10 Best WWE Royal Rumble Matches
1. Kurt Angle Vs. Chris Benoit (2003)
If aspiring wrestlers are shaped by the matches they watch in their youth, it's little wonder that there is currently so much talent floating around in the mid-to-late 20s age bracket - they grew up watching stuff like this.
The biggest lesson to be learned from Kurt Angle's Royal Rumble match with Chris Benoit in 2003 is that moves are much more meaningful when they actually have a purpose. For 20 minutes, neither man threw so much as a punch unless it would help them disable their opponents' primary weapons of attack.
That's not not to imply that the pair were concerned only with impressing the purists though. Their exhibition had great set pieces too, from Benoit flying nearly the full length of the ring to land a diving headbutt to the Olympic gold medalist nailing him with a top-rope belly-to-belly suplex.
Just about everything you could possibly ask of a compelling wrestling match was there, making this one of the very best WWE has ever managed to put on, and the sort of thing that ought to be mandatory viewing on day one for anyone who steps foot in the Performance Centre.