by Jim Jividen

Created on: January 18, 2009

It's Royal Rumble week; that means my Rumble preview, written for my friend Kirk, will be up at before Sunday, and it also means that Counterfactual Rumble 2008 will get posted at What If - http://www.whatifwrestling.blogspot.com/. But first:

The Top Ten Matches in Rumble History:

1. Kurt Angle d. Chris Benoit (03)
-Angle was the heel, Benoit the babyface, Angle went over, Benoit got the standing ovation postmatch - this is the best WWF match since WM X, with the possible exception of Bret/Austin at SSeries '96.

2. HHH d. Cactus Jack (00)
-This was top of his curve Hunter, when, like he did with Rock before, Cactus helped give HHH credibility by putting him over in two real good garbage matches at the top of '01; this was the end of Foley's full time career. Hunter's level of work has been in decline ever since.

3. Chris Jericho d. Chris Benoit (01)
-This was their ladder match, Jericho, as the babyface, took the IC from Benoit. It's underappreciated - if there's a better WWF Jericho match, it does not presently occur to me - perhaps last year's Jericho/Michaels ladder match.

4. Royal Rumble Match - 2004
-This was Benoit's Rumble, went the whole way, it's the best battle royal of all time. He became number one contender and won the strap at XX.

5. Royal Rumble Match - 1992
-This was Flair's Rumble, largely considered the best battle royal of all time, but I slot it behind '04. He became WWF Champ.

6. Bret Hart draw Diesel (95)
-This was for Diesel's strap, it was a 27 min. draw - stopped after interference where both guys, both babyfaces, were attacked by the heels they were feuding with (Owen, Backlund, Michaels, Jarrett).

7. Quebecers d. Bret/Owen (94)
-Owen had started his turn at Survivor Series, he and Bret seemed to make up, tagging together to take on the champs - but Bret's ankle, hurt at that Survivor Series match (all of the Harts against Michaels and guys in masks) couldn't hold up and this match was stopped at 16:30 - Owen, upset with Bret - attacked him. And that was how we got to WM X.

8. Rockers d. Orient Express (91)
-19 min tag - babyface Rockers went over.

9. Hardys d. Dudleys (00)
-This was short, 10 min. tables match, were there a match at this year's Rumble as good as it could possibly be, it could slide in and be better than this match.

10. HBK draw HHH (04)
-Michaels and Hunter were feuding over HHH's strap, this was a last man standing match where neither guy got up before the count of 10. This was why when Benoit won the rumble later in the night, the Mania match was a 3 way.

Learn more about this author, Jim Jividen.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.