SciFighting did a story about a year ago entitled “The Top 3 Opponents for Angle’s return to WWE.” It did extremely well and since Angle is a free agent again we figured why not extend the list to 5 and even have some honorable mentions?
5. “The Viper” Randy Orton(Randy Orton visits at SiriusXM Studios)
Kurt and Randy had a minor rivalry back in 2006 right before Angle’s departure into Total Nonstop Action. Nothing to call home about and it was before Randy actually came into being one of the top heels of all time. Angle then was somewhat of the UFC style/ ECW Kurt dawning the ECW mouthpiece and utilizing a lot of takedowns. If the pair could have a rivalry today it would certainly be more in depth and could provide 5 star quality matches. Orton is kind of at a cross roads currently going in and out of feuds with the Wyatt family and Sheamus and Angle would be a perfect fit to pick Orton’s stale face character up a bit.
4. “The Architect” Seth Rollins(Seth Rollins)
Everyone saw at the WWE Battleground Pay-Per-View how amazing Rollins could sell a suplex from Brock Lesnar. It looked like Brock was snapping Seth’s spinal chord every time he threw him. A match between Angle and Rollins would be much of the same and who wouldn’t want to see Rollins’s face in anguish selling an ankle lock? Maybe even shades of Eddie Guerrero vs Kurt Angle if Seth decided to land a frog splash. Either way matching these two athletes up would be great.
3. “The Swedish Superman” Cesaro(Photo via wrestling.co)
The answer here should be why not? Cesaro is by far the pound for pound strongest wrestler in the WWE today. He is also the guy that has been putting everybody over as of late sadly. So why not a welcome back to the WWE from the King of Swing? Sweden Flags vs American Flags and why not a promo from Kurt Angle going a little something to the tune of “O your partner is in the hospital with a broken neck, what’s he doing with it? Nothing? Well I won an OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL WITH MY BROKEN FREAKIN NECK.”
2. Kevin Owens
Speaking of great promos.. Who else would you want to interrupt a Kurt Angle comeback speech? Kevin comes down to the ramp and mocks Angle and TNA and how Kurt ducked the actual indy scene, just a gritty raw pipe bomb alah CM Punk. The pair in the match would yell their heads off at each other from suplexes to spin out package piledrivers the intensity would be off the charts.
1. “The Beast Incarnate” Brock Lesnar(WWE Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar)
Speaking of intensity…These two owned the Aggression era and main evented one of the best Wrestlemanias of all time in Wrestlemania XIX. Of course nobody can logically write about that contest without mentioning the botched shooting star press from Brock. Who knows, maybe in a rematch he hits it? Wishful thinking at best, but these two are destined to meet again and it could very well end up in the main event of another Wrestlemania and nobody would complain.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:“The All American American” Jack Swagger
This is basically Kurt’s current cheap imitation that’s buried in the mid-card and hasn’t seen television action in weeks. Most want to say his name when they list people to challenge Kurt when he comes back but in my mind if he shared a ring with Angle it’d be for a 3 minute squash match.
“The Bulgarian/Russian/Bulgarian Again Brute” Rusev
The man that squashes Swagger almost every time and another quick “go-to” when people name a short list of those they want to see Angle face. He almost made the list but I can’t let him edge the 3rd generation Orton, C’mon man.
Speaking of great promos.. Who else would you want to interrupt a Kurt Angle comeback speech? Kevin comes down to the ramp and mocks Angle and TNA and how Kurt ducked the actual indy scene, just a gritty raw pipe bomb alah CM Punk. The pair in the match would yell their heads off at each other from suplexes to spin out package piledrivers the intensity would be off the charts.
This is basically Kurt’s current cheap imitation that’s buried in the mid-card and hasn’t seen television action in weeks. Most want to say his name when they list people to challenge Kurt when he comes back but in my mind if he shared a ring with Angle it’d be for a 3 minute squash match.
“The Bulgarian/Russian/Bulgarian Again Brute” Rusev
The man that squashes Swagger almost every time and another quick “go-to” when people name a short list of those they want to see Angle face. He almost made the list but I can’t let him edge the 3rd generation Orton, C’mon man.
