10 Best Times WWE Stars Pulled Double Duty

All the times that one match wasn't enough.

CM Punk Extreme Rules 2009
WWE

Wrestling is hard. It's a cardiovascular feat akin to a several mile run, only the guy you're racing also keeps punching you in the face and throwing you at the ground. It's exhausting and it hurts. That's why, generally speaking, most try to only do it once a night.

When someone does pull double duty, it's notable for its rarity and also because it almost always means a career highlight. Throughout history, a number of WWE superstars have earned their time and a half, competing twice, thrice, and sometimes even, er, quice, in a single night. Oftentimes, their fighting spirit under such gruelling circumstances has been enough to heighten the drama of their matches alone.

For the record, tournament matches and Money in the Bank cash-ins are considered valid examples of working double duty. On the other hand, there seemed little point including those times that a show-opening singles match got recycled to form a tag team main event, because that would just be a ranking of every episode of SmackDown generally managed by Teddy Long.

10. Edge - Royal Rumble 2005

CM Punk Extreme Rules 2009
WWE.com

In early 2005, seven years into his WWE stint, Edge was finally starting to come into his own. He had just turned heel, and was very clearly on a career upswing.

To open the 2005 Royal Rumble, Edge wrestled Shawn Michaels. Going one-on-one with HBK on a Big Four PPV is prestigious enough, but Edge upped his prestige even more by pinning Michaels. It wasn't a clean pin, but a hastily-reversed roll-up with rope-assisted leverage, but that's fine; Edge didn't become the 'Ultimate Opportunist' by soberly pinning dudes with Oklahoma Rolls or whatever.

Despite wrestling a near-twenty minute match with an all-time great earlier in the night, Edge still had to compete in the Royal Rumble match itself. The Rated-R Superstar did extremely well for himself, too, lasting over 40 minutes and eliminating four major players in Eddie Guerrero, Ric Flair, Shelton Benjamin, and Rey Mysterio.

Edge didn't win the Rumble that year, but he did make it to the final four alongside John Cena, Mysterio and Batista. He established himself as a major star, and used the momentum to jumpstart a new phase of his career, one that would lead him to win the inaugural Money in the Bank and, ultimately, the WWE Championship.

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