5 Best No. 1 Entries in the Royal Rumble

# 1 Chris Benoit (2004) - Winner - 6 Eliminations

Nine years after Shawn Michaels went end to end at the Royal Rumble, Chris Benoit managed to emulate the Heart Break Kid's achievement and win the Royal Rumble from the first position, lasting over an hour and setting a new record, at the time, for the longest time in a single Royal Rumble. Benoit was put in the Rumble first by SmackDown's General Manager at the time, Paul Heyman, as an act of revenge after Benoit had helped Cena qualify for the Rumble.

Benoit would eliminate 6 different superstars on his way to victory, including Mark Henry, Bradshaw, Rhyno, Matt Morgan, A-Train and finally the Big Show. Benoit would use his WrestleMania title shot to challenge Triple H and Shawn Michaels to win the World Heavyweight Title, creating the highly emotional scene with Eddie Guerrero at the end of WrestleMania XX where both men would embrace with their titles at the end of the event.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of Chris Benoit's downfall, this Rumble isn't often mentioned in the WWE these days, and Benoit's record was eclipsed by Rey Mysterio a mere 2 years later.