The 2004 Royal Rumble was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was the 17th annual Royal Rumble and took place on January 25, 2004, at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The event featured wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown! brand divisions. As has been customary since 1993, the Royal Rumble match winner received a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania, in this instance, WrestleMania XX. Beginning with this Royal Rumble, the winner could choose which championship to challenge for at WrestleMania, either Raw's World Heavyweight Championship or SmackDown!'s WWE Championship.
Six professional wrestling matches were featured on the event's supercard, a scheduling of more than one main event. The main event was the 2004 Royal Rumble match, which featured wrestlers from both brands. SmackDown!'s Chris Benoit, the first entrant, won the match by last eliminating Big Show, also from SmackDown!. This win resulted in Benoit breaking the longevity record last held by Bob Backlund, staying in the match for over one hour, but was then broken by Rey Mysterio in 2006. Benoit also became the second wrestler to win the match as the first entrant, after Shawn Michaels. The primary match on the Raw brand was a Last Man Standing match between Triple H and Shawn Michaels for the World Heavyweight Championship, which ended in a draw. The predominant match on the SmackDown! brand was Brock Lesnar versus Hardcore Holly for the WWE Championship, which Lesnar won to retain the championship. The featured match on the undercard was a tables match for the World Tag Team Championship between Evolution (Ric Flair and Batista) and the Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley), which Evolution won to retain the titles.
Production
Background
thumb|The event was held at the [[Wachovia Center (Philadelphia)|Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.]]
The Royal Rumble is an annual professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) produced every January by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) since 1988. It is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, dubbed the "Big Four". It is named after the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time. The 2004 event was the 17th Royal Rumble and was scheduled to be held on January 25, 2004, at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown! brands. The previous year, the winner earned a match for their respective brand's top championship, but for 2004, the winner could choose to challenge for either brands' world championship at WrestleMania XX: Raw's World Heavyweight Championship or SmackDown!'s WWE Championship.
The buildup to the Royal Rumble match started on the January 1 episode of SmackDown!, when John Cena interrupted a promo from SmackDown! General Manager Paul Heyman about the Tribute to the Troops event in Iraq. This angered Heyman and Heyman forced Cena to compete in a handicap match with a partner and the two needed to win the match to gain entry in the Royal Rumble match. Cena's partner was revealed to be Chris Benoit and the two defeated The Full Blooded Italians (Nunzio, Chuck Palumbo, and Johnny Stamboli) to qualify for the Royal Rumble match. As a result, all the three members of Full Blooded Italians lost their spots in the Royal Rumble match; had Cena and Benoit would have lost, neither would have been able to participate in the match. After the match, Kurt Angle announced that he would participate in the Royal Rumble match and would win it. Later that night, Benoit insulted Heyman and Heyman forced Benoit to compete at the #1 spot in the Royal Rumble. On the January 5 episode of Raw, Kane announced that he was going to win the Royal Rumble but was confronted by Booker T, who claimed that he would eliminate Kane from the match and win the match. Three days later on SmackDown!, Benoit defeated the Full Blooded Italians in a handicap mini Royal Rumble to retain his spot in the Royal Rumble. On the January 12 episode of Raw, Goldberg defeated Matt Hardy and announced that he would participate in the Royal Rumble match. On the January 15 episode of SmackDown!, several qualifying matches were held for the Royal Rumble, including a battle royal between the Full Blooded Italians, which Nunzio won. On the January 19 episode of Raw, Goldberg, Randy Orton, Rob Van Dam, Booker T, Mark Henry, and Chris Jericho won matches to qualify for a Battle Royal to determine the #30 entrant of the Royal Rumble match. Goldberg won the match and earned the #30 spot in the Royal Rumble.
