20 Awesome WWE Royal Rumble Moments
3. HBK Fights To Get Back To Taker (2010)
If you haven’t noticed by now, the 2010 Royal Rumble
was a pretty damn good match. Unlike some other Rumbles (like another that will
be mentioned in a bit), there wasn’t just one major storyline going on. The
2010 Rumble had several big stories woven throughout it. CM Punk dominated the
opening of the match with his Straight Edge Society act, and Edge ruled the end
of the Rumble with his triumphant return from injury.
Entering at #18 was Shawn Michaels, who was hell-bent on getting a WrestleMania rematch against the Undertaker. It was a story that had fans eating out of HBK’s hands. Michaels had lost to Taker at WrestleMania XXV and became obsessed with getting a rematch, which Undertaker refused. Since Taker was the World Heavyweight Champion, Michaels determined that his best bet was to win the Royal Rumble and choose to fight for the Smackdown title.
Thus began Michaels’ quest, and the crowd was right there with him as he superkicked his tag team partner, Triple H, out of the match as one of his six eliminations. But alas, HBK would be eliminated near the end in a heart-wrenching moment, momentarily dashing his hopes of facing Undertaker. Michaels did not deal well with this, refusing to leave ringside and even superkicking referee Charles Robinson.
Of course, fans know how the story went: HBK failed
to get into the Elimination Chamber match, so he cheated and cost Taker his
title in the chamber, goading Undertaker into facing Michaels at WrestleMania…
which Shawn lost with his career on the line.