WWE Rewind: Royal Rumble 2004

WWE Royal Rumble 2004 Poster featuring John Cena

We are just 9 days away from the 25th anniversary of the Royal Rumble, scheduled to be held on January 29th, 2012 at Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri. We have revisited sixteen Royal Rumble matches over the past few weeks. Now, let us take a look at the seventeenth Royal Rumble match which took place on January 25, 2004 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Winning a Royal Rumble match is all about endurance, resilience and a little luck. In 2004, all these factors enabled Chris Benoit to emerge as the surprise winner.

You can watch this historic Royal Rumble match in this video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_kOurQjfO_M

Here are some important facts about this match:

• Chris Benoit emerged as the surprise winner of this match by eliminating The Big Show.
• Benoit entered the match as the first participant and thus became only the second wrestler to win a Royal Rumble match after entering first. (The other being Shawn Michaels in 1995)
• Chris Benoit also lasted the longest in this match, for 1 hour, 1 minute and 30 seconds.
• Benoit also made the most number of eliminations in this match – six.
• Benoit was the first Royal Rumble winner to utilise a ‘contract loophole’ by which he changed brands and won the World Heavyweight Championship defeating Triple H and Shawn Michaels in a Triple Threat match at Wrestlemania 20.

In case you haven’t watched them yet, relive the thrill of earlier Royal Rumble events at these links:

• Royal Rumble 2003
• Royal Rumble 2002
• Royal Rumble 2001
• Royal Rumble 2000
• Royal Rumble 1999