Royal Rumble (2004)

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January 25, 2004 |- ! style="padding-right: 1.2em; width: 33%;" | Venue | colspan="2" style="width: 66%;" |Wachovia Center |- ! style="padding-right: 1.2em; width: 33%;" | City | colspan="2" style="width: 66%;" |Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |- class="hiddenStructure" ! style="padding-right: 1.2em; width: 33%;" | Attendance | colspan="2" style="width: 66%;" | |- class="hiddenStructure" ! style="padding-right: 1.2em; width: 33%;" | Buyrate | colspan="2" style="width: 66%;" | |- class="hiddenStructure" ! colspan="3" style="background-color: #d0d0d0; text-align: center;" | Pay-per-view chronology |- class="hiddenStructure" style="text-align: center; font-size: smaller;" |style="width: 33%;" valign=top|Armageddon 2003 |style="width: 33%;" valign=top|Royal Rumble 2004 |style="width: 33%;" valign=top|No Way Out 2004 |} Royal Rumble 2004 was the seventeenth annual Royal Rumbleprofessional wrestlingpay-per-view event from World Wrestling Entertainment. It took place on January 25, 2004 in the Wachovia Center located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Contents

• 1 Results
• 2 Royal Rumble entrances and eliminations
• 3 Other on-screen talent
• 4 Royal Rumble qualification matches
• 5 Trivia
• 6 References
• 7 External links

Results

• RAW brand - Sunday Night HEAT Match: Victoria (w/Steven Richards) def. Molly Holly
• * Victoria defeated Molly Holly by pinfall after a Widow's Peak. (4:56)
• ** Molly Holly was the reigning WWE Women's Champion but this was a non-title match.

• RAW brand - Tables Match for the World Tag Team Championship: Ric Flair and Batista (c) def. The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley)
• * Flair and Batista retained their titles with the help of Jonathan Coachman who distracted the Dudleyz enough for D-Von to be spinebustered through a table by Batista. (4:22)

• SmackDown! brand - WWE Cruiserweight Championship match: Rey Mysterio (c) def. Jamie Noble (w/Nidia)
• * Mysterio retained his title when the blind Nidia accidentally tripped Noble while he was going for the ropes. Mysterio hit his Droppin' The Dime legdrop for the win. (3:13)

• SmackDown! brand - Eddie Guerrero def. Chavo Guerrero (w/Chavo Guerrero, Sr.)
• * Eddie won the match by pinfall after a Frog Splash. (8:04)
• ** After the match, Eddie assaulted both Chavo and his father Chavo Sr.

• SmackDown! brand - WWE Championship match: Brock Lesnar (c) def. Hardcore Holly
• * Lesnar defeated Holly by pinfall after an F-5 to retain the WWE Championship. (6:31)

• RAW brand - Last Man Standing Match for the World Heavyweight Championship: Triple H (c) and Shawn Michaels fought to a double count-out
• * Triple H retained the title after a double count-out. (22:46)

• Interpromotional - Chris Benoit (SmackDown!) won the 2004 Royal Rumble
• * Chris Benoit and The Big Show were the final two participants. Benoit, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, John Cena and Rob Van Dam all ganged up on Big Show, trying to eliminate him. However, each wrestler was eliminated one-by-one by Big Show until it went down to the final two. Big Show tried to press-slam Benoit over the top rope but Benoit countered with a standing guillotine choke, pulling Big Show over the top rope as Benoit hanged onto the ropes for the win. (1:01:34)
• ** During the Royal Rumble, the famous gong from The Undertaker's theme song played at #13. Kane, thinking Undertaker was killed off at Survivor Series 2003 gets worried and ends up being eliminated by Booker T. Angry over his elimination, the real 13th participant Spike Dudley gets beaten up by Kane so that Spike couldn't make it to the ring.
• ** Test was set to enter at #21 but was found beaten up. Found by "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Austin orders another wrestler to enter the Rumble in Test's place. That wrestler turned out to be Mick Foley who immediately comes out and eliminates Orton. The two then have a brawl to the back.
• ** Goldberg, who earned the #30 slot prior to the match came out and got rid of Nunzio, Billy Gunn and Charlie Haas. However, Brock Lesnar came into the ring and hit the F-5 on Goldberg, enabling Goldberg to be eliminated by Kurt Angle.

Royal Rumble entrances and eliminations

Red ██ indicates a RAW superstar, blue ██ indicates a SmackDown! superstar. A new entrant came out approximately every 90 seconds.

