7. The Rockers vs The Orient Express - Royal Rumble 1991
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsRP2kaWDik While The Ultimate Warrior and Sgt. Slaughter sent the audience to sleep in the world title match two of the AWA's finest teams tore it up in the Rumble's best ever opener. Still impressive by today's standards, this type of thrilling fast-paced action was rarely seen at the time. Much like the famed ladder match, Shawn and co. don't do anything new here, rather they bring their own style to the mainstream. It's something that doesn't really happen nowadays, with even experienced wrestlers forced to 'learn to wrestle the WWE way', meaning that the thrill of seeing something new is weened out before it has a chance to hit our screens. The upshot of this is the WWE deliver a professional but predictable product, one which hits the mark more often than it misses, but also where surprises are few and far between. I wonder whether if an early 90's Vince (you know the guy, he sits on commentary saying rest holds are "un-be-lievable!") had the same mentality, we'd never have seen stereo crossbody blocks for fear they didn't fit in with the product. This match is filled with moves that were positively gasp worthy for the time: suicide dives, reverse flying cross chops, moonsaults. It's a thing of beauty now. You can just imagine kids in the audience going back to school and telling their friends about the amazing spectacle they saw that night. Which is no surprise, these guys had ungodly chemistry after dozens of matches in the AWA. Tag team wrestling doesn't get much better.