WWE Classic Match: Angle and Benoit vs. Edge and Mysterio at No Mercy in 2002

One of the things that wrestling fans miss the most about today’s WWE is quality tag-team wrestling. 

I will give the WWE credit for trying to revive the tag-team division in recent weeks, but it’s going to lake a lot—and is actually probably impossible—to rival what the company did with its tag-team division in the late 1990s and early 2000s. 

This was a time period in which we saw some of the greatest tag-team matches in pro wrestling history, such as the TLC match featuring Edge and Christian vs. The Hardyz vs. The Dudley Boyz at WrestleMania X-Seven. 

Most of the memorable tag matches from that era were gimmick matches, highlighted by the TLC tag-team matches like the one I just mentioned. 

But the best tag-team match from that era and arguably the best in pro wrestling history didn’t involve tables, ladders and chairs. 

It came at No Mercy in 2002, when Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit teamed up to take on Edge and Rey Mysterio in a 22-minute classic. 

Prior to the pay-per-view, the first two rounds of the tournament to crown the first-ever WWE Tag Team Champions were held, and the final match of the tournament came down to Angle and Benoit vs. Edge and Mysterio. 

Just looking at the names involved in this match, one would have expected to see a phenomenal tag-team encounter. And that’s exactly what we got. 

Two of the best technical wrestlers to ever step foot in a WWE ring teamed up to take on two of the biggest stars in the history of the business, and they delivered with the best non-gimmick tag-team match I’ve ever seen.

Drake Oz is the WWE Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter and ask him any wrestling-related questions (to be answered in the B/R Mailbag) on Formspring.