10 Best Matches From The WWE ThunderDome Era
9. The 2021 Men's Royal Rumble
WWE's deal in hyperbole on a daily basis, but there was an inconvenient truth hanging over the 2021 Royal Rumble main event that they didn't want to shout from the rooftops - there was more probably pressure on this specific Rumble than the other one on this show, and maybe any in company history.
Though audiences couldn't be there to cheer the various potential winners of the Women's Royal Rumble, the booking had given them good reason to care. With the exception of Edge's shocking comeback announcement on the go-home Monday Night Raw, WWE had anti-booked this one, lining up queues of wrestlers that might win because they happened to be there, not because they'd put a run together on television or made their WrestleMania intentions crystal clear.
And yet, all of that turned out to be enough. The action zipped along nicely after Randy Orton was written out for a bit following a brutal beating from 'The Rated-R Superstar' (that was at least more exciting than their WrestleMania bore), and all those midcard hopefuls suddenly looked enough like favourites to make the middle of the match matter.
Damian Priest scored a series of eliminations as his main roster career began in earnest and Christian's return was a lovely surprise. And when Edge scored the climactic win following one last tease, the contest felt worthy of its prestige and all that sign-pointing, even without real human beings counting to 10.