10 Things You Forgot About The Steve Austin Vs Kurt Angle Rivalry

WWE found huge success from the rivalry between Steve Austin and Kurt Angle in the Attitude Era. Both wrestlers had drastically different characters, but that only helped their chemistry as opponents. Austin was the biggest star when Angle signed a contract and the Rattlesnake was instrumental in Angle's rise.

Both wrestlers speak glowingly about working with the other due to the great memories they created as rivals. WWE had them in various roles and added different storylines to continue to raise the stakes. Angle and Austin delivered an underrated main event feud from the early 2000s. The following overlooked things deserve another look from the Austin vs Angle rivalry.

10 Top Singles Feud Of The Invasion

Few wrestling fans will think of Steve Austin vs Kurt Angle when trying to come up with the ideal WCW vs WWE feud. The horrible booking of the Invasion saw Vince McMahon going with Austin’s heel turn to make him the leader of the WCW/ECW Alliance faction.

Angle was forced to play a complete face character for the first time in his WWE career to feud with Austin. The summer and fall of 2001 saw Austin vs Angle becoming the premiere singles feud of the entire storyline.

9 Best Match Had DQ Finish

Most fans would agree that SummerSlam 2001 was the greatest singles match between Steve Austin and Kurt Angle. The series of matches almost always delivered, but the magic was there this specific night for a tremendous match.

Angle and Austin brought the violence and storytelling to showcase their best work together. Austin intentionally getting disqualified was the storyline advancement to keep the feud going. Even without a satisfying ending, this has a higher Cagematch rating than any other match they had against each other.

8 Karen Jarrett's First Wrestling Appearance Involved Austin

Karen Jarrett was married to Kurt Angle during his entire first WWE stint and made one interesting appearance. Kurt’s entire family was sitting in the first few rows for his Unforgiven 2001 match against Steve Austin in his hometown of Pittsburgh.

Austin talking trash at Kurt’s family during the match saw Karen having a back and forth with Austin by cussing him out. Karen and the other members of the Angle family entered the ring after Kurt’s win to celebrate him becoming WWE Champion at home.

7 William Regal Helped Austin Win Back Title From Austin

There were many heel turns during the Invasion storyline throughout 2001 with WWE wrestlers jumping ship to The Alliance. William Regal was playing a face for the first time in years when defending WWE as the Commissioner authority figure.

Kurt Angle’s WWE Championship reign after defeating Steve Austin only lasted a few weeks due to Regal’s big heel turn. Regal defected to help Austin cheat Angle out of the match to bring the title back to The Alliance.

6 Angle Threatened To Throw Austin Off A Bridge

One of the more interesting segments between Steve Austin and Kurt Angle rarely gets attention when talking about the best Raw moments. Angle snapped in character after losing his first WWE Championship shot to Austin by DQ.

The anger led to Angle abducting Austin and threatening to throw him off the bridge if he didn’t get another title shot. Austin truly committed to the heel act by cowardly begging for Angle to spare him. Once he received the promised title shot, Angle threw a terrified Austin into a kiddie pool to embarrass him.

5 Feud Extended With Rob Van Dam Involved

Rob Van Dam Vs Kurt Angle Vs Steve Austin

WWE continued the storyline between Steve Austin and Kurt Angle over the course of five PPVs from Invasion to Survivor Series 2001. One of the ways to keep their rivalry going without getting stale was the addition of Rob Van Dam at No Mercy 2001.

Fans were falling in love with Van Dam breaking out as part of The Alliance representing the ECW brand. RVD, Angle and Austin faced off in a triple threat match for the WWE Championship. The response showed everyone wanting Van Dam to pull off the big win, but Austin retained the belt.

4 Angle Eliminated Austin From 2002 Royal Rumble

WWE continued the feud between Steve Austin and Kurt Angle into the end of 2001 and start of 2002. Both men were in new programs, but they still had issues with each other heading into the 2002 Royal Rumble match.

Triple H’s return from injury was the biggest story at the time, leading to him winning the Rumble. Angle was the one to eliminate Austin since WWE didn’t want to have Austin and Triple H eliminate each other as faces. Triple H eliminated Angle after he eliminated Austin to win the match and title shot.

3 Faced Off In WWE/WCW Title Unification Tournament

The end of the Invasion storyline saw fans having strong interest in the four-man tournament to unify the WWE Championship and WCW Championship. Everyone remembers Chris Jericho beating both The Rock and Steve Austin to become the Undisputed Champion, but Kurt Angle was also involved.

WWE continued the two biggest singles feuds at the end of the Invasion in the first round of the one-night tournament. Jericho defeated Rock, and Austin defeated Angle to each advance to the finals. Angle has revealed he was planned to win the entire thing until Vince McMahon changed plans for Jericho.

2 Angle Almost Faced Austin At WM 17

One overlooked aspect of WrestleMania 17 was the path to getting to Steve Austin vs The Rock in the main event. Austin winning the Royal Rumble match to gain the title shot was the easy move, but he was first scheduled to face Kurt Angle.

The WWE Championship win of Angle in October 2000 saw him beating Rock and holding the title past the Royal Rumble 2001 event. Rock had to defeat Angle one PPV before WrestleMania 17 to complete the dream match scenario against Austin.

1 Double Turn After The Alliance Ended

The Alliance saw both Steve Austin and Kurt Angle each betraying WWE to join the WCW and ECW faction. Survivor Series 2001 culminated the show with Angle double-crossing Austin and the rest of The Alliance to help Team WWE win.

However, both roles were reversed the following night with WWE resetting their characters. Angle turned heel with Vince McMahon to once again became the most hated characters until Austin interrupted as a face to attack them. Fans welcomed back Austin as a face despite the lack of logic, due to them just wanting to cheer him again.