2004 Chris Benoit
Whilst the WWE would have you believe that there was no winner of the 2004 Royal Rumble match, let me tell you a little story about a man called Chris Benoit. Benoit, a tough-as-nails Canadian known affectionately as The Crippler, was a grappler who had always come up short when it came to winning the big one in the WWE. After falling out of favour with Smackdowns Paul Heyman, Benoit was forced to enter the Royal Rumble at #1. Hed go on to win the match and then take Triple Hs World Championship at WrestleMania XX before floating around the midcard for the next few years and quietly retiring to a life of golf and long summer walks. Wait a minute, something doesnt sound quite right there Regardless of the horrors that were his last few days and his final acts, Chris Benoit was a hell of a worker, one of the very best in-ring talents the wrestling business has ever seen, and his 2004 Royal Rumble performance was a fine example of this. As the underdog that you finally wanted to see given a shot at being a true main event player, Benoit and his 2004 Rumble antics were brilliantly effective. With his hour-long Rumble win, Chris Benoit was hugely elevated to another level, as highlighted by his eventual World Title win later that year.
Andrew Pollard
Senior Writer
Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics.
As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer and Presenter, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic.
Between his main day job, his role as lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund and Eli Roth to Kevin Smith and the Russo Brothers, to Kevin Conroy and Frank Miller, to Bret Hart and Sting, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, and Brian Flynn, to many, many more. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is a long-standing season ticket holder and an FSA Award-winner for his time co-hosting the Fearless in Devotion podcast.
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