1. Chris Benoit Winning The 2004 Royal Rumble Match
Two men have won the Royal Rumble match from the #1 spot: Shawn Michaels in 1995 and Chris Benoit in 2004. Only Michaels is celebrated. Benoit is forgotten. It's worth pointing out that two men won from the #2 spot (Vince McMahon and Rey Mysterio), which is essentially the same thing, but it's that top spot that is always remembered. The victory by Michaels is celebrated as one of the greatest accomplishments in Rumble match history. In Benoit's case, it is forgotten. Benoit's performance in the 2004 Rumble was amazing. At the time of the match, he was a rising babyface star that fans really wanted to see win the match so that he could solidify his spot as a main event performer in WWE. He had a great showing right until the final two with the giant Big Show as his competition. In a memorable moment, Benoit grabbed Show in a front facelock and yanked him over the top to the floor to eliminate him. It's one of the best final eliminations ever. An example of WWE ignoring Benoit as the #1 entrant is this
photo gallery on WWE.com about #1 entrants in Rumble history. If you scroll the photos you can see Michaels as the #1 guy in 2003, then you click on the next one and it jumps to Eddie Guerrero as #1 in 2005. Where's 2004? Completely ignored. The reason WWE wants us to forget about it is because Benoit killed his wife Nancy and son Daniel in June 2007 before he killed himself. That double homicide-suicide is the most tragic thing that happened in the history of WWE and they will always do what they can to ignore Benoit. Nobody blames them for it. We certainly understand why they do it. If you have WWE Network you can still watch it, though. It's just that they're not going to push it on us. When WWE shows videos about Royal Rumble history or they mention winning from the #1 spot, they are not going to remind you of Benoit.