The world of professional wrestling is on fire as it has made official that Kurt Angle will return to WWE as the headliner of this year’s Hall of Fame class. For years, this has been rumoured only to pass by with no action taking place.
Finally, “The Most Celebrated Real Athlete in WWE History” is free from the grasp of TNA and the independent scene, and back where he belongs.
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Immediately, fans are going to wonder if he will step into the ring as an active competitor and if so, in what capacity? While it is not confirmed that he will do anything other than receiving his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame, that won’t stop the WWE Universe from drafting up dream scenarios.
Assuming he is cleared to compete and WWE is interested in him as a performer on a somewhat regular basis, who are some of the potential opponents he should be paired up against this year?
In order from the least to the most necessary choices possible, here are ten of the best options available on the current roster.
#10 Jack Swagger
This one is a no-brainer that has been talked about for years. While Jack Swagger is far from the most credible opponent who could face Kurt Angle, there’s certainly a gimmick factor behind this match that can justify doing it.
Swagger’s career has largely existed on only two factors: he was a fantastic collegiate athlete and by proxy of his nickname, he has a built-in association with America in general. This instantly drew parallels to Angle and even to this day, people still connect the two despite them never meeting in the ring.
For example, when American Alpha and Jack Swagger were both moved to the SmackDown roster, fans called for a resurgence of Team Angle, particularly with Shelton Benjamin advertised to join the brand as well.
Nothing of the sort happened as it was not only a stretch, but it was also unnecessary, yet the WWE Universe didn’t get that Angle/Swagger comparison out of their heads.
Why not embrace it at this point? Swagger can go into the match either as a babyface looking to gain Angle’s respect or he can be the heel who thinks he’s surpassed Angle’s legacy and needs to be taught a lesson. In either situation, we’d get to see if Swagger could actually hang with one of the best of all time.
#9 Dean Ambrose
Obviously, WWE will want to go for some of the big players on the roster and Dean Ambrose is somebody who is often overlooked, sadly. He tends to be the last option when other performers have already had their time and yet his feuds tend to deliver nearly every time.
Ambrose has a conflicting style when compared to Angle, which is part of the fun. Of course, there will be people on this list who could chain wrestle with the best of them, but after seeing that multiple times, it would be nice to have Angle booked in a feud with someone who has more of a brawler’s mentality.
This clash of methodologies is not something that has tripped Angle up in the past, since he’s had more than his fair share of No Disqualification matches during his tenure in WWE and TNA, but rarely has he gone up against someone with the intensity of The Lunatic Fringe.
Unfortunately, Ambrose is almost always booked as the loser in these scenarios and the same would apply here, but this isn’t a list about the best ways to give Ambrose a boost—it’s about interesting matches Kurt Angle could have.
Given the choice between pairing him up with Brock Lesnar or John Cena again, which we’ve already seen before, or something brand new, I’d opt for the fresher opponent.
#8 Sami Zayn
There is almost no context to why this match should happen outside of pure fan service. By no means would this be the type of program that could last for months on the strength of promos and bitter attacks backstage or anything of the sort, as that isn’t Sami Zayn’s character.
Instead, this should be one of those times WWE simply sends two wrestlers out to the ring with little to no oversight and allows them to figure it out on their own.
Angle has the history behind him which proves he can have amazing matches and over the course of his relatively short time in WWE, Zayn has proven himself more than capable of pulling off some great fights as well.
The only thing that would get in the way of this being fantastic would be WWE’s tendency to book it as a squash match, where Zayn has no offence whatsoever, which wouldn't be fun. Give the two of them a chance to put on an exhibition and it’s going to be worth it.
#7 The Miz
While Sami Zayn would be a terrible opponent for Angle when it comes to promos, there are few people on the roster right now that could actually surpass Angle’s mic skills to the extent someone like The Miz can.
Ever since his time in ECW where something just clicked and his career trajectory started looking upward, The Miz has consistently been one of the best as far as telling a story for a feud.
He is as trustworthy for promos as they come—so much so that he has even been inserted into other feuds, just so he can pull some of that weight when the two other wrestlers couldn’t do it on their own.
These past few months, in particular, The Miz has been on fire and turning heads each and every time he makes an appearance on SmackDown, so with that much momentum behind him, he would be an amazing choice to spar with Kurt Angle at some point this year, even if it stays as a MizTV segment rather than an in-ring situation.
There are bigger fish to fry when it comes to who would put on a better match against Angle, but The Miz is no slouch in that department either, and best of all, he’s exactly the type of person who can get humiliated and still bounce back from a loss looking better than before.
#6 Kevin Owens
Almost nobody in the company today has the range of skills Kevin Owens has. Within the first few months of his career, he proved himself to be just as good of an in-ring performer as they come but he excels, even more, when it comes to keeping his character in check on the mic.
At this point, there’s almost nothing he can’t do, so if WWE is looking for a well-rounded performer, they should look no further than the current Universal champion.
Kevin Owens is the type of person who could have an elongated feud with Kurt Angle as he can play up whatever side he needs to in order to keep things fresh. He’s been the cowardly heel who runs, the bruiser powerhouse who destroys his opponents, the cocky villain who cheats and the silly bad guy who gets his comeuppance.
Whatever character traits Angle is meant to be showing off, Owens will be able to compliment them perfectly during both the build for the feud and the matches themselves. Plus, if he’s so lucky to get a win over a legend like Angle, this would cement Owens as one of the top guys in the future, which is a spot he deserves.
#5 Seth Rollins
Just as Kevin Owens is a top name on the roster right now, so too is Seth Rollins, but by an even larger margin.
