Royal Rumble (2004)

**Royal Rumble (2004)** was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event made by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It took place on January 25, 2004, at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was the 17th Royal Rumble event held by WWE.

## Background

As is the case every year since the event's beginning, the event's main event was the 30-man over-the-top-rope battle royal, also known as the Royal Rumble match. The match started with two wrestlers and a new one was added every 90 seconds. To eliminate an opposing wrestler he must be thrown over the top rope and have _both_ his two feet hit the floor, this continued until there was only one man left, who was named the winner. The winner received a world championship match at WrestleMania XX. Starting this year, he was allowed choose whether he wanted to face _Raw_<nowiki/>'s World Heavyweight Champion or _SmackDown_<nowiki/>'s WWE Champion.

## Qualification matches

- John Cena and Chris Benoit defeated The Full Blooded Italians (Nunzio, Chuck Palumbo, and Johnny Stamboli) in a handicap match – _SmackDown!_, January 1
- Rico defeated Tommy Dreamer – _Heat_, January 18
- Matt Morgan defeated Orlando Jordan – _Velocity_, January 17
- Rikishi defeated Scotty 2 Hotty – _SmackDown!_, January 18
- The World's Greatest Tag Team (Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas) defeated The Basham Brothers (Doug and Danny Basham) – _SmackDown!_, January 15
- Nunzio defeated Chuck Palumbo and Johnny Stamboli in a triple threat battle royal – _SmackDown!_, January 15
- Big Show defeated Funaki – _SmackDown!_, January 15
- Tajiri defeated Billy Kidman – _SmackDown!_, January 22
- A-Train defeated Shannon Moore – _SmackDown!_, January 22
- Bradshaw defeated Akio and Sakoda in a triple threat match – _SmackDown!_, January 22

### Royal Rumble entrances and eliminations

- – **Raw**
- – **SmackDown!**
- – **Winner**

|Draw|Entrant|Brand|Order eliminated|Eliminated by|Time|Eliminations|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||Chris Benoit|SmackDown!||||6|||
||Randy Orton|rowspan="2"|Raw|19|Mick Foley|33:44|5||
||Mark Henry||Chris Benoit|05:14|1||||
||Tajiri|rowspan="3"|SmackDown!||Rhyno and Mark Henry|03:39|0||
||Bradshaw||rowspan="2"|Chris Benoit|00:38|0|||
||Rhyno||14:00|1|||||
||Matt Hardy|rowspan="2"|Raw||René Duprée|14:18|0||
||Scott Steiner||Booker T|06:49|0||||
||Matt Morgan|SmackDown!|11|Chris Benoit|12:14|1|||
|10|The Hurricane|rowspan="4"|Raw||Matt Morgan|00:19|0||
|11|Booker T|13|Randy Orton|09:11|2||||
|12|Kane||Booker T|01:40|1||||
|13|Spike Dudley||Unable to compete|00:00|0||||
|14|Rikishi|SmackDown!|12|Randy Orton|03:48|1|||
|15|René Duprée|Raw||Rikishi|00:33|1|||
|16|A-Train|rowspan="4"|SmackDown!|14|Chris Benoit|01:44|0||
|17|Shelton Benjamin|15|rowspan="2"|Randy Orton|00:37|0|||
|18|Ernest Miller|16|00:56|0|||||
|19|Kurt Angle|28|Big Show|29:04|1||||
|20|Rico|rowspan="3"|Raw|17|Randy Orton|01:06|0||
|21|Mick Foley|18|Himself|00:43|2||||
|22|Christian|20|Chris Jericho|07:39|0||||
|23|Nunzio|rowspan="2"|SmackDown!|23|Goldberg|03:48|0||
|24|Big Show|29|Chris Benoit|22:38|4||||
|25|Chris Jericho|Raw|27|Big Show|14:58|1|||
|26|Charlie Haas|rowspan="3"|SmackDown!|21|rowspan="2"|Goldberg|06:53|0|
|27|Billy Gunn|22|05:37|0|||||
|28|John Cena|25|Big Show|07:37|0||||
|29|Rob Van Dam|rowspan="2"|Raw|26|Big Show|06:44|0||
|30|Goldberg|24|Kurt Angle|02:04|3||||

## Infobox (wrestling event)

- **name**: Royal Rumble (2004)
- **promotion**: WWE, World Wrestling Entertainment
- **brand**: WWE Raw, Raw
SmackDown!
- **date**: January 25, 2004
- **venue**: Wells Fargo Center (Philadelphia), Wachovia Center
- **city**: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- **attendance**: 17,289
- **lastevent**: Armageddon (2003)
- **nextevent**: No Way Out (2004)
- **event**: Royal Rumble
- **lastevent2**: Royal Rumble (2003)
- **nextevent2**: Royal Rumble (2005)