to win the WWE Championship in September.
- Chris Benoit lost his feud with Angle thanks to the help of Edge and Christian, so he teamed up with Chris Jericho to win the WWE Tag Team titles to get back at the duo. Benoit would suffer a neck injury in May and, despite trying to work through it initially, wouldn’t return until the summer of 2002.
Angle and Benoit are two of the best technical wrestlers that ever stepped foot in a WWE ring. This match in 2001 was the first of many classic matchups these two would have during their time in WWE. While they would have more classics with each other, this was the best match Angle and Benoit put on together.
This match is often overlooked, but it’s for a good reason. While the writers here at Back Sports Page felt this match should be included in our countdown when looking at every Mania match objectively, the heinous acts that Benoit committed will always rightly overshadow anything he was able to accomplish in the ring.
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