Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle (WWE - 3/14/2004)

Yeah, I just watched this for the first time in forever and the opening 6-7 minutes is still really good stuff. We often talk about how Angle never really stretched out and properly worked THE MAT~ but Eddie is a guy who cut his teeth wrestling folks like Blue Panther, El Hijo del Santo and Negro Casas. We have a match with him and those three guys where they're all working incredible mat exchanges. So it's a shame we never really got to see HIM stretch out on the mat more as well. The grappling was all relatively simple stuff, but it was worked with great intensity and had that attention to detail that really makes a segment like that pop. Even something like the way Angle practically nipped up out of a headlock before immediately grabbing an armbar made him look like a pitbull. Eventually he'd take over by going to the ribs and that was really good stuff too. I thought they teased and threaded their signature stuff into this really smartly, obviously making a point of not blowing through everything they had in their first match of the series. During the matwork section they came up for air at one point and Eddie tried for the Three Amigos, hit one before it was reversed into a triple German attempt, but Angle could only hit one of those before Eddie cut him off. Angle tried to hit the top rope Angle Slam midway through, Eddie shoved him off, then tried to capitalise with the frog splash only for Angle to move. That Angle never managed to hit even a regular Angle Slam - it was countered with an armdrag that looked fucking great - was another thing they left on the table for future matches. The one finisher kickout (frog splash) felt appropriately big. Agreed with micro on the finish. I've always really liked it and if you're going to go with one like that rather than a decisive clean one then at least make it creative. This was definitely that and further adds to the idea that Eddie can and will use every trick imaginable to win.