I guess we’re really doing this

Farewell Match

Baron Corbin vs. Kurt Angle

WWE dug up an old, resolved feud to give us a match almost nobody wants.

The Road to WrestleMania

Kurt Angle was living his best live as the General Manager of Raw (and an occasional Shield member) when his partnership with and mentorship of Ronda Rousey for last year’s WrestleMania put him on the wrong side of Stephanie McMahon & Triple H. They may not call themselves The Authority any more, but when they decide they don’t want you running the show on Monday, well... just ask Mick Foley how that goes.

Baron Corbin had already gotten himself a haircut & a vest and joined the corporation. So when McMahon decided to send Angle on a vacation, she turned to the Constable to take over - on an interim basis, that is:

Steph didn’t want to hand the Lone Wolf the job, however, and it didn’t matter how much he tried to make “General Manager Elect” happen, Corbin couldn’t get himself instated full-time in the position.

Now here’s why Kurt picking Baron as his final opponent at WrestleMania 35 on Sunday night doesn’t make any sense. Angle says he still owes Corbin for making his life hell last year. But he’s paid him back for that several times over. As a thorn in his side last fall...

Then by helping cost his managerial nemesis a match against the injured Braun Strowman at TLC which, if he had won, would have made Corbin the permanent GM. And, if that wasn’t clear enough for you, when the McMahons took over Raw and SmackDown the next night, they put Baron in another match for his job - and Angle helped put him through a table to beat him in that, too!

So our Olympic Hero can tell us Corbin’s the one man he “wants to beat” in his last match, but we’ve already seen him beat BC, so...

What’s at stake?

We’ve already seen what Kurt’s body will let him do at this stage of his life, and it’s not great. Not because it’s disappointing or anything - the man’s 50 years old and has put his body through years of competing, surgeries and addiction. Anybody expecting classic matches at this point is dreaming. But Angle and WWE seem to have realized he’s not capable of anything close to what he could do in his prime, and rather than force lengthy matches which remind us of that, they’ve cut his “farewell tour” to the bone in recent weeks.

Maybe that’s so he can go out with a bang in East Rutherford, New Jersey? Could be. But regardless of whether you thing Corbin’s heat is the good kind or the “go away” kind (if there is such a thing), no one has ever claimed he could carry a match.

A win could be good for the Lone Wolf’s future, even if it just turns up the volume on that “go away” heat. But what a lot of us are hoping for is that, win or lose, Baron is just a transitional act to a more meaningful moment during Angle’s last time in a singlet.

Anybody know what John Cena is doing tonight?