10 Most Star-Studded Gimmick Matches In Wrestling History

By their very design, gimmick matches in professional wrestling can have a ton of stars, some up-and-comers looking to make their mark on the industry, or a combination of both. Some of the very best wrestlers have participated in a multitude of gimmick matches over the years.

10 Best WWE Royal Rumble Moments (That Had Nothing To Do With Wrestling)

WWE's Royal Rumble is one of the most iconic wrestling events, but some of the best moments in Royal Rumble history had nothing to do with wrestling.

While it’s easy to assume putting the biggest names into wild, free-for-all matches makes for instant classics, that isn’t always the case, either. However, more often than not, even if the match doesn’t rock the Meltzermeter, that doesn’t mean that some crazy moments didn’t happen in these star-studded affairs that included multiple wrestling legends.

10 2008 Royal Rumble

HBK And The Deadman Have A Match Surrounded By 28 Friends

Despite NYC being the WWE home base, the 2008 show was only the second time the Rumble came to MSG.
At a little over 37 minutes, Dave Batista was the Iron Man of this Rumble.
It has come to light recently that if Cena wasn't ready, CM Punk was penciled in to win the 2008 Royal Rumble.

At the conclusion of the 2007 Royal Rumble, it boiled down to two men - Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker. The two legends hadn’t met in a ring since 1997, and they basically had a match to close out the show. One year later, they were numbers one and two and picked up right where they left off. No matter who else entered the fray - CM Punk and Batista, for instance, they just kept squaring up against each other. The match even came to a stop when legends Roddy Piper and Jimmy Snuka reignited their decades-long rivalry. The end of the match came down to just two men - Triple H (who many pegged to win) and John Cena (who rehabbed his shoulder like a monster to make the show). Cena would end up dumping the game out for the right to the point at the WrestleMania sign.

9 Men’s War Games - Survivor Series 2023

Top Babyfaces For The First Time In Years

WWE Producer Kevin Dunn didn't like War Games, due to shooting constraints and losing seats on the arena floor for the set up.
Originally created by Dusty Rhodes, The 2023 War Games match was the first one ever for Cody.
This event is also the end of an era for WWE on Home Video. It is the last event to be released on Blu-Ray or DVD.

During the 2023 Survivor Series media scrum, Cody Rhodes recounted a story of how he and Sami Zayn were commenting on how it had been a long time since there had been a sort of “Murderer’s Row” of babyfaces, and all of them could be inserted into that top spot in an instant if need be.

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Survivor Series 2023 is in the history books, and it was an event WWE fans will remember for a while!

Rhodes and Zayn partnered up with Jey Uso, Seth Rollins, and the returning Randy Orton to take on Judgment Day and Drew McIntyre - all of them no slouches either in the star power department. With the exception of JD McDonagh (who is on the rise), all of the heels are big time heels right now as well!

8 Elimination Chamber - Survivor Series 2002

The First Ever Chamber Is Still The Biggest

Moments into starting the match, RVD mistimed his Frog Splash off the pod and crushed Triple H's larynx.
This was only Shawn Michaels' second match back - it was a comeback that he hadn't exactly planned.
Triple H had pitched War Games for the main roster for years, which is how The Elimination Chamber was created.

Six men walked into the first ever Elimination Chamber, not having any idea what to expect of the demonic structure. Triple H was set to defend the World Championship against former champions, Shawn Michaels, Booker T, Kane, Chris Jericho, and eventual champion - Rob Van Dam. Twenty years later, only Jericho doesn’t have a Hall Of Fame ring, and that’s merely because he’s part of AEW. Twenty years later, and WWE still hasn’t been able to recreate the superstar-fueled lighting in a bottle they had on that night.

7 Money In The Bank - WrestleMania 22

RVD Reaches High To Grab His Shot

The idea of Money In The Bank was originally conceived by Chris Jericho and Brian Gerwitz.
RVD's eventual cash in happened at one of the most memorable events in history - 2006's One Night Stand.
RVD and Sabu's unfortunate arrest caused him to lose all WWE momentum and faith as a top guy.

Speaking of Rob Van Dam, he was able to get his world title shot, thanks to his victory in the second ever Money In The Bank match that was part of WrestleMania 22. RVD took on bonafide, solid workers and legends like Finlay, Shelton Benjamin, Matt Hardy, Bobby Lashley, and even Ric Flair to earn the briefcase and become the first superstar ever to call their shot and let the champion know when they were cashing in.

6 Hell In A Cell - Armageddon 2000

Our Olympic Hero Survives A Cadre Of Challengers

As far as title defenses go, Kurt Angle's Armageddon defense is the most star-studded in WWE history.
While the cage has a door and a top, somehow superstars seem to find a way to get out and climb to the top.
This was the final Armageddon under the "WWF" banner and, for several years, it got renamed due to the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Towards the end of 2000, Kurt Angle was facing down challengers for his WWE title left and right. So Commissioner Mick Foley did the fair and just thing and dumped them all into one big match against each other. Angle would defend the title against Austin, The Rock, Rikishi, Triple H, and The Undertaker.

