10 Most Unlikely First WWE World Championship Defenses

2004 saw the start of an annual tradition for WWE that would last up until 2011 in the post-WrestleMania draft.

Occurring eight days after WrestleMania XX - which saw the bittersweet main event of Chris Benoit toppling Triple H and Shawn Michaels to become WWE World Heavyweight Champion - the proceeding RAW was a bit of a wasted opportunity. With the chance of some unique match-ups that would've otherwise been a rare sighting in the WWE at that point (the initial draft taking place two years prior), the show was littered with RAW's undercard, such as Rene Dupree vs. Chris Jericho, and Rico vs. Kane.

A more curious inclusion was the first defence of Benoit's World Title, which still wasn't the main event because this is RAW in 2004 and therefore the only main event is a Triple H main event. But still...

The Rabid Wolverine opened his World Championship account against fellow-ECW alumni Rhyno in what would be the Man Beast's sole one-on-one World Title opportunity across his multiple runs with WWE - with Benoit picking up the win with the Crippler Crossface in under five minutes.