Submitted by Rajah on January 28, 2004 at 8:01 AM

Report by: PWTorch.com

SMACKDOWN

Paul Heyman comes out first and is shortly interrupted by Vinnie Mac. He berates Heyman for allowing Chris Benoit to switch shows to Raw. Heyman comes back with screw Benoit just like how the old Vinnie Mac screwed Bret Hart. Of course, a You Screwed Bret chant started. Anyway, Heyman announces his very own Royal Rumble with the same 15 superstars from the Rumble except with Hardcore Holly taking the place of Matt Morgan and Eddie G replacing Chris Benoit. The winner of the Rumble will fight Brock Lesnar at No Way Out.

(1) The Bashams defeated Paul London & Kidman with a sick top rope DDT on Kidman in about 7 minutes.

There were backstage segments with all the wrestlers picking their ball out to find out their Rumble number. Basically, just a set up for a lot of "balls" jokes with Dawn Marie. Angle dedicates his win to the troops again.

(2) Rey Mysterio defeated Jamie Noble in a Royal Rumble Rematch with the West Coast Pop in about 10 minutes. Good match that saw Nidia cost Noble the match and reveal that she wasn't really blind.

Backstage, Eddy gets laid out and Chavo plays innocent. Rey accuses Chavo and they start brawling presumably setting up their No Way Out feud.

Backstage Brock Lesnar delivers an awesome promo in all seriousness about how Goldberg wants to be the next Brock Lesnar. He issues an open challenge to any superstar on the smackdown roster to a non-title match.

(3) Brock Lesnar defeated Orlando Jordan in a match that the crowd sh---ed on.

(4) Eddie Guerrero won a mini-Royal Rumble. The Royal Rumble saw Angle draw #1 and Rhyno draw #2. Highlights included the Cat being the first one eliminated after dancing, Big Show eliminating Cena again (who was favoring his knee for the whole time he was in) before Cena coming back to help eliminate Show, Angle eliminating Hardcore Holly before Holly bitchslapping him back starting up a quickie feud between them, and Eddie coming back from the hospital to compete. The final four was Eddie, Angle, Billy Gunn, and Rikishi. Obviously, the dead weight was quickly eliminated leaving Eddie and Angle fighting for over 10 minutes before Eddie reversing a suplex to knock out Angle. Awesome stuff and shouldn't be missed.

Overall: It was a fun event with the Rumble being the only true good highlight. Matches for No Way Out should include Eddy vs. Lesnar, Big Show vs. Cena, Chavo vs. Rey, and Angle vs. Holly. Not too shabby. The crowd had a split Eddie/Angle chant during their encounter and was pretty on and off all night.

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