Top 10 Royal Rumble Matches Of All-Time

#10: Daniel Bryan vs. Bray Wyatt – Royal Rumble 2014

In my opinion, one of the top 5 matches of 2014 took place in the opening match of the Royal Rumble between Daniel Bryan and Bray Wyatt.  Although starting off with a very recent match, this was still an absolutely, criminally-underrated classic.  A long, intense feud that included numerous sneak attacks, scathing promos, and even a brief time where Bryan joined the Wyatt family culminated in this final blow off match between the 2 combatants.

This match had it all.  It was intense, it was hard-hitting, and the crowd was electric (they even went ballistic when the referee ejected Harper and Rowan from ringside).  The in ring psychology was terrific with Bryan working over the bigger man’s legs and Wyatt focusing on Bryan’s upper body, mostly his head after coming off of a concussion.  And like most outstanding matches there were some brilliant high spots.  Bryan’s suicide dive, Wyatt’s devastating clothesline, Bryan’s flying tornado DDT from the apron to the floor, but nothing could beat Wyatt’s Sister Abigail onto the barricade that highlighted this 22 minute war.

The match was successful on many levels.  Obviously the in-ring action, but also that Wyatt came out looking like a beast while at the same time it didn’t hurt Bryan’s momentum as evidenced by his WWE title win a few months later at Wrestlemania.  The match also saved what could’ve been a dreadful card and made it easier to forget how the rumble itself that night turned out.