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#8 Royal Rumble 2004
The 2004 Royal Rumble was going to be an interesting one. WWE had done a big job in building up Chris Benoit as someone who didn't stand a chance in ever winning it, including being told this on SmackDown and being forced to enter at number #1. While over on RAW, the plan within WWE for several months had been Goldberg to headline WrestleMania for the WWE Championship with Brock Lesnar.
As it turned out, Goldberg had informed management that he would likely not be re-signing with WWE that March, and thus WWE decided weeks before the event that Benoit would win, however, Goldberg's decision was yet to be public knowledge.
So Benoit would enter at number #1, and in my opinion, would give the best performance in Royal Rumble history.
Benoit started off the match with the up and coming Randy Orton and the two had strong exchanges during Orton's 30-minute stay in the match.
The then Legend Killer would be eliminated by surprise entrant Mick Foley, who blew the roof off the building and sacrificed himself to eliminate Orton. This was actually Foley's first time competing since WrestleMania 2000, albeit for 43 seconds.
Kane was on a Chokeslamming frenzy when he entered at No. 12, but was quickly eliminated by Booker T after being distracted by the bell tolls of The Undertaker.
Kurt Angle gave a great half-hour performance and the Big Show was very impressive, at one point shoving about six superstars off him at the same time. Show would also give John Cena one of the roughest looking eliminations ever, with Cena somehow avoiding a serious ankle and knee injuries.
Goldberg was entrant No. 30 and smashed through everyone in the ring, including giving one of his best ever Spears, to Nunzio. After some quick eliminations, Goldberg himself was quickly eliminated by Kurt Angle after Brock Lesnar sprinted to the ring and hit him with an F-5.
At over 1 hour in the match, Chris Benoit, who eliminated six Superstars and gave a fantastic performance, last eliminated the Big Show for the emotional victory.