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If that wasn’t bad enough - the Gold Medalist had to do it inside of Hell In A Cell! With the exception of Foley and Big Show, every top star of The Attitude Era was in this match. Undertaker Chokeslammed Rikishi off the cage into a pickup truck full of hay. But it still wasn’t enough to get the win, as Angle was able to retain his title.

5 Team Alliance Vs. Team WWE - Survivor Series 2001

The Final Fight Of The WCW Brand

No One-Night Stands for WCW - the 2001 Survivor Series was the very last time the WCW brand was used on WWE programming.
Since they didn't have the big guns from WCW, WWE had three of their stars join The Alliance.
This was easily Jericho's biggest main event to date, and one month later he defeated Rock and Austin to become world champion.

No, all of the huge names from WCW didn’t come over with the company’s sale. But that gave the WWE the opportunity to make new stars instead of names like Hogan, Flair, and Goldberg. The big Survivor Series showdown between The WWE and The Alliance featured Rock, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, Kane, and The Big Show for Team WWE. If those names weren’t big enough for you - on the other side was Kurt Angle, Booker T, RVD, Stone Cold, and Shane McMahon.

4 War Games 1998 - Fall Brawl

Tribal Warfare Between Team WCW, nWo Hollywood, and nWo Wolfpac

As a gimmick match, War Games was originally invented for The Four Horsemen.
This was the first ever War Games match without a single Horsemen present.
This was Warrior's first match in WCW

Just because a match is loaded with stars doesn’t always make it that great of a match. Submitted for your approval - Fall Brawl 1998 and War Games: The Match Beyond. For the first time ever in the history of the match, three teams of three were set to do battle instead of the traditional two teams of four to six soldiers. But WCW opted to try to spice things up a little bit in 1998 when DDP, The Ultimate Warrior, and Roddy Piper collided with nWo Hollywood (Hogan, Bret, and Stevie Ray) and the nWo Wolfpac (Nash, Sting and Luger). Eight of these nine superstars are already enshrined in The Hall Of Fame and Luger can’t be far behind.

3 2017 Royal Rumble

Remember The Alamo, Remember The Rumble

This was the second Rumble to emanate from The Alamodome.
The 1997 show from the same venue is still the largest attendance in Rumble history.
This is the last Royal Rumble event to not feature a Women's Rumble match.

Quite literally, The Royal Rumble is the biggest gimmick match in WWE history, leaving room for the biggest names to enter the field of combat for a chance at the main event of WrestleMania. The 2017 show was no different, but the WWE succeeded in bringing out the heaps of superstars. I

10 Wrestlers Who Made Their WWE Debut At The Royal Rumble

Some of the most unforgettable debuts in WWE history have happened at the Royal Rumble!

t is the only match ever that housed Brock Lesnar, Goldberg, and The Undertaker. Those names are worth the price of admission alone. But the match also featured Chris Jericho, The Big Show, The New Day, and eventual winner, Randy Orton.

2 Raw Vs. SmackDown - Survivor Series 2017

Brand Warfare Never Resonated With The Fans, But That Didn’t Stop WWE From Trying

The Brand Warfare concept is one of the most maligned in WWE history.
This 2017 match featured part timers like HHH and Kurt Angle both working injured.
It did, however begin the push to their intergender tag match at WrestleMania 34.

Critics of Brand Warfare at Survivor Series had been saying that there should be some sort of stakes for Smackdown and Raw to collide. Some reason other than so-called “brand loyalty.” But this stipulation still fell flat. Had Raw lost, Kurt Angle would have been fired as GM. That meant both the Red and Blue Brands stacked their decks. Angle led his team of Braun Strowman, Finn Balor, Samoa Joe, and even Triple H against Smackdown’s Shane McMahon, Bobby Roode, Shinsuke Nakamura, Randy Orton, and John Cena. The match had lots of star power, but still fell flat.

1 The 1992 Royal Rumble

With A Tear In Ric Flair's Eye

The 1992 Royal Rumble was the first ever to have a prize on the line.
While fans watching live didn't know who was coming out and when, there was a Home Video exclusive interview with Ric Flair talking about being number three.
The match still features one of the most logical spots you'll ever see - Jake The Snake Robert slithering into the ring just watching Piper and Flair beat the heck out of each other.

At the very least, as far as his entire WWE career is concerned, the 1992 Royal Rumble is Ric Flair’s crowning achievement. Flair survived a field that featured 18 current Hall Of Famers, with at least five more wrestlers sure to be inducted at some point. There was also the blistering commentary of Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon to help add to the drama of The Nature Boy, proving he was unequivocally The Man.