Analyzing the Kurt Angle vs Baron Corbin WrestleMania Match

On last night’s episode of RAW, it was announced that Kurt Angle will be having his retirement match at WrestleMania against Baron Corbin. This announcement was met with backlash and disappointment, as many were expecting a bigger name to be Angle’s final opponent. So, it’s fair to analyze both sides and see if it is really such a bad idea.

In storyline, this match does make the most sense as Corbin has made Angle’s life a nightmare since replacing him as RAW General Manager late last year. It makes sense that Angle would want to go out by embarrassing the man that has been embarrassing him for months on the Grandest Stage of Them All.

The only issue is that we have seen Corbin v. Angle on RAW a few times and even though Angle got his revenge on Corbin at TLC, Corbin has beaten Angle on RAW, so do we really need to see it again at WrestleMania?

Corbin has arguably the most heel heat out of anyone on the WWE roster, but not all of it is heel heat. Some of it is “Go away, we don’t like you at all” heat, which isn’t good. All of that can’t be placed on Corbin though as his booking has been horrible since 2017.

Corbin lost his Money in the Bank contract in embarrassing fashion. His “Constable Corbin” gimmick was good until they made him the permanent General Manager and blamed him for the poor booking decisions. So, in a way, Corbin does deserve some justice for what he has had to deal with the past couple of years, and this is a good way to get that.

Many fans were expecting a much bigger name than Corbin to be Angle’s final opponent. The main one being John Cena, since everything would come full circle as Cena would retire the man he debuted against. However, Cena is doing a movie at the moment so that wouldn’t work, and even if he doesn’t what would it accomplish? Cena doesn’t need the rub from retiring Angle, especially since he is now a part-timer. Also, fans would be disappointed since the match wouldn’t be an instant classic at this point in time. It would be more like Undertaker v. Cena from last year's WrestleMania where Undertaker just destroys Cena in 5 minutes.

Look at Angle’s match with Chad Gable last night for instance. Angle isn’t in a position to have long matches at this point in his career, so a squash against Corbin is a fine sendoff, even if it is disappointing.

Is Corbin v. Angle ideal for Angle’s last match? No Is it a WrestleMania worthy match? Probably not, but it is what we are getting and once fans get over their anger and think about it, the backlash will most likely subside.