10 WrestleMania Followup Pay-Per-Views with WrestleMania Rematches

#6. Backlash 2001: Ultimate Submission Match

Chris Benoit remembers his Canadian roots to try and force a tapout

WrestleMania X-Seven featured a dream encounter for workrate marks all over the world: a highly-technical fourteen-minute clash of wrestling prowess between Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit. The pair was known for their technical acumen, as well as their submission finishers, WWF returned to the well a month later with its latest spin on the Iron Man Match, the Ultimate Submission Match.

This one going 30 minutes (instead of the original Iron Man's 60), Angle and Benoit fought each other to a 3-3 draw at the end of the original half hour. Referees would order an overtime, and this time Benoit would lock in the Crippler Crossface, to which Angle had already tapped once before. After about 90 seconds of overtime action, Angle submitted to the Crossface, giving the Canadian Crippler the win.

Which Worked Better?

Angle executes a better submission hold in a more entertaining match at WrestleMania

Conventional wisdom holds that taking a successful, if short, match and giving it more time to breathe would help improve that match; nearly every match we've looked at so far on this list takes that philosophy to correct some Mania mistakes at their next pay-per-view offering.

The Ultimate Submission Match, unfortunately, fails to live up to its predecessor; the intensity just does not match what the pair produced in Houston, and the removal of pinfalls takes away a great deal of each man's offense, as both were very adept at creative ways of forcing an opponent's shoulders to the mat.

Like with Bret and Austin, this isn't by any means a bad match, but it is a reminder that lightning usually does not strike twice, no matter how well you condition the environment to make it happen.