10 Most Star-Studded Wrestling Shows Ever

The return of the brand extension last year may have done wonders for any down-on-their-luck mid-carders who were lost in the shuffle in the years following its original dissolution, but there has been an obvious downside.

Pay-per-view cards these days tend to look a little threadbare at the best of times (case in point: last month's Money in the Bank show, which hosted a tag team bout between The Ascension and Breezango, added to the show at the last-minute).

Granted, there has been a positive effect as well: the traditional big four shows - the Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series - now take on added significance, as the handful of occasions we get to see all of the company's top stars come together on one, jam-packed super-card.

Wrestling fans are no strangers to star-studded line-ups such as these, though - particularly those old enough to have lived through the '80s when, in the absence of weekly TV shows (which were still a few years from being a reality), bumper special events liberally sprinkled with industry royalty were fairly commonplace.

The 2011 edition of the Royal Rumble was the first - and, to date, only - to feature 40 competitors, as opposed to the traditional 30 to which we've become accustomed. The result, apart from an overlong and somewhat chaotic headline match, was a huge array of wrestling superstars - from CM Punk, who nearly went the distance after entering at #1, to returning legends Diesel and Booker T.

WWE was accused of not creating enough stars during the drab PG era, but the event, in terms of material accolades at least, was packed to the brim with heavy hitters, including an impressive list of former and future world champions from John Cena and Randy Orton all the way down to Husky Harris and, the eventual winner, Alberto Del Rio.