Royal Rumble 2004

Entrant		Eliminated		Time
1	Chris Benoit	-	WINNER	1:01:34
2	Randy Orton	18	by Mick Foley (simultaneously with Mick Foley)	33:45
3	Mark Henry	3	by Chris Benoit	5:33
4	Tajiri	2	by Rhyno	3:52
5	Bradshaw	1	by Chris Benoit	0:51
6	Rhyno	8	by Chris Benoit	14:12
7	Matt Hardy	9	by René Duprée	14:31
8	Scott Steiner	5	by Booker T	7:11
9	Matt Morgan	11	by Chris Benoit	12:31
10	The Hurricane	4	by Matt Morgan	0:36
11	Booker T	13	by Randy Orton	9:27
12	Kane	6	by Booker T	1:54
13	Spike Dudley	7	Didn't make it to ring due to Chokeslam from an irate Kane	-
14	Rikishi	12	by Randy Orton	4:10
15	René Duprée	10	by Rikishi	0:49
16	A-Train	14	by Chris Benoit	1:51
17	Shelton Benjamin	15	by Randy Orton	0:48
18	Ernest "The Cat" Miller	16	by Randy Orton	1:17
19	Kurt Angle	28	by The Big Show	29:16
20	Rico	17	by Randy Orton	1:17
21	Mick Foley	19	by Mick Foley (simultaneously with Randy Orton)	2:11
22	Christian	20	by Chris Jericho	7:54
23	Nunzio	23	by Goldberg	12:41
24	The Big Show	29	by Chris Benoit	23:11
25	Chris Jericho	27	by The Big Show	15:14
26	Charlie Haas	21	by Goldberg	7:03
27	Billy Gunn	22	by Goldberg	5:52
28	John Cena	25	by The Big Show	8:23
29	Rob Van Dam	26	by The Big Show	7:04
30	Goldberg	24	by Kurt Angle	2:25

Other on-screen talent

Promotional poster of Royal Rumble 2004, featuring John Cena.

Commentators Michael Cole - SmackDown! Jerry "The King" Lawler - RAW Jim Ross - RAW / Royal Rumble match Tazz - SmackDown! / Royal Rumble match Spanish Commentators Carlos Cabrera Hugo Savinovich Interviewers Jonathan Coachman Josh Mathews Terri

Referees Mike Chioda - RAW Jack Doan - RAW Brian Hebner - SmackDown! Earl Hebner - RAW Jim Korderas - SmackDown! Nick Patrick - SmackDown! Charles Robinson - SmackDown! Other Tony Chimel - ring announcer Howard Finkel - ring announcer Fit Finlay - official Tony Garea - official

Royal Rumble qualification matches

• John Cena and Chris Benoit defeated Nunzio, Chuck Palumbo and Johnny Stamboli in a Royal Rumble simulation on SmackDown!
• Tajiri defeated Billy Kidman on SmackDown!
• Bradshaw defeated Akio and Sakoda in a triple threat match on SmackDown!
• Matt Morgan defeated Orlando Jordan on Velocity
• Rikishi defeated Scotty 2 Hotty on SmackDown!
• A-Train defeated Shannon Moore on Velocity
• The World's Greatest Tag Team (Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas) defeated the Basham Brothers (Doug and Danny Basham) on SmackDown!
• Rico defeated Tommy Dreamer on Sunday Night HEAT
• Nunzio defeated Chuck Palumbo and Johnny Stamboli in a Triple Threat match on SmackDown!
• *In the storyline, all three were supposed to be in the Rumble until they failed to beat Chris Benoit, thus Paul Heyman would only allow one of them to enter.

Trivia

• The theme tune for the event was "Nothing Left To Lose" by Puddle of Mudd.
• During the show, Josh Mathews interviewed Chris Benoit about his chances of winning the Royal Rumble with the number one entry slot. Benoit was interrupted by Evolution with Ric Flair declaring Randy Orton the winner of the match. Flair then told Benoit that he always came up short from winning "the big one".
• Chris Benoit became the second person to win the Royal Rumble with the #1 draw. The first was Shawn Michaels in 1995.
• Benoit also broke Bob Backlund's previous record from 1993 of the longest person to last in the Rumble.
• Benoit was the first person to make use of a "contract loophole", enabling the Royal Rumble to change brands and challenge their champion. Benoit defected to RAW the following night and challenged Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship, making him the first Royal Rumble winner in years to challenge for a championship at WrestleMania that is not the WWE Championship.
• The Royal Rumble match featured no superstar who won the Royal Rumble match in previous years.
• The 2004 event was the last of four consecutive Royal Rumble events where the Dudley Boyz (as the challengers too) would fight in a match for the World Tag Team Championship.
• Throughout the night, a front row seat was reserved for Mick Foley after "Stone Cold" Steve Austin invited him to confront Randy Orton. Foley never took the seat but was found later when he entered the Royal Rumble.
• The following episode of SmackDown! featured a 15-man Royal Rumble match that consisted of all of the SmackDown! competitors from the first match (with the exception of Chris Benoit who switched to the RAW brand prior to this episode and Matt Morgan who was injured, the two were replaced by Eddie Guerrero and Hardcore Holly). Eddie Guerrero won the match by finally eliminating Kurt Angle and won a shot at the WWE Championship at No Way Out 2004 against Brock Lesnar. Guerrero's win, however, is not counted as an official Royal Rumble win. This was the second time in history that two Royal Rumble matches were held in one year (the first being the "Corporate Royal Rumble" in 1999 in addition to the annual Royal Rumble of that year).
• This was Rob Van Dam's second year to be #29. The first in the 2002 Royal Rumble.
• 10 wrestlers made their first appearance in the Royal Rumble match: Chris Benoit, Randy Orton, Rhyno, Matt Morgan, Spike Dudley, René Dupree, Ernest Miller, Rico, Nunzio, and Goldberg.
• Jim Carrey has jokingly stated that Chris Benoit cheated to win the Royal Rumble, he wanted Kurt Angle to win.

References

• [obsessedwithwrestling.com - Royal Rumble '04 results]
• [twnpnews.com - Royal Rumble]
• [hoofco-inc.com - Royal Rumble '04 review]

External links

• [Official 2004 Royal Rumble website]

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