WWE Monday Night RAW 25th anniversary: Ranking the 25 biggest stars

17. Kurt Angle

I know, I know. Kurt Angle was away from WWE for more than a decade and also spent a lot of time during his initial run in WWE with the SmackDown brand. However, his time on Monday Night RAW during that time was absolutely phenomenal and provided some of the best matches and moments in the show’s history. Period. The only reason he’s not higher on this list is because of those things I mentioned. But he definitely deserves this spot. Don’t worry. You’ll probably get more annoyed at the next entry anyway.

After winning a gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics, with a broken freakin’ neck I might add, Angle debuted in WWE in 1999 and had one of the best first years in history. He debuted at Survivor Series, which has long been THE place to debut (Rock, Undertaker, Shield, etc.), defeated Shawn Stasiak and quickly became a must-see attraction on Monday nights. His ability to learn the business as quickly as he did has only been done by maybe one or two others, and he was soon winning titles left and right. It started with the European and Intercontinental Championships, both of which he won in February 2000, not even three months after his debut. He fought Chris Benoit (I haven’t mentioned him yet but he was very close to making this list and his absence has nothing to do with his personal life) and Chris Jericho at WrestleMania in a great 2-out-of-3 Falls Match and lost both titles without losing a fall.

His promos on RAW were gold (wrestling puns are awesome) as he flaunted the medal and talked of the three “I’s”: Intensity, Integrity and Intelligence. His “I’m better than you” attitude was so perfect, and it just played right into what WWE was doing at the time. This was a “real” athlete that was so good in the ring and on the microphone that viewers didn’t have a choice but to react one way or the other. He joined up with Edge and Christian (another who didn’t make the cut) on “Team ECK”, which provided so many comical moments. In the ring, Angle was winning King of the Ring and then got into an amazing program with Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. His interaction with Stephanie was amazing, and his matches with Triple H were second to none.

Not even a year after his debut, Angle won the WWE Championship by beating The Rock, and that one year alone may have been enough to get him into this top 25. However, he kept going with more great matches and more great promos, perhaps none as good as when the Invasion angle was happening in 2001. He had sided with Stone Cold Steve Austin and Vince McMahon and the three of them backstage were amazing. The little guitar and the little hat and everything else was just genius. Throw in the heel turn and the milk bath for The Alliance and you’ve got some of the most entertaining months in WWE history.

Angle moved to SmackDown and had great programs there with the likes of Brock Lesnar, Hulk Hogan (who he made tap out) and Eddie Guerrero, and he also helped out young talent, most notably John Cena. He returned to RAW in 2005 following his amazing match at WrestleMania 21 with Shawn Michaels, and the program between the two continued. Angle later feuded with Cena, who had become a huge star, but would end his run in WWE as part of the ECW brand. It was a sad end to Angle’s tenure in WWE, but things were made right in 2017 when he returned to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and was named General Manager of Monday Night RAW the night after WrestleMania 33. He returned to in-ring action at TLC and also compete at Survivor Series and looks to be setting up for a big match at WrestleMania 34. The Kurt Angle story isn’t over just yet, folks.