When fans were arguing over whether Roman Reigns or Dean Ambrose would be the standout member of The Shield, Rollins came sneaking into the picture from third place and was the first one to not only win a world title but also be trusted to maintain the foundation of the company.
A tonne of responsibility was placed on his shoulders and for the better part of a year, he carried the company on his shoulders.
Since his return to the ring and babyface turn, he’s lost some steam, but this is nothing he can’t regain. This will be evident in just a few weeks when his program with Triple H starts to heat up in preparation for their encounter at WrestleMania. Beyond that point, Rollins will be hot once more and primed for a match against someone like Kurt Angle.
In fact, Angle named Rollins as his top choice for someone to wrestle in an interview with Title Match Wrestling last August.
If that isn’t an endorsement, what is?
#4 Rusev
This list couldn’t have existed without the obligatory American pride angle, right?
Time and time again when Rusev and Lana are in the ring and ranting about the United States of America, WWE fans bite their nails, hoping to hear Kurt Angle’s theme so he can come out to teach The Bulgarian Brute a lesson.
A few years back when he was holding the United States Championship and had an undefeated streak going, this angle was heavily speculated. In the end, WWE went with the John Cena direction, but that doesn’t mean some of that magic can’t be recaptured in 2017.
After this past election, the political climate is ripe to tap into the standardised storyline of USA vs. Russia and since we’ve already seen Cena, Swagger and plenty of others come to America’s defence against Rusev, there’s no better candidate right now to fill that void than Kurt Angle.
Even if this doesn’t become an official match, there is absolutely no way Angle can be in the WWE family again without this feud being addressed at some point.
#3 Cesaro
In the same interview where Kurt Angle mentioned Seth Rollins as one of the men he’d like to wrestle, Cesaro’s name came up as well. This should go without being said, as Cesaro is one of the in-ring darlings people have clamoured to see lock up against virtually every noteworthy wrestler imaginable.
Much like with Sami Zayn, little to no effort needs to be put into setting this up and yet, the reward could be astronomical. WWE could literally do nothing but put a graphic on the screen that says these two will face at the next pay-per-view and never have the two in the same arena beforehand, and it would still become one of the most anticipated matches of the year.
This could be exactly what Cesaro needs to push him to that next level he’s been unable to reach for so long, as WWE rarely gives him the opportunity to step in the ring with main event calibre talent and go full-force, which we can assume both he and Angle would want to do here.
It’s unlikely they would hold anything back, so we as fans would be in for a treat.
#2 Roman Reigns
As you let out an immense groan and sigh in disappointment that Roman Reigns is on this list, truly ask yourself if your dissatisfaction with how WWE has booked him negates all of the other factors at play here.
Roman Reigns is undoubtedly one of the top men in the company, like it or not, and that isn’t going to change any time soon. By default, he would be a priority WWE would sooner book than almost anybody else on this list just purely out of star power.
Also, before everyone jumps on the bandwagon to say he can’t wrestle and that the match would be terrible, just look back at how things turned out with AJ Styles, as that was far from a train wreck of a feud.
Clearly, Angle sees some value behind a match with Reigns, too, as he was yet another name on his shortlist, which means this has a higher likelihood of happening than everything listed already.
There’s flexibility behind the potential booking of this as well. If WWE prefers to keep trying to convince fans to cheer for Reigns as a babyface, Angle has it in him to be a heel with ease.
On the other hand, if WWE’s creative team is willing to accept the inevitable cheers Angle will get when facing off with Reigns, this could be one of the best opportunities to have the big dog turn heel against a beloved legend.
Imagine the heat a villainous Roman Reigns would get for defeating Kurt Angle after a decade’s absence! It would be deafening, which could propel Reigns into the stratosphere when it comes to being a top villain in the company.
#1 Dolph Ziggler
It is hard to argue that there is a better in-ring performer in WWE than Dolph Ziggler, which has been the case for years upon years. Even during Daniel Bryan’s tenure where everyone classified him to be at the top of the game, his match against Ziggler at Bragging Rights 2010 was perhaps the best he would have.
Anytime WWE gives him the ball, he runs with it, and he pulls that off even when he’s not technically supposed to as well, such as when he and The Miz were overlooked for the main event of Backlash 2016.
There’s a chip on his shoulder and with Angle back in WWE, it has to be gnawing away at Ziggler to want to step in the ring with him to prove his mettle against the medalist.
Ziggler is one of the most trustworthy wrestlers not just to get the job done, but to do it safely on top of that, which is something WWE might be concerned about when it comes to Angle’s health.
Given the opportunity to wrestle an Extreme Rules brawl of some sort or an incredibly dangerous suplex-ridden match against Brock Lesnar, Angle could be at great risk, but in a straight-up contest with Ziggler, the threat is negligible. Just as a match with Angle could motivate Cesaro to become a true main event talent, this could be the cure needed to solve Ziggler’s insecurities.
Instead of feeling like he has to go out there to prove he’s the best, following this match, the WWE Universe would simply acknowledge it.
Likewise, there’s no better person to ensure Kurt Angle looks good than the guy who is amazing at selling every opponent’s attack as if it could nearly kill him. Ziggler wants to go down in history as one of the greatest, but he doesn’t wrestle like someone who is concerned about not looking weak in his matches.
He understands the importance of putting over his opponent so any potential victory means significantly more, so Angle would be in no peril to lose credibility in a match against him.
In a world where Daniel Bryan is no longer on the table to choose, it would be absolutely criminal, if Kurt Angle were to be cleared to compete in WWE and a match with Dolph Ziggler never happened.
Who would you like to see face off against Kurt Angle if he’s able to wrestle this year? Tell us your list in the comments below!
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