[2000-04-30-WWF-Backlash] Big Show vs Kurt Angle

[soup23]

Showster never fails to make me laugh. The match is nothing and I can see an argument that jobbing Kurt out in this way isn’t the best move but as a bridge from his IC/European feud stuff to the summer where he will be in the top feud in the company, this was entertaining stuff and a great impersonation by Show. A perfect comedy style match for what it was trying to accomplish. *

[Loss]

This was during the period where they abandoned all hope with Big Show and turned him into a comedy wrestler before shipping him off to OVW for several months. Setting the wisdom of that aside, the Showster impersonation is genuinely hilarious, and I love how the crowd played along with it all. Angle losing was made up for by kicking out of the big boot and legdrop.

[AstroBoy]

Big Show hits a ridiculous hard lariat in this towards the end of the match. Angle's expressions and demeanor are priceless as Show comes out. I always found these impersonation gimmicks to be pretty painful and overdone but Show does a legitimate great Hogan. I kind of think they had something here with Show turning the switch from fun to angry mid-match. Angle actually works for me in this role too as he gets to take a bit of a step back from wrestling-heavy stuff to tune up for future main event runs.

[GSR]

Pre-match video package which has clips of Show imitating various wrestlers (Venis, Godfather) and saying how he likes to have some fun out there. This should’ve been an indicator of what we might get. Hulk Hogan’s music plays and Show walks out doing a full on Hogan parody complete with ‘Showster’ T-shirt, dyed blonde moustache and bald cap wig. Angle attacks him when the ‘Showster’ has his back turned, but he’s no selling it and ‘Hulking up’. Three huge rights, big boot, leg drop and Angle kicks out at the last second with Jerry Lawler commentating how nobody ever kicks out of the leg drop! Show whips him into the ropes, Angle ducks a clothesline and a shoulder tackle to Show’s legs takes him off his feet. Angle starts to work over the leg in an attempt to ground his larger opponent. Figure Four, but Show kicks Angle off before he can fully apply it. He takes off the Hogan weightlifting belt, rips off the wig and gets serious as Ross says ‘the fun and games are over’. He unloads on Angle in the corner, gives him one stiff sounding clothesline and a chokeslam later it’s all over.

 

The Hogan parody was entertaining and fun, but there’s not really much to this. With how the match was booked they could’ve put anyone in the roster in Angle’s position and a match like this does him no favours and portrays him as some comedy act as opposed to a serious, credible threat to the World title, which is what an Olympic gold medallist should be portrayed as.