;Royal Rumble qualification matches
- John Cena and Chris Benoit defeated Nunzio, Chuck Palumbo, and Johnny Stamboli in a handicap match – SmackDown!, December 30 (aired January 1)
- Matt Morgan defeated Orlando Jordan – Velocity, January 13 (aired January 17)
- Rikishi defeated Scotty 2 Hotty – SmackDown!, January 13 (aired January 15)
The main rivalry heading into the event from the Raw brand was between Triple H and Shawn Michaels over the World Heavyweight Championship. At Armageddon, Triple H defeated Goldberg and Kane in a triple threat match to win the World Heavyweight Championship after interference from Evolution (Ric Flair and Batista). On the December 15 episode of Raw, Michaels and Rob Van Dam defeated Evolution (Triple H, Ric Flair and Batista) in a handicap match, when Michaels pinned Triple H. As a result, Michaels earned a World Heavyweight Championship match against Triple H on the December 29 episode of Raw in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas. Michaels seemingly defeated Triple H to win the title, but the Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff declared the match a draw due to both men's shoulders being down on the mat during the pinfall. As a result, Triple H retained the title. On the January 5 episode of Raw, the self-proclaimed Sheriff of Raw Stone Cold Steve Austin announced that Triple H would defend the title against Michaels in a Last Man Standing match at Royal Rumble. A year later, at Survivor Series, Holly returned to WWE from injury to take revenge from Lesnar. On the December 18 episode of SmackDown!, Paul Heyman announced that Holly would team with Shannon Moore in a tag team match against A-Train and Matt Morgan, in which Holly could get a match of his choosing if he won but if he lost, his WWE contract would be terminated. Holly and Moore won the match, allowing Holly to wrestle a match of his choosing. On the January 1 episode of SmackDown!, Holly intentionally got disqualified in a match against Big Show by brutally assaulting him. After the event, Los Guerreros started to break up as a team when Chavo began blaming Eddie for the team's recent failure. On the November 20 episode of SmackDown!, Los Guerreros defeated The World's Greatest Tag Team (Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin) but after the match, Haas and Benjamin attacked Chavo and injured his leg. This caused Chavo to blame Eddie for the injury. On the November 27 episode of SmackDown!, Chavo was attacked again and he blamed Eddie. This continued on the December 4 episode of SmackDown!, when Eddie helped Chavo in defeating Benjamin in a one-on-one match. Chavo blamed Eddie for stealing the spotlight that Chavo needed. On the January 1 episode of SmackDown!, Eddie and Chavo finally broke up the team after losing to The World's Greatest Tag Team. On the December 29 episode of Raw, Flair served as the special guest referee during a match pitting Dudley Boyz against two enhancement talents. Flair awarded the victory to enhancement talents by disqualifying Dudley Boyz. Batista then came out and attacked Dudley Boyz from behind.
Preliminary matches
The actual event opened with Evolution (Batista and Ric Flair) defending the World Tag Team Championship against the Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley) in a tables match. Jonathan Coachman interfered in the match as he distracted The Dudley Boyz, who attempted a Whassup on Coachman but Flair prevented the move. D-Von performed a Clothesline on Flair, allowing Batista to perform a Spinebuster through a table on D-Von to retain the titles. Matt Hardy entered at #7, but was quickly tossed over the top rope by Benoit but Hardy landed on the apron. Rhyno tried to eliminate Hardy but Hardy stayed in the ring. Scott Steiner entered at #8 and started dominating all of the participants of the match. Hardy and Orton battled in the corner, where Hardy had nearly eliminated Orton until Benoit attacked Hardy and Orton was saved from being eliminated. Matt Morgan entered at #9 and he performed a Sitout Powerbomb on Benoit and a Big Boot on Hardy. The Hurricane entered at #10 and performed a Diving Crossbody on Hardy. The Hurricane then began fighting Morgan, who dominated The Hurricane and eliminated him by tossing him over the top rope. Morgan then tried to eliminate Hardy in the same way, but Hardy landed on the apron and stayed in the ring. Benoit began fighting Rhyno, Steiner battled Orton and Hardy battled Morgan until Booker T entered at #11. Booker T attacked Steiner and then performed a Scissors Kick on Orton. Booker T then eliminated Steiner from the match. Kane entered at #12. Morgan started attacking Kane but Kane performed a Chokeslam on Morgan. Kane performed a Big Boot on Rhyno and then Kane chokeslammed Orton. Eventually, The Undertaker's entrance theme music began playing in the arena and the lights went out. When the lights came back, Kane was distracted and Booker T eliminated Kane from behind. On the February 9 episode, Benoit and Triple H were to have their contract signing for the WrestleMania match, but Michaels interfered and hit Sweet Chin Music on Benoit then signed the contract himself. The following week, after Michaels defeated Benoit in a singles match, Austin announced that Triple H would defend the title against Benoit and Michaels in a triple threat match at WrestleMania. At WrestleMania, Benoit defeated Michaels and Triple H by submitting the latter to the Crippler Crossface to win the World Heavyweight Championship. Benoit's defection led to a rule change for the Royal Rumble winner, where he could now choose which world champion he would face at WrestleMania.
