Ranking every WWE Royal Rumble match in history

5. Royal Rumble 2010 – Edge

Seeing as we’re now into the top five Royal Rumble matches in history, can we talk about the final five entrants in 2010? Batista, John Cena, Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho and Edge. That’s a pretty stacked deck right there.

But it wasn’t just the surprise ending that made the 2010 Royal Rumble great. This one was great from the start, mainly due to the awesomeness of CM Punk, who entered at number three and quickly eliminated both Dolph Ziggler and Evan Bourne before getting on the microphone and delivering one of his amazing promos. Punk was really pushing the whole straight-edge thing at this point in time and he was extremely good here. It may not have been quite at the level as some of the stuff that he’d do a year later but it was still very solid and maybe a bit underrated actually. The Great Khali eventually cut him off but the big man was eliminated shortly thereafter by Beth Phoenix, who became the second woman to ever compete in the Royal Rumble match. Punk was eventually eliminated by Triple H, who put in yet another good Rumble appearance. HBK soon joined his DX running mate and the two would clear the ring before being joined by John Cena, which isn’t a bad threesome to have in the ring at all. And while this match had already been good, it got even better as the storytelling of Shawn Michaels became the highlight of the night.

The year before, Shawn had lost arguably the greatest match in WrestleMania history to The Undertaker and was desperate to get a rematch with his rival. With The Undertaker being champion at the time, Michaels knew that to get back to ‘Mania to face ‘Taker, winning the Royal Rumble was his ticket. He pulled out all the stops, even going as far as giving Sweet Chin Music to Triple H to eliminate his best friend. HBK went about 20 minutes before being eliminated by the number 30 entrant, Batista, and the look on his face was just priceless. You really felt he was in pain as he tried to reenter the match and even kicked referee Charles Robinson before finally exiting. Very well done as usual.

But the night would ultimately belong to Edge, who much like John Cena had done two years earlier returned early from an injury to shock the crowd and win the Royal Rumble. He wasn’t in the match very long so there’s not a ton to discuss but his surprise win was the cherry on top of a fantastic Royal Rumble.