10 Best Wrestling Matches That Went Over 45 Minutes

Two of the biggest homegrown stars in Ring of Honor's storied history, CM Punk and Samoa Joe shared a three-match series in 2004 to rival anything taking place outside - or, for that matter, inside - the walls of WWE.

The first of them went down at the company's June ROH World Title Classic in Dayton Ohio. Challenger Punk, outweighed by maybe a hundred pounds, could easily have played the mouse to Joe's cat, but as the clock wound down he was forced to attack, with both men saving their best moves for a frantic final few minutes.

By the end of the match, its competitors - along with an arena full of grateful fans in the audience - were visibly exhausted from an hour-long slug which, fittingly, failed to produce a winner (and, happily, resulted in a re-run six months down the line).

It came as little surprise to anyone who saw this match at the time that Punk and Joe would one day end up in WWE (and, to anyone who didn't see it,it's nothing short of tragic that their paths never crossed therein).