Two WWE Superstars permitted by Vince McMahon to decide winner of their WrestleMania match

Vince McMahon has had a tight hold over the WWE and all its TV content for decades, and it's a known fact that every significant decision needs the CEO's stamp of approval.

Vince McMahon decides who goes over in a WWE match, but you'd be surprised to know that the WWE boss left it up to two legendary Superstars when it came to one iconic WWE WrestleMania match.

Kurt Angle spoke about his WWE WrestleMania 21 match against Shawn Michaels on the latest edition of 'The Kurt Angle Show' on AdFreeShows. The Olympic gold medalist revealed that Vince McMahon permitted them to come up with the match's finish.

Kurt Angle himself was left surprised by Vince McMahon's call, and he planned the match with HBK four days before the PPV.

"Well, Vince left it up to us. Yeah, I was surprised. I didn't know that he did. What happened was when I met with Shawn four days before WrestleMania, we went to the place where they structure the matches. You know, the ring at the hotel. They had like a party room where they had the ring set up."

I was pleasantly surprised: Kurt Angle's reaction to Shawn Michaels' plans for their WWE WrestleMania 21 match

Adding to Kurt Angle's surprise was Shawn Michaels' idea for Angle to win their match. WWE had reportedly planned a Batista vs. Kurt Angle program for after WrestleMania 21, and HBK believed Kurt needed to be booked well.

While the Batista feud never happened, Kurt Angle was pleasantly stunned that HBK was ready to do the 'job' for him. Michaels respected Angle and their in-ring chemistry spawned one of the greatest matches in WWE WrestleMania history.

"And Shawn came to me and said, 'Listen, we don't have a finish for WrestleMania, but I think you should go over by tap out, and this is why. I think you are going to do a program with Batista. This is what he told me, 'And we need to make you look really strong.' So I was like, 'Wow, you know, Shawn Michaels says basically he is going to job for me. You know, tap out.' I was pleasantly surprised. Didn't know if he was serious, but you know, it was; it showed me that he respected me and that, you know, we would have an incredible match, and it wouldn't matter whether he won or lost. So, I do understand the program with Batista never happened, but I'm sure it was supposed to. But Shawn just decided to let me win, and without the guarantee that we were going to get to wrestle again because there weren't any plans for us to wrestle after that."

Kurt Angle and Shawn Michaels had the longest match on the WWE WrestleMania 21 card. Their dream showdown later unanimously received 'match of the night' honors and several other year-end accolades. Revisiting the legendary match will be a good idea if you're out of content to watch!

If any quotes are used from this article, please credit 'The Kurt Angle Show' and give a H/T to SK Wrestling