Royal Rumble (2004) (TV)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Kevin Dunn

Release Date:

25 January 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Action

Plot Keywords:

Wrestling | Wrestling Match

Cast

Kurt Angle	...	Himself
Steve Austin	...	Himself
Dave Batista	...	Himself
Shelton Benjamin	...	Himself
Chris Benoit	...	Himself
Eric Bischoff	...	Himself
Matt Bloom	...	A-Train
John Cena	...	Himself
Michael Cole	...	Himself
Rico Constantino	...	Rico
Rene Dupree	...	Himself (as Rene Goguen)
Solofa Fatu Jr.	...	Rikishi
Ric Flair	...	Himself
Mick Foley	...	Himself
Terry Gerin	...	Rhyno
Bill Goldberg	...	Goldberg
Nidia Guenard	...	Nidia
Eddie Guerrero	...	Himself
Salvadore Guerrero Jr.	...	Himself (as Chavo Guerrero)
Chavo Guerrero Sr.	...	Himself
Oscar Gutiérrez	...	Rey Mysterio
Charlie Haas	...	Himself
Matt Hardy	...	Himself
Shane Helms	...	The Hurricane
Mark Henry	...	Himself
Paul Heyman	...	Himself
Dan Hollie	...	Danny Basham
Bob Howard	...	Hardcore Holly
Jamie Howard	...	Himself (as Jamie Noble)
Booker Huffman	...	Booker T
Devon Hughes	...	D-Von Dudley
Matt Hyson	...	Spike Dudley
Glenn Jacobs	...	Kane
Chris Jericho	...	Himself
Jerry Lawler	...	Himself
John Layfield	...	Bradshaw
Brock Lesnar	...	Himself
Paul Levesque	...	Triple H
Mark LoMonaco	...	Bubba Ray Dudley
Teddy Long	...	Himself (as Theodore R. Long)
Michael Manna	...	Steven Richards
Andrew Martin	...	Test
Shawn Michaels	...	Himself
Ernest Miller	...	The Cat
Matt Morgan	...	Himself
Randy Orton	...	Himself
Jason Reso	...	Christian
Jim Ross	...	Himself
Terri Runnels	...	Terri
Peter Senerchia	...	Tazz
Monty Sopp	...	Billy Gunn
Scott Steiner	...	Himself
James Stone	...	Nunzio
Yoshihiro Tajiri	...	Himself (as Tajiri)
Desmond Thompson	...	Lamont
Rob Van Dam	...	Himself
Paul Wight	...	The Big Show
Mark Yeaton	...	Himself

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:M (DVD rating) | USA:TV-14

Filming Locations:

Wachovia Center - 3601 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Company:

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)

Trivia:

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.

Movie Connections:

Follows Royal Rumble (2003) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Nothing Left to Lose

The Rumble match saves it. *SPOILERS*

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

*SPOILERS*

The Royal Rumble has always been be a personal favourite of mine when it comes to WWE PPVs. Not so much for the card but the Rumble match itself. It is just an incredibly ingenious and suspenseful idea that results in some of the most entertaining moments of the year. While we do get some dud/predictable Rumbles, every once in a while we get an excellent one that remains the single memory of the event itself. The 1992 Rumble is still the best one; due to Flair, the work rate and the commentary work by Heenan and Monsoon. This Rumble gives that one a run for it's money though.

The card for the Rumble PPV has traditionally been pretty weak, mostly due to the immense time the Rumble itself takes. This one was no exception with matches being duds, disappointments or booked with the "let's wrap this up as fast as we can to make more time for the Rumble" line of thinking.

Dudley Boyz vs. Batista/Ric Flair was a 1/2* match, with little build-up and a poor finish.

The Cruiserweight match with Jamie Noble/Rey Mysterio was something you can see for free on SmackDown, it was a ** match at best.

Eddie Guerrero vs. Chavo Guerrero was the best non-Rumble match on the card, with the two providing a better-than-expected work rate with a *** performance.

Brock Lesnar vs. Hardcore Holly for the WWE Championship had zero expectations from me, I mean this is a Championship match and they couldn't get someone better to face Brock for the title. The match lived up to those low expectations and gave a *1/2 performance.

Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H was rushed, these two can work so damn well together recently with SummerSlam 2002 and the 12/29/2003 episode of RAW coming quickly to mind. The match was again shortened to make room for the Rumble, so we got a **1/2 performance from this match.

The 2004 Rumble is one of the best Rumble matches I have ever seen with countless mark-out moments and a fantastic ending by the booking crew. Hearing Undertaker's 'Gong' during the match was an instant mark-out moment for me while seeing Benoit win it all is what I paid to see. This match gets a ***** from me, in terms of it being a Rumble.

So, what does the Royal Rumble 2004 get overall? I think a 7.0/10 is in order as the card was weak but the Rumble was classic and since that has always been the focal point of the show, I think that tips the scales in favour of the show.