ROUND ONE: Kurt Angle (2) vs. Brock Lesnar (7)

[Everlong]

The Ultimate Wrestler Tournament
ROUND ONE: Kurt Angle (2) vs. Brock Lesnar (7)

Two men who had one of the greatest WWE rivalries of the 21st century square off here in round one. Their pre-WWE wrestling accomplishments may be even more impressive than what they did inside the squared circle, but both have left huge marks on the business. Which one advances?



Kurt Angle is well-known for being the only Olympic Gold medalist in WWE/TNA history. He was a major player in the final couple years of the Attitude Era, but is particularly renowned for the time between 2002 and 2006 when he was arguably the biggest name on Smackdown. Angle had a rare combination of outstanding technical wrestling skills and the ability to cut a great heel or face promo.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

*Olympic Gold Medal in Freestyle Wrestling (1996)
*USA Senior Freestyle Wrestling Champion (1995,1996)
*USA Wrestling Hall of Fame (Class of 2001)
*NCAA Division I Champion (1990, 1992)
*NCAA Division I All-American (1990-1992)
*WWF/E Championship (x4)
*World Heavyweight Championship (x1)
*TNA World Heavyweight Championship (x5)
*WCW Championship (x1)
*WCW United States Championship (x1)
*WWF European Championship (x1)
*WWF Hardcore Championship (x1)
*WWF Intercontinental Championship (x1)
*WWE Tag Team Championship (x1)
*TNA World Tag Team Championship (x1)
*TNA X Division Championship (x1)
*King of the Ring (2000)
*King of the Mountain (2007, 2009)
*WWE Triple Crown Champion
*TNA Triple Crown Champion
*WWE Grand Slam Champion
*TNA Hall of Fame (Class of 2013)

NOTABLE MATCH



NOTABLE SEGMENT







Brock Lesnar is perhaps the most legitimate badass ever to set foot in a WWE ring, as evidenced by his brief reign at the top of the UFC Heavyweight divisions. Break from the company aside, Brock's brief stints in the company have been nothing short of fantastic, with a slew of classic matches and moments under his belt. For the man's sheer size, he's an incredibly gifted athlete and performer.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

*UFC Heavyweight Championship
*NCAA Division I Champion (2000)
*WWE Championship (x3)
*King of the Ring (2002)
*Royal Rumble Winner (2003)

NOTABLE MATCH



NOTABLE SEGMENT



VOTE NOW!

[The Legend]

Kurt Angle is as close to the total package as we've maybe ever seen in professional wrestling. He could obviously go in the ring like nobody's business. He could play serious, he could play comedy. Lesnar has the in ring situation locked down. Even having a better look and perhaps the better for professional wrestling moveset than Angle. However, where Angle gets it for me is that Lesnar would have never gotten over nearly as much without Paul Heyman. Without Paul Heyman Brock Lesnar is pretty much a rich man's Bobby Lashley and that's just not good enough.

[DanielsonTHAGOAT]

As far as in ring performance goes, Kurt Angle is prolly the best to ever do it in the WWE. He could adapt so well to putting on amazing matches with any wrestler. He could put on a technical masterpiece with guys like Benoit and Jericho, he could put on amazing brawling matches with Austin and Rock, and he could kill it with guys like Shane McMahon as well. The only person that comes close to in ring performance in the WWE is probably Shawn Michaels.

Promo wise, Kurt Angle was really underrated. I was watching the WWE Network and he played off his gimmick so fucking well. His character in 2000-2002 was perfect. He played the condescending Olympian so well and he was amazing on the microphone. Definitely a fan of his mic work.

Angle had lots of drawing power later in his career and also helped draw in a fanbase for TNA when he left the WWE. I think Angle was running Smackdown for a long time around 2003-2004. Dude did his job very well.

Lesnar is a great in ring performer but he isn't that good on the microphone. Plus, his gimmick isn't that hard to play if you have the right body type for it

Angle wins this one.

[xgamr]

argh. Brock should be swapped with another 7 or been a little higher. this is tough to call will think more about this

[Messiah]

I have a man-crush for Kurt Angle. I sort of have a man-crush for Brock Lesnar too because he is a total beast but not to the extent that I love Kurt Angle.

One thing that is forgotten about Kurt Angle is just how damn funny he is. Nobody made me laugh as much as Kurt Angle did. From 2000-2004 (but mainly 2000-2002; he got more serious in 2003/2004, especially with the Guerrero feud, and then became the Wrestling Machine in 2005), every segment he was involved in became gold. Some of his work in Main Event Mafia whenever I would watch TNA was great too.

