5 Royal Rumble matches with the best Final Four

Winning the Royal Rumble is one of the highest points of the career of any professional wrestler, and only a handful of wrestling legends, including the likes of Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, John Cena, and Randy Orton, can boast about winning the match multiple times.

Winning aside, only a handful of Superstars are actually able to make it to the last bunch of performers from a massive group of 30 performers. The most commonly used term for these bunch of Superstars, the Final Four, has featured both some of the best and worst groups of wrestlers for a Royal Rumble match.

The last four participants can have a huge impact on how a Royal Rumble match is remembered in the years to come. Having a final four featuring participants like Santino Marella or Big Cass, who are nowhere near top tier performers, or where participants have minimum in-ring action, such as in 2015 Royal Rumble, leaves a bad taste in the mouth of the fans.

There have been years where WWE has hit the jackpot with the last four performers in the Rumble. From all those years, here are the five best years featuring the best final fours in Royal Rumble matches.

Honorable Mentions: -

1992 - Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, Sid Justice and Ric Flair

2004 - Chris Jericho. Kurt Angle, The Big Show, Chris Benoit

2018 - Finn Balor, John Cena, Roman Reigns, Shinsuke Nakamura

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#5 2006 (Rob Van Dam, Triple H, Randy Orton, and Rey Mysterio)

RVD, Triple H and Rey Mysterio were joined by Randy Orton for this all star clash.

Rey Mysterio's win in the 2006 Royal Rumble match is and will always be regarded as one of the best feel good moments in WWE history. Battling for over 62 minutes, Mysterio went coast to coast in arguably the most memorable individual Rumble match performance.

However, his road was not easy, as all four men left in the ring at the end of the match were favorites to take home the victory that year. Triple H, who entered number 1, had been with The Ultimate Underdog since the very beginning (Rey started at number 2). Triple H and Randy Orton had an Evolution reunion against the fan-favorite team of Mysterio and Rob Van Dam.

Not only was the 6-minute stretch a great showing of all of their talents, it had all the fans on their feet as any one of them could have gone all the way. Even though a mistake from Rey lead to RVDs elimination, which left him in the ring alone with Orton and Triple H, he was able to overcome the hefty odds to eliminate both The Game and The Legend Killer to seal his spot at WrestleMania 22.

#4 2002 (Steve Austin, Mr. Perfect, Kurt Angle, and Triple H)

The three men who failed to win the Rumble Match.

If there was one thing that Triple H's return to WWE in 2002 just confirmed, it was that he was going to win the gigantic match at January's PPV event and go on to face the Undisputed Champion in the main event of WrestleMania X-8. After all, he had returned after a career threatening injury, which halted his run at the top, and was now the biggest babyface in the professional wrestling industry.

Even then, what made his win even more memorable was the group of Final Four competitors he overcame to book his ticket to the main event of Mania. Steve Austin had recently turned face after a disappointing run as a heel, and despite the fact that he was the first of the four to be eliminated, he did add a lot of excitement to the closing stretch, just like he always does.

A surprising stint by a returning Mr. Perfect was pretty much like his name - Perfect - as he went head to head with Austin, Kurt Angle and HHH hoping to win his first Royal Rumble. However, his remarkable run came to an end at the hands of The Game, who also eliminated Angle after a fun 1-on-1 encounter to win his first Rumble match.

#3 2010 (Shawn Michaels, Batista, John Cena, and Edge)

Four Former World Champions fought a stunning sequence.

Inarguably the most star-studded Final Four in history, this clash between Shawn Michaels, Batista, John Cena and the eventual winner Edge, all former World Champions, gave us one of the most memorable endings in Rumble history. Michaels was easily the star of the show here, as his redemption arc that was supposed to begin by winning the Rumble to challenge The Undertaker for the World Title at WrestleMania was the central story of the Rumble match.

The fact that he eliminated his own partner, Triple H, from the and had a breakdown after he was eliminated is enough proof of how important this Rumble was for him. Batista and John Cena kickstarted their feud here, when The Leader of The Cenation eliminated The Animal from the match. They would have a one-on-one bout at WrestleMania a few months later.

However, all the shine at the end was on The Rated R-Superstar, who not only made a surprising return to in-ring action, but also eliminated his nemesis, future WrestleMania opponent Chris Jericho, and emerged victorious from the match. In just 7 minutes, WWE gave the fans a glimpse of what they have decided for the biggest show of the year by having the best Royal Rumble Final Four of the 2010s.

#2 2005 (Rey Mysterio, Edge, John Cena, and Batista)

A sight into the future, as Batista and John Cena would soon become the biggest stars in WWE.

The story of the Royal Rumble match in 2005 was the exact opposite of what we witnessed in 2010. In 2010, all the competitors in the final four were bonafide main event stars, with a total of 25 World Title reigns already under their name. On the flip side, neither of the four Superstars in 2005 had a World Title reign under their belt and were still fighting tooth-and-nail to reach the top of the food chain.

That is exactly what made this clash between Rey Mysterio, Edge, John Cena, and Batista exciting, possibly even moreso than the big-time final four of 2010. That a star was going to rise from the mid-card, go on to main event WrestleMania 21 against a megastar, and become the face of the company had the excitement for the finish reach unimaginable levels.

Edge and Mysterio were the two cornerstones of this match as they lasted for almost 40 minutes each, although they were the first two eliminated from this group. Despite the error in the finish that caused the match to be restarted, the 2005 Royal Rumble marked the birth of four main event Superstars, all of whom had a World Title under their name within the next 14 months and, 15 years later, have won 36 World Titles combined. Two of them (Cena and Batista) would win the WWE ans World Heavyweight Championships just a few months later at WrestleMania.

#1 2007 (Randy Orton, Edge, Shawn Michaels, and The Undertaker)

Taker and Michaels had to dispatch Rated RKO to set up this monumental closing sequence.

Two years removed from the best possible group of four young Superstars fighting it out for a spot in the Main Event of WrestleMania, WWE somehow managed to present an even better group, one that is yet to be matched in the last 13 years. With two legends of the game and two young stars who were well on their way to becoming megastars fighting to win the big one, the company had the recipe of a perfect Royal Rumble ending right in front of them.

Moreover, each one of them had a good enough chance of going all the way in the match. In Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker, the company had two legends who had been away from the title scene for far too long. In Edge and Randy Orton, they had two of the biggest heels in the company, both of whom could have been suitable opponents for fan favorite champions in John Cena and Batista.

What made this final four truly special was the way the match evolved when it got down to the final two. After dispatching the heel duo, who had been dominant in the match, the two long-time foes in Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker enthralled the fans with a jaw-dropping closing sequence that lasted almost 8 minutes and felt more like a main event singles match than the end of a 60-minute battle royal. One can easily learn how great this Final Four was from the fact that both Taker and Michaels, the winner and runner up, fought in World Title matches at Mania 23, whereas Edge and Orton were World Champions again in less than 10 months.