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On this week’s episode of WWE Raw, Kurt Angle announced that he would wrestle his final match at WrestleMania opposite Baron Corbin. While Corbin made some storyline sense as an antagonist given the issues these two have had on and off for the better part of a year, fans were nonetheless underwhelmed.
After all, Angle had a storied career in which he had memorable feuds with Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, Brock Lesnar, Shawn Michaels and John Cena to name a few. Would it really do him justice to pay off a simple, immediate storyline, rather than facing a career rival, or perhaps seeing through one last first time, intergenerational dream match?
That’s not to mention that Corbin himself generally not a favorite of the WWE Universe. He’s not just hated in the storyline sense that fans boo someone like Drew McIntyre but generally respect him as a performer, but rather more like what used to be called X-Pac heat—disliking a guy to the point of not wanting to see him beat up, but rather not wanting to see him on TV at all.
But what if this lukewarm announcement was part of a larger plan to swerve fans? Or what if WWE listens to the reaction from the live crowd and social media and switches courses? This article takes a look at three ways WWE could turn things around.
#3 This issue can’t wait for WrestleMania
Kurt Angle has spent recent weeks on Raw staging friendly match ups against up and coming talents Apollo Crews and Chad Gable. They’re the kind of guys he doesn’t have kayfabe issues with, probably could have stolen the show with in his prime, and who WWE isn’t invested in enough to protect them from losing on TV.
WWE will likely as not continue this trend to give fans a taste of what we’re losing in Angle’s retirement, build some nostalgia, and give some of these younger guys a few minutes of ring time with a legend.
One “out” for having Angle face Baron Corbin at WrestleMania would be for him to get into with Angle on one of these Raw segments, basically suggesting their issue is too heated to wait for the show of shows and they’ll do it now. Angle wins quickly and decisively, then moves on to something biger and better in New Jersey.
#2 The Shield comes to Angle’s aid
One of the original premises of The Shield was that they fought against injustice in WWE, and there’s a pretty fair argument to be made that Kurt Angle ending his career in a match with Baron Corbin is an injustice.
Particularly given Angle’s interactions with the trio in the past—including becoming an honorary member to fill in for Roman Reigns in the fall of 2017—it would make all the more sense for them to concern themselves with the Olympic hero. The trio has had issues with Corbin, too,
This can all go down pretty simply with Corbin getting a bit too braggadocios on Raw, only for the Hounds of Justice to put him in his place (and through an announce table). They could follow it up by calling out Angle and telling him he deserves better.
Conservatively, this oculd lead to Angle vs. Dean Ambrose, who isn’t booked for ‘Mania at this point. Alternatively, a legend could easily enough get subbed in.
#1 John Cena says Angle deserves better
For better or for worse, WWE is no stranger to dramatic changes in course that don’t come across as entirely logical within the storyline being told. These shifts work because of either evil heel schemes (like Mr. McMahon putting Charlotte Flair in the WrestleMania 35 women’s main event) or because fans are happy for the contrivance that gets them what they want (like Daniel Bryan getting inserted in the WrestleMania 30 main event picture).
John Cena may not be an authority figure in the WWE landscape, but he is an undeniable power broker, whose laundry list of accomplishments notably include debuting opposite Kurt Angle, and inducting the Olympic Hero in to the WWE Hall of Fame.
Fans would welcome Cena appearing to tell Angle he deserves better, or that he’s wrong to sell himself short in wrestling his last match with Corbin, before working his own way into a much more appealing legends match at WrestleMania 35.
