Ranking every WWE Royal Rumble PPV in history

13. WWE Royal Rumble 2011

Match card & results

• World Heavyweight Championship Match: Edge (c) def. Dolph Ziggler
• WWE Championship Match: The Miz (c) def. Randy Orton
• Fatal 4-Way Match for the WWE Divas Championship: Eve Torres def. Layla, Michelle McCool and Natalya (c)
• Alberto Del Rio wins 40-Man Royal Rumble Match

The 2011 Royal Rumble is a show that gets a little better each time I run through it. I haven’t been the biggest fan of the 40-Man Rumble in the past as I thought it just dragged on while also feeling rushed but I really wasn’t as bothered in my most recent viewing while getting ready for this article.

There were some nice crowd pops in there for some returns with Booker T and Kevin Nash and there were some good stories in there as well. CM Punk had a nice run from the number one spot, lasting more than 35 minutes and tossing seven people before being thrown out by John Cena, which I’m sure he was just crazy about. Nevertheless, it was a solid showing and got his big year off to a nice start. Cena had the second-longest showing of the night with more than 34 minutes of ring time as he made it to the final four with Wade Barrett (plenty of history there), Randy Orton and eventual winner Alberto Del Rio. Alex Riley and The Miz got involved to get Cena out of there, which led to their program heading into WrestleMania XVII.

Orton eliminated Barrett before being tossed himself by Del Rio, who thought he had won the match. But wait…Santino Marella, who had been hiding on the outside for quite some time and been forgotten about, snuck back in and hit Del Rio with the Cobra. The crowd was really hot for this and for one split second, you thought the swerve of the century might be coming but Del Rio recovered and actually did win the match by ousting Santino. Fun ending.

As for the rest of the night, it had plenty of action to keep us entertained. The impromptu Fatal 4-Way Match for the Women’s Championship was nothing spectacular but for what the division was at the time, this was the best we were going to get. I really enjoyed both of the world title bouts. The Miz and Randy Orton match was very solid and the involvement of CM Punk in the finish added some nice drama to the mix. However, the match of the night clearly belonged to Edge and Dolph Ziggler, who once again put on a great performance in the loss. The stipulation here was that if Edge used the Spear, he would lose the title and that made for something different. The two both worked extremely hard in this match and it was a great start to the show.