Royal Rumble (2004)

The 2004 Royal Rumble was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown! brand divisions. It was the 17th annual Royal Rumble event and took place on January 25, 2004, at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The event was based around the men's Royal Rumble match, a modified 30-man battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time and the winner received a world championship match at WrestleMania. As a result of the brand extension introduced in March 2002, which led to the creation of a second world championship with each brand having its own top title, the winner of the 2003 Royal Rumble challenged the world champion of their respective brand. For the 2004 event, the winner could choose which championship to challenge for at WrestleMania XX: 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 at the time, last held by Bob Backlund, staying in the match for over one hour; this record would be 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...