10 Most Controversial WWE Royal Rumble Moments Ever

5. Chris Benoit Is The 2004 Royal Rumble Winner

At the time there wasn't much that was controversial about the 2004 Royal Rumble winner at all. A man entered at number one and went the entire distance to win the match, so what? Of course, that man was Chris Benoit, meaning that in a post-Benoit tragedy world, it is of course a major talking point. He was the second ever person to pull off such a staggering feat, after Shawn Michaels did it in 1995, but all of that has been lost in history now. In the wake of the 2007 double murder suicide, WWE tried to distance themselves from Benoit as much as they could by erasing him from everything WWE related. All mentions of him are pulled from pretty much all WWE media and, although his matches/appearances are on the Network, you have to dig around to find them. If you hit the skip button, you'll often skip right past a Benoit match and the search term 'Chris Benoit' offers no results. The major problem WWE have now created for themselves by ignoring their own history there is a massive black spot over the 2004 event. The winner of this year can never be referred to and despite being one of the few number one entrants to win, it can't be spoken about. The WWE.com photo galleries of number one entrants and winners don't contain 2004 and whenever WWE do their 'the Rumble in numbers' video package, the Canadian Crippler cannot be seen. WWE now have to pretend that the entire event didn't take place in 2004 in many ways.