Asked to name a match of his own that does not get talked about enough, The Undertaker went to a February pay-per-view in Baltimore and put it alongside one of his WrestleMania classics.
Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Undertaker first said he was not sure the category exists anymore.
“Oh wow! You know, it’s hard to say anymore now because so much content is consumed. Like I don’t think there’s anything that passes through the crack.”
Then he named one.
“But one of my favorite matches that I rarely talk about that I thought was just amazing was 2006 No Way Out with Kurt Angle. I mean, that match was up there in that same neighborhood with the Shawn Michaels match at 25. You got to see something different from the Undertaker, and I felt like I pushed Kurt in a direction.”
Angle retained the World Heavyweight Championship that night, on February 19, 2006 at the 1st Mariner Arena, reversing a triangle choke into a jackknife cover at 29:37. It was the last pay-per-view before WrestleMania 22 and has been regarded ever since as one of the strongest main events WWE has put on a non-Mania show.
Undertaker spent most of the answer on Angle himself.
“Kurt was a machine, man. He was so fun to work with. He was like, if you’re gonna create a professional wrestler, Kurt’s your guy, I think, because he had this uncanny ability to make himself look like a fool backstage in a pre-tape, right?”
He had a specific example in mind, from Angle’s run in that period.
“He had the bandana, and he had the glasses, and he got on the moped. Like he wasn’t like, ‘ This is a legitimate badass dude, right? An Olympic gold medalist who could take just about anybody in this room and tie into a pretzel, but was willing to make himself look like an idiot.”
The comedy stopped at the bell.
“But I’m just telling you, at ding ding ding, when the bells start, and for a match, dude, you better have them boots strapped down tight, because you were gonna have to go. I mean, he was a wrestling machine, and he had all aspects. He could cut a promo, and you couldn’t have a bad match with him.”
The two met on pay-per-view three times, at Fully Loaded 2000, Survivor Series 2000 and No Way Out. The Shawn Michaels match Undertaker measures it against is WrestleMania 25, which he also lists in this interview among his four favorite matches from the streak.
