15 Best Matches To Ever Take Place At Royal Rumble
13. Edge Vs. Dolph Ziggler (Royal Rumble '11)
If Dolph Ziggler ever (finally) makes it to the top of the WWE mountain, then he has a career retrospective ready to be written about or told on a WWE DVD. He started with the Spirit Squad, a wrestle crap gimmick if there ever was one. He re-debuted with the name Dolph Ziggler, for crying out loud. Only a guy who wanted to make it more than his peers could have overcome some of the stuff thrown at him when he was coming up through the ranks. And there he was in early 2011, wrestling Edge for the World Heavyweight Championship and, just as he had done in every previous opportunity, making the absolute most of his chance to shine. That is where the Stealing the Show moniker began to stick for him. Set him up and he never failed to spike it. Edge vs. Ziggler is one of the Rumble's greatest matches that nobody talks about. It was the curtain jerker and one of the finest curtain jerker's in the last decade at that but, perhaps, that hurts its historical stature. It also came during a less-than-memorable character run for the Rated R Superstar, who was more like the Rated PG Superstar by then. Yet, if you watch it back, there is nothing that can be taken away from their performance. They worked like it was the main-event and it reviews in hindsight like a main-event. It was for the World title, after all. Should the Ziggler DVD every get made, surely this is a match that will be featured on it.
"The Doc" Chad Matthews has written wrestling columns for over a decade. A physician by trade, Matthews began writing about wrestling as a hobby, but it became a passion. After 30 years as a wrestling fan, "The Doc" gives an unmatched analytical perspective on pro wrestling in the modern era. He is a long-time columnist for Lordsofpain.net and hosts a weekly podcast on the LOP Radio Network called "The Doc Says." His first book - The WrestleMania Era: The Book of Sports Entertainment - ranks the Top 90 wrestlers from 1983 to present day, was originally published in December 2013, and is now in its third edition.
Matthews lives in North Carolina with his wife, two kids, and two dogs.