[Everlong]

In full disclosure, I'm voting for Angle. But I feel compelled to gush a bit about Lesnar here.

I believe that if Brock Lesnar wanted to be, he could have been remembered as the single best performer ever to lace it up in the WWE. Yes, I realize that's a bold statement, but I am prepared to back that up. Consider the following:

1. His technical prowess. This was a guy who could flat out wrestle. He came from a decorated amateur background and knew how to grapple with the best of them. Just watch his matches against Angle for proof of that-- Angle in his prime could set a hell of a pace for a technical match, one that not many people would be able to keep up with. Lesnar was one of the few who could.

2. His athleticism. This wasn't your stereotypical big guy. He had the frame of a giant but the agility of a cruiserweight. I mean, give me a break:



Start at about 0:20 in this one to watch his leap:



I mean, are you fucking kidding me? You NEVER see guys that big and muscular with that kind of agility and athleticism, at least in the WWE. He was an exception to the rule that big guys had to do slow, plodding matches. That alone made him unique and awe-inspiring.

3. His selling ability. As far as I'm concerned, there is not a single person currently in the WWE, or another person over the past 15 years who even comes close to touching Lesnar's ability to make in-ring action look real. Even just within the past couple years, watch the match with Cena at Extreme Rules. Watch him toss televisions all over the place on RAW with no regard for the safety of others. He's even better at it now than he was in his first stint in the company, and he was great at it then, too. He's probably become so great because he spent so long beating dudes up/getting beat up for real that he knows damn well how to make it look But nobody, not Dolph Ziggler, not Chris Benoit, not Daniel Bryan comes close to touching Lesnar's ability to sell-in ring action, both in the way he takes moves and in the way he conducts his offense.

4. His aura. Brock Lesnar's character is nothing groundbreaking, but because of how fantastic he is in the three previous categories (and his badass entrance music) he just has this super badass aura about him that makes you truly believe he's an unbelievable asskicker. He's one of very few guys who would never have to say a word, and he'd still be a bona fide headliner for his entire career. People might downgrade him because he isn't a great talker; the biggest thing you can say about Brock's greatness is that he doesn't need to talk AT ALL. He's just that good and that believable.

The biggest thing working against Lesnar is that he just doesn't really care all that much about professional wrestling. I think he has a respect for the business on some level, but in terms of where he fits in, he doesn't see it as anything more than a paycheck. Which I mean, that's totally fine -- he still gives it his all every single time he's out there (except maybe WMXX, lol) and nobody can deny that. But it's what holds him back from being considered among the true greats. I honestly believe that if Brock had never left and had stuck around the WWE for the past decade, a few things would have happened:

-Brock Lesnar would have been the face of the WWE, not John Cena
-The WWE would have been able to experiment more with different characters for Cena, and he wouldn't be reviled like he is now
-Brock Lesnar would have a serious argument for the greatest of all time

It's unfortunate that things worked out the way they did, but it's hard to fault the guy for not wanting to deal with the constant travel and 'on-the-go' nature of professional wrestling. On the same token, that's why you have to vote Angle here. Angle is the true "total package." I'm sure I'll gush more about him later in the tournament, but he gets the win here for well-rounded set of skills that he had, the numerous classics he put on, the great feuds he was engaged in and his overall awesomeness.

[Kyle]

Angle. The guy was just the total package of a professional wrestler.

[ShaneOfan]

Bork is a badass sure but he can't even try to compare to Kurt Angle. Angle won an Olympic gold medal with a broken freakin neck! He could play a wide range of characters from a silly goofy heel to a fan favoirte good ole American boy, From a maniacal and violent bruiser to a over confident braggart. Few can match Angle in the ring both in skill and energy. He was always one of the better story tellers in the ring as well. Oh It's true it's damn true!

[Ace]

Brock Lesnar is an animal of pure badassness. His presence as soon as he enters the arena means that you know he's about to destroy something or someone. He puts on awesome athletic matches & can manhandle anyone including the Big Slow. Lesnar is definitely in my top 10.

However Kurt Angle is, like some of you have already said, the whole package. Great mic skills. He was one of the WWE's best heels & knew how to insult someone. He could also back it up in the ring. He brought the freestyle aspect of actual wrestling into the ring with him which in my opinion helped with his gimmick in general. Angle had an athleticism that made it easy to work with anyone in the ring. He had awesome feuds/matches with the likes of some of the greats such as Shawn Michaels, the Rock & Chris Benoit. He had a hell of a match with Lesnar at WrestleMania 19 which is one of my favorite matches of all time.