SmackDown! Royal Rumble
Meanwhile, on SmackDown!, in order to make up for Benoit's defection, Heyman announced that a second Royal Rumble match featuring fifteen of SmackDown!'s wrestlers competing for a shot at Brock Lesnar's WWE Championship at No Way Out in February. The thirteen SmackDown! wrestlers (Kurt Angle, Rhyno, Charlie Haas, Shelton Benjamin, Bradshaw, Ernest Miller, Tajiri, Billy Gunn, Big Show, John Cena, Nunzio, A-Train, and Rikishi) who competed in the original Royal Rumble match were given entries in the match as were Hardcore Holly and Eddie Guerrero (Holly, who replaced an injured Matt Morgan, wrestled and lost to Lesnar at the Rumble and Guerrero, who replaced Benoit, was continuing his feud with Chavo). Guerrero won the match and earned the title opportunity. At No Way Out, Guerrero defeated Lesnar to win the WWE Championship.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! style="background-color:#efefef;" | Draw
! style="background-color:#efefef;" | Entrant
! style="background-color:#efefef;" | Order
! style="background-color:#efefef;" | Eliminated by
! style="background-color:#efefef;" | Time
! style="background-color:#efefef;" | Eliminations
|-
|
|Kurt Angle
|14
|Guerrero
|34:14
|6
|-
|
|Rhyno
|5
|Angle
|13:59
|0
|-
|
|Charlie Haas
|9
|Guerrero
|20:54
|1
|-
|
|Shelton Benjamin
|10
|Angle
|19:29
|0
|-
|
|Bradshaw
|3
|Big Show
|06:59
|0
|-
|
|Ernest Miller
|1
|Angle
|00:42
|0
|-
|
|Tajiri
|2
|Big Show
|03:46
|0
|-
|
|Billy Gunn
|12
|Guerrero
|14:55
|1
|-
|
|Big Show
|8
|Angle, Gunn, Guerrero, Haas, Holly, Rikishi, Cena
|09:22
|3
|-
|
|John Cena
|7
|Big Show
|06:09
|2
|-
|
|Nunzio
|4
|Cena
|00:52
|0
|-
|
|A-Train
|6
|Guerrero
|02:43
|0
|-
|-style="background: gold"
|
|Eddie Guerrero
|
|Winner
|17:44
|6
|-
|
|Rikishi
|13
|Guerrero and Angle
|08:17
|1
|-
|
|Hardcore Holly
|11
|Angle
|04:00
|1
|}
Impact of Benoit tragedy
Chris Benoit murdered his wife and son before committing suicide over the weekend of June 22–24, 2007. Once the details of Benoit's actions became apparent, WWE made the decision to remove nearly all mentions of Benoit from their website, future broadcasts, and all publications. As a result, this Royal Rumble and Benoit's victory is often ignored in official publications. When referring to the #1 entrant, WWE personalities occasionally stated, for instance, "two people have won from the number one position, including Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels in 1995", as commentator John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) did in 2015. Edge and Rhea Ripley would since become the third and fourth wrestlers to win as the first entrant in 2021 and 2023, respectively, which WWE acknowledged they were the third and fourth to do so, but only mentioned Shawn Michaels as the other to accomplish this. Coverage of the Royal Rumble has been very selective; no photos of Benoit exist on WWE's webpage for the event, focusing rather on the Last Man Standing match between Triple H and Shawn Michaels, and Benoit is only mentioned on the results page as the winner of the event. Only a few WWE video features include footage from the Royal Rumble match, but those that do use careful shot selection so that Benoit is not seen on screen. WWE's website has also posted photo galleries dedicated to the number one entrants and winners in the Royal Rumble history, both of which completely ignore Chris Benoit and the year of 2004. The pay-per-view and the Royal Rumble match, however, exist in their entirety on WWE's streaming services (like the WWE Network) unedited. Benoit went on to win the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XX (which like this Rumble, it is also available in its entirety on the WWE Network unedited), but like his near erasure from this Royal Rumble, WWE only lists his name in the official title history but have removed the match description (this is also the case for any other WWE-owned title that he has won), as well as the match description for when Randy Orton defeated him for the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam.