When Eddie’s music started playing, they popped huge. We never see who it is. Glass breaks. Holly fights out with some punches.

Show is up with a chokeslam, but Angle rolls through into the ankle lock. What? Replays aired of the finish and Benoit’s celebration continued as the show ended. #22 is Christian. Show gets to his feet, dropping Benoit down on his side.

It told the story well of Benoit overcoming the odds to get the victory in the end. Taping Feb 3rd 2004: Ernest Miller: def. Also, if you want to see a good Triple H/Shawn Michaels match then it’s worth checking out, but they had better matches than this. (I don’t think Holly should have received a WWE Title match just because Lesnar hurt his neck in September 2002. Eddie then assulted Chavo (Jr.) until he started bleeding. Nice job, Jim. Show tosses Jericho, but he skins the cat, hanging on just barely. #25 is Chris Jericho. He uses his momentum to flip Angle out over the top. He shoves Chavo into the corner. It took place on January 25, 2004, at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and featured talent from … Spike Dudley should be in too, but he’s not even on the ramp anymore. Everybody’s paired off. Test – 0:00 Never Entered (Replaced by Mick Foley). Their heads collide, sending them both down as the next entrant comes. Orton gets the RKO on Rico. Ten 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. Orton beats him up down the aisle, slamming the back of Foley’s head on the steel.

He tosses Cena out over the top, eliminating him. Batista and Flair are next. – This match did a tremendous job of elevating Chris Benoit to the next level, which is what it needed. Fameasser on Angle. He pounds on Holly’s ribs. Benoit fights out of it, grabbing him in a headlock. WWE Royal Rumble Thanks for reading. Rhyno’s gore is blocked with a big kick. There’s Booker T at #11, who JR notes is a favorite. Awesome elimination there. The crowd is still quiet. WWE CRUISERWEIGHT TITLE MATCH Orton gets decked by Henry. Tazz says Big Show is his pick. The show had a run time of 2:41:44 on WWE Network. It was more of an angle to put over Nidia’s blind status and her mistake cost Noble the match. Rikishi hits a sidekick to send Dupree out. RKO by Orton is reversed to a chokeslam by Orton. Frog splash hits for the three count at 8:03. Doesn’t matter. Delayed fisherman’s buster for Lesnar gets two. Show is waiting for him. The referee calls for the bell. He was the story of the first half of the match with Benoit. World Heavyweight champion Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels ended in a draw: Shawn Michaels tried a moonsault on Triple H outside the ring, but ended up crashing through the Announce Table!

Triple H retains the title because it was a draw. I get that. Chavo gets a back suplex for two. He charges, but Show gets a goozle on the throat. Benoit tries to throw Hardy out. The glass breaks. Pedigree on the chair is reversed, sending HHH’s back onto the chair. With Benoit, Orton and Rhyno in the ring, #7 is Matt Hardy. Back up, HBK gets a huge chair shot to the face! This time Eddie wins it and gets a huge chop to him. Took 30 seconds! Especially me. Benoit’s been in for almost 40 minutes now.

There’s seven in the ring now.

He quickly throws out Booker T. soon after. #15 is Rene Dupree. Eddie’s reluctant to punch Chavo in the face. Jericho is trying to toss Angle. “Are we seeing a miracle here?” asks JR. Welcome to another AEW Dynamite review here on TJRWrestling. A-Train works on Benoit in the corner. The first WWE pay-per-view in 2004 was the Royal Rumble, which was the 17th year for the Royal Rumble event. Although, recognized by everyone else, WWE will not hold any claim to the Royal Rumble match, or it's eventual winner itself. He climbs onto the Smackdown table. WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE TABLES MATCH It was a show that featured both Raw and Smackdown matches. When referring to the #1 entrant, WWE personalities will occasionally state, for instance, "two people have won from the number one position, including Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels in 1995", as commentator JBL did in 2015. Tazz says that Benoit cannot win the big one. The Big Show choke-slammed Chris Jericho over the top rope to eliminate him!

Post match, Coach interviews Flair and Flair says it was a big win for Evolution. After the match, Eddie teased leaving. I think the best Rumbles are the ones where the winner is somebody that hasn’t been at that main event level before and all they need is the push of the Rumble to get there. Since then, Holly has done interviews and written a book noting that it was just an accident.). Foley chokes Orton with a cord on the outside. Austin drives off with a beer in hand. Hunter’s on the floor while HBK is slowly crawling to his feet. At this point, we knew Goldberg was likely leaving WWE after WrestleMania. #13 sounds and it’s the Undertaker’s music. After the match, Jamie Noble argued with Nidia as Rey Mysterio celebrated in the ring. Punch to Angle, Jericho, RVD and a slam to Haas. This time, Lesnar drops down so that Holly’s neck snaps back off. At #25, Chris Jericho eliminated his ‘little buddy’ Christian. Cena’s firing away on Big Show. General Manager Paul Heyman then came out and engaged in an interesting catfight situation, before… Stone Cold Steve Austin then hit the ring and said Eric Bischoff & Paul Heyman are wasting everybodies time acting like jackasses!

JR and Tazz are awesome together as a team. They meet in the middle, exchanging blows. – Big Show’s elimination of Angle was fantastic. They talk some smack to start things off. That was huge. Batista did a promo on his way to the ring. D-Von fights out and gets Flair with a clothesline. The crowd is going bonkers. Welcome to the WWE NXT review here on TJRWrestling. Benoit goes after Angle. During a Smackdown television match on September 12, 2002, Lesnar picked up Holly for a Powerbomb and Holly landed right on his head/neck. Benjamin is working on Orton. Van Dam tries to monkey flip Big Show out of there. He tosses them all off. Huge pop for that. Brock Lesnar interrupts. They had an incredible World Title match on Raw in December 2003 that was one of my favorite matches that year. Eric Bischoff comes out to say that a Raw competitor is going to win because Raw is superior in every way. Not much of a match. Holly instead opts for the full nelson to break Lesnar’s neck. Benoit says that there are 29 guys that he has to go through. Stunner for Heyman. At #21, Test’s music hit and he didn’t make it to the ring, because he was attacked backstage! SUNDAY NIGHT HEAT: Hosted by Josh Mathews & Rue Debona (SmackDown!) The visual is pretty disgusting because they’re both bleeding very heavily. Angle pops up, crotching Benoit. At this point, he was considered the future of the company.). Chavo gets to the ropes.

Eddie goes to the top. Holly returned to get revenge on Lesnar and was given a WWE Title shot even though he was never at that level his entire career. (The blind gimmick was silly. The crowd is going nuts now as HBK warms up the band for Sweet Chin Music. Big Show is getting doubled by Gunn and Nunzio. A video package aired to set up Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels for the World Title. (Benoit was never a great talker, so they used Flair to trash talk him and get the crowd to sympathize for Benoit that way.).

He rolls Eddie in and pounds Eddie into the face. At #19, Kurt Angle (the man who guaranteed a victory, and dedicated it to the armed forces) came out. Holly finally breaks it, then goes back in the ring. Rookie mistake, the announcers say. Soundtracks. This was written live when it happened. Another clothesline knocks him down.

Rey gets started with a hurricanrana, but Noble countered a 619 by slamming Mysterio into the mat stomach first. Back in the ring, HBK goes to the top. In the middle, Benoit hits three German suplexes on Angle. The dominant Big Show eliminated Kurt Angle next.

It was presented by Sony's PlayStation 2, took place on January 25, 2004 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and featured talent from the Raw and SmackDown!

Shawn fights back, throws him in the ropes and Hunter counters with the patented knee to the face. T-Bone suplex to Rhyno. They got pops for that. Rolling vertical suplexes by Eddie, three of them. Snap suplex by Benoit. #5 is Bradshaw. Brock Lesnar ran down and planted Bill Goldberg with a big F5! Hunter takes the cover off the Spanish Announce table.

Both on SmackDown in losing efforts. Michaels is up again, this time at seven. Eddie ties Chavo Sr.’s tie to the bottom rope, then kicks him a few times. Austin shows up, yelling at somebody that they are the 21st entrant now. I think the best Rumbles are the ones where the winner is somebody that hasn’t been at that main event level before and all they need is the push of the Rumble to get there. Eddie gets an armbar on Chavo as he’s trying to punch at him. Holly was just there as somebody Lesnar could beat on the road to WrestleMania.). Orton comes back at him with chair shots. – I really didn’t like Ernest Miller, but Tazz singing his song was a fantastic moment. He’s laughing at him now. JR called him a hoss. He never comes out. During the Royal Rumble, the famous gong from The Undertaker's theme song played at #13. In the Sunday Night Heat match, Victoria (with Stevie Richards) defeated WWE Women's Champion Molly Holly in a non-title match. I’ll just add that Randy Orton and Big Show also had very good showings in this Rumble. Angle doesn’t let up. There was a cool video package to start hyping up the Rumble match as well as the key rivalries like Triple H/Michaels.

He fights off with punches, sending Hunter off the table. Michaels gets a figure four leglock. Shaved on the side with a little on top.

Swinging DDT by Chavo is blocked by Eddie. That doesn’t make a lot of sense because if you don’t trust a guy to give you a Powerbomb you’re going to get hurt like Holly was. The #SpeakingOut movement continues to rock the professional wrestling industry and now CHIKARA is being accused of several incidents of abuse and assault. Show gets ropes. Spear on Billy Gunn.

He picks up the steel steps, hitting an official. Chavo slaps him hard in the face. Ric Flair, Batista and Randy Orton interrupt with all of them holding titles. I totally understand that decision because it put him over in a big way. Chokeslam on Morgan. (Cena was in face mode at this point. Brock asks Goldberg where his belt is. Orton throws him out. That was nasty, man. Show gets up first, onto one knee.

Huge pop for that. Here comes Paul Heyman. Austin gets some beer and he gives Heyman a beer. ON COMMENTARY: Jim Ross reluctantly admitted to Tazz that Mick Foley was a coward for not showing up! Benoit gets a German suplex on Jericho. John Cena was interviewed backstage by Josh Matthews. Shawn catches his leg and leg drags him down. It doesn’t matter, though. Crowd boos a bit, wanting a table spot. They’re both up at eight.

That’s what he needed. They’re both still down! Handspring elbow on Orton. Angle can’t throw out Christian. Benoit eliminates Bradshaw. He couldn’t get to a knee. Triple H hit a Pedigree late in the match, but Shawn Michaels got up after a nine count! Noble was the heel with Nidia, who was “blind” during this point in her career.). Cole & Tazz bicker about what Chavo Sr. is doing there. I didn’t expect Eddie to win the WWE Title at the next pay-per-view, but that’s what happened.). (It was part of the story of building Eddie to the main event level. Foley and Orton head to the back. Orton attacks Angle from behind.