3. Royal Rumble 2004 – Chris Benoit
While WWE certainly doesn’t want you to remember that Chris Benoit won the 2004 Royal Rumble (as evidenced by the fact that they have no official YouTube video for it), it’s impossible to forget how amazing this match was.
Benoit was out first after being forced into that position by SmackDown GM Paul Heyman (remember when that was a thing) and was joined by a young Randy Orton, who was the Intercontinental Champion at the time, and the two would set a nice pace from the start. This Rumble was full of huge names and more than half the guys in this match either had or would hold a world title at some point. Benoit and Orton would both put on a great show, and after more than half the field had entered, it was only the first two men in the ring that still remained, even surviving a dance from Ernest “The Cat” Miller. Pretty funny moment actually. From there, things got really exciting as the action got furious with some huge names like Kurt Angle, Mick Foley, Christian, Big Show, Chris Jericho, John Cena, Rob Van Dam and the number 30 entrant, Goldberg, getting into the mix. Foley actually wasn’t officially entered in the match but took out Test in the back and was put into the match by Stone Cold Steve Austin, who was doing his RAW Sheriff thing at the time. Mick wasn’t in long as he took Orton and himself out with a running clothesline and the battle on the outside between the two took this budding rivalry to the next level and put Orton on a great track.
The finish was fast and furious as Lesnar, who had defeated Hardcore Holly in a WWE title match earlier in the night, entered and delivered an F5 to Goldberg, with whom he had had words with in the back. Angle was then able to eliminate him, which would set up the dreadful Lesnar vs. Goldberg match at WrestleMania XX. It then turned into the Big Show … well, show as the giant went on a tear, fighting off the group elimination and then eliminated John Cena, RVD, Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle in a very entertaining stretch, leaving just he and Benoit in the ring. I remember watching this and thinking that there was no way they would give Benoit that kind of push, so imagine my surprise when Benoit flipped Show over the top rope for the win. It was quite a shocking moment and even more so when he went on to beat Shawn Michaels and Triple H at WrestleMania XX in one of the greatest Triple Threat matches in history. Benoit set a then-record of 1:01:35 in the match, which would be broken by Rey Mysterio just a couple of years later. And we won’t get into what happened with Benoit a few years after this match. It’s just unfortunate that this Rumble will never get the attention it deserves due to what happened with the winner.
Add us as a preferred source on Google