Hello and welcome to the best match ever series where we delve into the anatomy of a professional wrestling classic Michael Hamflit.

Screen's a bit of a giveaway, but what have we got in store for us today?

We are going to WrestleMania 21, Sage. Sean Michaels versus Kurt Angle, in front of 20,193

at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, April 3, 2005.

A quick bit of context on WrestleMania 21 and then obviously on their FUED as well.

The buy rate was just over a million, a million and 90,000. Notably, half a million up from that year's Royal Rumble and 70,000 up from the heavily, heavily hyped, WrestleMania 20, where it all begins again, Madison Square Garden, all that sort of stuff. It was also able to outdraw WrestleMania X-7 and stood as a company record until WrestleMania 23 and the

Battle of the Billionaires. A big sage show set up by two big title matches and the crowning

of two new champions at the same time in John Cena and Batista. But that context is important

because this match between Sean Michaels and Kurt Angle, while not necessarily being credited

for drawing the house, had a lot of meat in the

build that made you think, actually, is there something else that people want to watch here?

Do they want to see this potential wrestling classic?

So it had its own pressure, I guess, on his shoulders to form part of what WrestleMania 21 was

and maybe why people were going to buy in.

Sean Michaels eliminated Kurt Angle from the Royal Rumble with Sweet Chin music, and then later in the match, Kurt Angle returns illegally, raging, smashes Sean Michaels to bits and throws him out as well. He then appears on television and says, it wasn't just the rumble. I'm fine about the rumble. It was actually because he's been holding a grudge since 1996. He won the gold medal with a broken freaking neck in wrestling,

but all people wanted to talk about was pro wrestling, and the best in the world at that time was Sean Michaels. All he would hear about was the Iron Man, Sean Michaels, and Zip Lines and being the best wrestler, and that rankled him. And now here in 2005, he knows he's the best ever of every kind of pro wrestling, and yet all he still hears about is how Sean Michaels is the greatest of all time.

That kicked off a chain of events where the two ever of every kind of pro wrestling, and yet all he still hears about is how Sean Michaels is the

greatest of all time. That kicked off a chain of events where the two, because Ron Smackdown's

brand divides were quite well held to at the time, a series of invasions between the two brands

where the violence escalated. Sean Michaels was dressed as a security guard for one of them with a false

moustache. Kurt Angle turned up on Raw to beat up Sean

Michaels. And the match was basically set with Kurt saying, I'm the greatest. And Michael's responding with, well, if you think you're the greatest, you've got to beat the greatest on the greatest stage, WrestleMania. Angle then in his ability to be something of a wrestling polymath, kind of uses the stakes to then get funny with it as well.

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