Chris Benoit's Hype
PHILADELPHIA -- Jan.25, 2004 -- Because Chris Benoit entered the Royal Rumble Match as the first competitor, odds were against him winning the 30-man over-the-top-rope contest. Through hard work, perseverance and the right mindset, the Rabid Wolverine did the seemingly impossible.
“It was very hard. Probably one of the hardest challenges I’ve ever had in my career,” Benoit said. “There were a lot of the SmackDown! Superstars who I was familiar with. I knew their game and I knew what to expect from them, but with many of the RAW Superstars, I’ve never been in the ring with before, guys like Randy Orton and so forth. It was very challenging.”
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Competing against one Superstar for 60 minutes is tough enough, but when there are nearly 30 top-caliber athletes trying to eliminate you, it’s a challenge unlike any other Benoit’s ever endured.
“Every time I thought I was getting a second wind, I had someone else on my back,” Benoit said. “To be in there with 29 other Superstars certainly isn’t a walk in the park. I mean, I’ve been training for a long time, and I always try to keep myself in tip-top condition. But once I learned what I would have to do to win this, I’ve been focusing and training really hard. There really is no way you can prepare for this kind of a match because there are way too many intangibles. The match is so unpredictable that the best you can do really is the best you can do.”
One of the things Benoit did to prepare himself for the grueling encounter was to watch Shawn Michaels’ stellar performance in the 1995 Royal Rumble. That year, the Heartbreak Kid became the first Superstar to enter the Rumble first and come out victorious.
“Winning the Rumble tonight doesn’t really give me a new perspective (on Shawn Michaels ’95 victory), because when he did that, I was awestruck,” Benoit said. “For someone to accomplish that feat is just amazing. I did a lot of soul-searching this past week. I watched that match over and over again, and I was just totally in awe of what he accomplished. I realized that I had quite a mountain to climb, and that I had a lot of odds against me. But like I said, I just had to work as hard as I could to get there and stay positive and optimistic, so that I would be able to fulfill my dream tonight.”
By winning the Royal Rumble, Benoit now knows that he will be headlining WrestleMania XX on March 14 at Madison Square Garden, on what could shape up to be the biggest and best WrestleMania so far.