10 Best Tournament Finals In WWE History

8. John Cena Vs. Kurt Angle - Number One Contendership Tournament

TJ Perkins Gran Metalik Knee Bar Cruiserweight Classic WWE
WWE.com

John Cena very nearly won the 2005 Royal Rumble, but his elimination by Batista meant that he was back to square one as far as earning a WrestleMania title shot was concerned.

In order to determine a number one contender for JBL's WWE Championship, Smackdown General Manager Teddy Long put together an eight-man tournament. It ended up coming down to perennial Smackdown juggernaut Kurt Angle versus the rising star Cena, with the finals held at No Way Out 2005.

Angle and Cena had a hard-fought battle, with the Olympic Gold Medalist doing his best to cinch in the Ankle Lock, and Cena trying to fight back and hit the Attitude Adjustment. At one point, the future superstar actually did hit his move, but he was unable to make the cover quickly enough to score the pinfall.

Angle kept fighting back, reapplying the Ankle Lock and grapevining his legs around Cena's knee. Nobody had ever escaped from that variation of the hold before, but Cena shocked the world, dragging himself to the ropes and forcing Angle to relinquish the maneuver. After that, Cena was able to hit the AA and punch his ticket to WrestleMania.

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Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013