John Cena vs. Kurt Angle 06.27.02

Where: Chicago, IL

Back Story: Kurt Angle had been doing the Angle challenge for a few months now as a way to build heat on him. He would let a random guy challenge him to a match, and if they won, they got his gold medals. Out comes a newcomer named John Cena who claims he can beat Kurt because he has ruthless aggression.

By the way, anyone who needs a first match in the company to make themselves look halfway competent would be thrilled to have someone as talented and generous as Kurt Angle. There are other talented guys out there, but they may not make the other guy look good. It's a gift and curse because if Angle no sold a lot of his opponents he might have gained more power as a draw. It's the old prisoners dilemma. If we all work together we can gain profits, if we are all corrupt we get a smaller profit, but if most of us work together, and a few of us are corrupt, then the few will gain more profit that everyone else.

In Ring Action:

Cena starts with a quick punch to take advantage, then mounts him with punches, and throws him out of the ring. Some more punches follow, and Cena throws him back in the ring. So far Cena hasn't done much in the ring as far as wrestling or bump taking, but he shows good fire and intensity.

Cena goes for his first complex move as he does a Stinger Splash but doesn't have perfect timing as he hesitates before he jumps and thus looks a little weak on impact. Angle gets the advantage and goes for the ankle lock, but Cena reverses in slow motion. It can be expected when a guy's first match is as high profile as fighting Kurt Angle, but you can see the potential underneath his low impact moves.

Kurt comes back and hits two german suplex, both of which look painful and crisp. On the third attempt, Cena reverses for a rollup, and once again it looks like Kurt is waiting for him to do the move. Kurt goes back on offense, and wears him down with a front facelock which Cena reverses with a backdrop. This one looked a little better.

Cena begins his babyface comeback and comes back with a flying forearm. I notice Cena's wrestling moves are his biggest problem because his strikes look more than acceptable in this match. Cena comes back with a nice variation on the spinebuster for a 2 count, and the crowd is behind Cena here. Cena sells that he thought he had the victory. I usually find that to be cliche, but with Cena being the young babyface, I think it's a logical emotion for him to feel after using a nice transition move.

Cena then reverses the Angle Slam into a DDT which gets a near two. Instead of being in disbelief Cena goes right back for the cover. This is normally a heel move, but once again Cena is the rookie, and is so desperate for the win that seems to be at his fingertips.

Cena then goes for a series of leverage pin attempts once again showing that he smells that he's a lucky break away from victory. He goes for a school boy and a small package for near pinfalls. He then hits a powerslam and tries to pin him twice.

Kurt then finishes him off by going for a variation of the cattle mutilation into a quick pinfall.

Winner by pinfall: Kurt Angle in 5:38 **1/4

After the match Cena tries to shake Kurt Angle's hand, but Kurt doesn't think he deserves it. It kind of makes Cena look like a dork while he motions that he was very close to beating him. Kurt nearly comes back to the ring to fight Cena some more, but then decides better of it and heads backstage.

It started a little slow, but Kurt carried Cena to a good opening match. You could Cena feed off the crowd and become a little more in the zone as the match continued. Of course Cena would go on to big things, and you could see his potential. Still he was very green, and needed a good opponent to carry him.