My vote goes to Angle for what he has done for professional wrestling as a whole.

[Viazon]

Brock Lesnar is awesome. But Kurt Angle is so awesome, it's almost not even a contest. Kurt was one of the very best in the ring and as a heel, he could genuinely make people hate him. Alternatively, he could also get over with the crowd as a face. My vote goes for him.

[prophet]

I completely agree that if Brock Lesnar doesn't leave after Wrestlemania 20 he could have easily won this poll and gone on to be one of the greatest of all time. That being said Kurt Angle truly is one of the greatest and excels in pretty much every category - he's one of the special few 'one of a kinders' in my eyes. Amazing wrestler, amazing talker, he could do serious and as Messiah so awesomely pointed out he was a king of comedy too and had badass music.

I also feel like it's important to take into account everything he's done for TNA too in addition to his amazing career in the WWE. Before his arrival TNA was a great little company with a cult following but that's it - when Kurt Angle joined he put the company on a different platform to what they'd been before and put a lot of new eyes on the product simply by being associated with it. Yes his WWE legacy is what he's known and loved for and rightfully so of course, but Kurt was an integral part of TNA hitting the heights it did a few years ago. He's the true total package of pro-wrestling.

I fully expect Angle to go all the way in this thing or come damn close if not and for good reason, he's amazing. Also whilst this doesn't contribute to my argument for Angle I'd just like to say how excited I am for his potential WWE return later this year.

[SortaCreative]

Kurt Angle has the total package.

[Str8Shooter]

Kurt Angle has the total package.

I thought Lex Luger was the total package?....

[Kirbi]

Alas, Lesnar's musculature is too creepy for me to ever be able to look him in the wrestling. Angle takes this easily.

[SortaCreative]

Kurt Angle has the total package.

I thought Lex Luger was the total package?....

Yes. Kurt Angle has him. Locked up.

[AkydefGoldberg]

Angle.

I've not seen his work since leaving the WWE but his stuff in the company was awesome. Besides his excellent ring-work, his mic work was equal to that. Sometimes you get guys who are really good in the ring but don't provide that aura on the microphone (Benoit as an example) but Angle had both.

Lesnar, like Tim has gushingly noted, could have been THE best but to me, I think he was in his prime physically in 2002-03. He looked amazingly well and had the package; his promo work got better as time went on. But now, he's still menacing but feel the operations and injuries have maybe taken its toll although not to the point his performances are shit. Far from it.

[BSM]

I love both of these guys, but I have to give my vote to Kurt Angle. They're both really good in the ring, but Angle definitely has the advantage when it comes to mic work. Brock Lesnar probably could have gotten over without Paul Heyman, but he would have never gotten as big as he did.

[DBSoT]

Kurt Angle has always been my favorite wrestler when he was with WWE. He was the complete package. Great wrestler, good on the mic, played multiple roles, and had some of the most memorable matches in WWE history. I do find it odd that this poll has Lesnar getting shut out. Lesnar is a legit beast in every sense of the word. He does lack mic skills, but he is very charismatic in terms of selling his character as legit.

[Str8Shooter]

This one is a landslide, but like others have mentioned, there's a bit of an asterisk on it because of the fact that Lesnar's career was shorter than it should have been.

Kurt is pretty much the prototype for a professional wrestler, like he was genetically engineered in a lab to create someone that any type of fan of wrestling could respect and get behind. He could do it all, technical mastery, great brawling, intense, stiff styles of wrestling, hell his moonsault was one of the prettiest ones you'll see. Plus he could really talk on the mic, he was believable as a serious badass who could pick you apart and make you tap out, or as a comedy character who was wearing goofy cowboy hats and singing, and he could change between them anytime he wanted. He was equally good at playing the heel or the babyface as well, something not everyone can do. He could get a good match out of anybody and has had classics with so many guys.

Brock it could also be said that he was genetically engineered to be a pro wrestler. If he had stayed active and never left for football and the UFC, he could quite possibly be ranked as a 1 seed in this tournament. The only thing that Lesnar lacked was the microphone ability that Angle was blessed with, but his phenomenal presence and aura about him meant he didn't need to talk circles around people to get over. The guy is one of the most intimidating figures in wrestling history.

Kurt is the winner though, he has a legitimate chance of winning this whole thing in a few weeks and is no question deserving if he does take it.

[VaderBomb]

They are both incredible technical wrestlers, but as a pro-wrestler Kurt Angle is better in every conceivable aspect aside from strength.