This Day in Wrestling History on July 26, 2004 was a memorable one for two reasons. The first is this Raw only had two matches, with one of them being a battle royal where the winner had a WWE Championship match at SummerSlam.
The other was a stirring come from behind victory by Chris Benoit against Triple H in a 60 Minute Ironman match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
Benoit fought off Evolution and even Eric Bischoff in a way as he sent a ref to the ring to count Benoit down after Triple H clocked Benoit from behind with a chair.
Comeback kid
To get to this point, Benoit had to scratch and claw his way back from a 3-1 deficit to tie the match with a Crippler Crossface at the 47:57 mark.
After surviving the above mentioned chair shot, he completed the comeback thanks to some help from Eugene, who hit a Rock Bottom on Triple H, with a pin with only six seconds left.
It was one of the most exciting matches we’ve seen in a long time, but it and the rest of Benoit’s work has been overshadowed by is later actions.
While there are fans that miss these chair shots to the head, we’re grateful most companies stopped using them as the effects of CTE has become better understood.
Surviving a war
As we mentioned there was one other match that night and it was a 20 man battle royal to face the WWE World Heavyweight Champion at SummerSlam.
This was a pretty cool event because of the implications of both matches, but also the fact both matches had to carry the night and they did a great job.
This one set up the main event, and in the end Randy Orton won after he eliminated Chris Jericho.
Some of the other contestants bring back fond memories, and they included Batista, Edge, Kane, Chuck Palumbo, Rhyno, Ric Flair, Steven Richards, Val Venis, William Regal, and more.
These were some of our favorites during the Attitude and Ruthless Aggression Eras and it was awesome seeing them all in the same ring like this.
It’s for this reason we’re suckers for battle royals, especially when there’s a meaning attached to it.
These matches and the show helped make This Day in Wrestling History one to remember. What’s your favorite Ironman or battle royal match? Let us know in the comments below.
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