10 Best Royal Rumble WWE Title Matches

2. Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit - WWE Championship (2003)

Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit for the WWE Championship in 2003 is not only a contender for the best title match at a Royal Rumble, it's also perhaps the best pure professional wrestling match of all time. It's number 2 on this list only because of how low the stakes are. Kurt Angle vs Brock Lesnar was the in-built story for Wrestlemania 19, and when Brock Lesnar won his match against Big Show to enter the Rumble itself, it made sense that we would win to set up a title match against Angle. It made no sense that Benoit would beat Angle for the title. Despite this, in the heat of the moment during the match, Benoit and Angle made you believe. The match has everything. The intensity is so high throughout that it's actually exhausting just watching the thing. The fantastic back-and-forth counters from both men are genuinely surprising. The commentary from Michael Cole and Tazz perfectly sells every hold, but their legitimate excitement during the match also pours through; Tazz is as giddy as a child on his birthday all the way through. Both men are in the prime of their careers, pushing each other to the limit in order to work together to create an amazing wrestling match. And it's all in the smallest details. When Benoit is on the floor outside the ring, Angle goes to pick him up by the head only for Benoit to push Angle's hands away. Angle then kicks Benoit, which dazes him enough that he can be picked up and thrown back in. It's this attention to detail along with the expert pacing from both men that make this one of the most believable wrestling matches ever, helping the audience completely buy in to the match and forget, just for a while, that Angle vs Lesnar is a forgone conclusion.