Shane McMahon Reconnects With Kurt Angle Over Their Legendary King of the Ring 2001 Match

More than two decades after one of the most unforgettable bouts in WWE history, Shane McMahon has been in contact with Kurt Angle to reflect on their King of the Ring 2001 clash — a match Shane has described as one that has “withstood the test of time.”

The two men collided at King of the Ring 2001 in a street fight that remains a touchstone moment for WWE fans of that era. The match became instantly iconic for a sequence involving a glass partition on the stage set — Angle repeatedly attempted to suplex Shane through it, only for the glass to refuse to break on multiple attempts. The visual of Shane bouncing off the stubborn pane became the stuff of wrestling legend. Eventually the glass did give way, and the spot has lived on in highlight reels ever since.

What made the match stand out beyond the spectacle was the genuine physicality both men brought to it. Shane, not a trained in-ring competitor in the traditional sense, absorbed an extraordinary amount of punishment, and Angle — then at the peak of his in-ring powers — delivered an intense, hard-hitting performance that gave the whole thing a sense of real danger.

The fact that Shane is still talking about it with Angle all these years later speaks to the bond that kind of shared suffering tends to create. It’s the type of match that needs no revisionism — the audacity of the spots and the crowd’s live reaction made its reputation in real time, and that reputation has only grown.

For fans who’ve seen it a hundred times, it holds up. For those who haven’t, there’s never been a better reason to go back and watch.