5. CM Punk vs Ryback (2012)
Ryback was pretty fresh into his current run at this stage, mostly defeating lower card guys to look like a monster. This challenge against CM Punk for the WWE Championship would serve as his first real extended bout against a top level guy. The general flow of this match involved CM Punk trying to evade Ryback's offense. They did a good job of making The Big Guy to be a legitimate contender here and the crowd bought into it. Brad Maddox (remember him?) was the guest referee and played a role in the final moments of this match. Ryback had this won with a Meathook clothesline and then was ready to give a Shell Shock. Brad stood in front of Ryback to stop him and then gave him a low blow. Punk did a rollup while Brad fast-counted to save this match for the champion. Postmatch, Ryback had his revenge as he pummeled Maddox, throwing him into the cage from inside the ring. He then chased Punk onto the top of the Cell and gave him a Shell Shock from those heights to close out the event. If you include the fun that happened after the match ended, this was a pretty enjoyable contest. Ryback actually looked like he belonged opposite the champion and it was overall entertaining. There would be better matches to main event Hell in a Cell, but this one deserves credit.