No Way Out (2004)
The 2004 No Way Out was the sixth No Way Out professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment. It was held exclusively for wrestlers from the promotion's SmackDown! brand division. The event took place on February 15, 2004, at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California. The event is best remembered for its final match, which saw Eddie Guerrero defeat WWE Champion Brock Lesnar to win the title, his top wrestling achievement before his death in 2005.
No Way Out grossed over US$450,000 ticket sales from an attendance of approximately 11,000 and received 350,000 pay-per-view buys, and was instrumental in helping WWE increase its pay-per-view revenue by $11.9 million compared to the previous year. Like the event, the DVD received favorable reviews.
Production
Background
was first held by World Wrestling Entertainment as the 20th In Your House pay-per-view in February 1998. Following the discontinuation of the In Your House series, No Way Out returned in February 2000 as its own PPV event, thus establishing it as the annual February PPV for the promotion. The 2004 event was the sixth event in the No Way Out chronology and was held on February 15 at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California. While the previous year's event featured wrestlers from both the Raw and SmackDown! brands, the 2004 event featured wrestlers exclusively from the SmackDown! brand, which made it the first brand-exclusive No Way Out event.Storylines
The event consisted of eight professional wrestling matches with wrestlers involved in pre-existing scripted feuds, and storylines. Wrestlers were portrayed as either villains or fan favorites as they followed a series of tension-building events, which culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. All wrestlers belonged to the SmackDown! brand – a storyline division in which WWE assigned its employees to a different program.The primary storyline involved the WWE Championship, which at the time was held by Brock Lesnar. At the Royal Rumble on January 25, the SmackDown! brand was victorious in the Royal Rumble match when Chris Benoit last eliminated The Big Show to win. This would have entitled Benoit, who had an ongoing feud with general manager Paul Heyman at the time, to a championship match against Lesnar at WrestleMania XX.
The night after the Royal Rumble on Raw, in his role as Sheriff of Raw, Stone Cold Steve Austin interrupted an in-ring confrontation between long-time rivals Triple H and Shawn Michaels concerning the World Heavyweight Championship. Their Last Man Standing match at the pay-per-view ended in a draw, and Michaels was seeking another shot at the championship. Austin denied Michaels' request, saying that the winner of the Royal Rumble match had the first shot at the champion. However, it never explicitly was stated that the champion had to be a member of the same brand as the Royal Rumble winner; thus, Benoit opted to take his guaranteed title shot and move over to Raw to challenge Triple H instead.
Three days later, an angry Vince McMahon confronted Heyman on SmackDown! and demanded to know what he was going to do. Heyman announced that there would be a second Royal Rumble match that night, with thirteen of the fifteen brand representatives from the pay-per-view participating; the winner would then receive the next shot at the championship at No Way Out. Hardcore Holly, who had been feuding with Lesnar since returning at Survivor Series the previous fall, was added to the match in place of an injured Matt Morgan. The last spot was filled by Eddie Guerrero, who went on to win the match and earn the championship opportunity.
Meanwhile, Lesnar had also begun feuding with Raw's Goldberg, which began when the two confronted each other at the Royal Rumble. Lesnar interfered in the Royal Rumble match attacking Goldberg, which caused Goldberg to be eliminated from the match. On January 26 and January 29 Goldberg and Lesnar conducted promos on respective episodes of Raw and SmackDown!, in which they insulted each other. On February 2, Austin gave Goldberg the option of attending No Way Out by giving him a front-row ticket. On the February 5 episode of SmackDown!, the storyline between Guerrero and Lesnar was enhanced when they began a brawl after an in-ring interview segment.
On the February 5 episode of SmackDown!, General manager Paul Heyman scheduled a triple threat match between Big Show, Kurt Angle and John Cena for No Way Out. The winner of that match would face the WWE Champion at WrestleMania XX for the title. The rivalry continued to develop on the February 12 episode of SmackDown!, when Angle was scheduled to team with Guerrero to face Big Show and Lesnar, but was found unconscious backstage. Cena then replaced Angle in the match and defeated Big Show and Lesnar with Guerrero.
In February, WWE Cruiserweight Champion Rey Mysterio produced "Crossing Borders", which was No Way Out's official theme song. In this storyline, Chavo Guerrero became jealous of the attention Mysterio garnered as a result of recording the song. Therefore, Heyman promoted a match between the two at No Way Out for the Cruiserweight Championship during the February 5 episode of SmackDown!. On the February 12 episode of SmackDown!, Mysterio was accompanied by Jorge Páez, a professional boxer and childhood friend of Mysterio who appeared in his "Crossing Borders" music video, to his match against Tajiri. Mysterio defeated Tajiri but was attacked by Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero, Sr. after the match until Paez intervened and helped Mysterio.
Event
Sunday Night Heat
Before the event began and aired live on pay-per-view, Tajiri, Sakoda and Akio defeated Último Dragón, Billy Kidman, and Paul London in a 6-Man Tag Team Match on Sunday Night Heat.Preliminary matches
After Sunday Night Heat, the pay-per-view began with a handicap match that saw the WWE Tag Team Champions Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty defend their titles against Basham Brothers and Shaniqua. During the match Hotty attempted a worm on Shaniqua, but Shaniqua countered by clotheslining Hotty. The challengers had the advantage until Hotty clotheslined the Bashams, causing them to flip over the top ring rope and into ringside. Afterwards, Rikishi delivered a Samoan drop. Rikishi then covered Shaniqua to retain the championships.Next was a singles match, in which Jamie Noble was blindfolded as he faced his storyline girlfriend Nidia. Nidia would take advantage of Noble's inability to see by performing antics that caused him to fall. Eventually, Noble was able to apply the guillotine choke on Nidia. Noble won the match after he forced her to submit with this move.
The third contest was a tag team match, in which World's Greatest Tag Team faced the APA. At one point, Bradshaw performed a clothesline on Haas. Benjamin then delivered a superkick to Bradshaw and pinned him to gain the win for his team. After the match, Goldberg was seen arriving at the arena and being escorted to his seat by arena security. In the ring, SmackDown! General Manager Paul Heyman gave a promotional in-ring segment on how SmackDown! was the better program over Raw. Brock Lesnar would come down to the ring to promote his match and to insult Goldberg. As part of the storyline, Goldberg immediately jumped over the barricade into the ring, where Lesnar performed a spear on Goldberg. However, he recuperated and delivered a Jackhammer to Lesnar. Goldberg was then escorted out of the arena by security.
This altercation was followed by a match between Hardcore Holly and Rhyno. Before the match began, Holly and Rhyno brawled on the entrance ramp, before they entered the ring. Once there, Holly executed a superplex, though, as they recuperated, Rhyno delivered a Gore that caused Holly to roll out of the ring. Afterwards, Holly delivered an Alabama slam for the pinfall.
In the fifth match Rey Mysterio, defended his WWE Cruiserweight Championship against Chavo Guerrero During the fight, Mysterio performed a 619 on Guerrero, leading to an attack by Paez on Guerrero, Sr. The referee ordered Paez backstage. Both fighters wrestled inconclusively until Mysterio delivered a second 619. During the second sequence of the move, Guerrero grabbed Mysterio's legs and achieved a position with his shoulders spread so as to win both a pinfall and the WWE Cruiserweight title.
The following match was the triple threat match between Big Show, John Cena and Kurt Angle, with the winner facing the WWE Champion at WrestleMania XX. For the duration of the match, The Big Show, who stood at and weighed, used his body size to his advantage as he squashed, or easily and quickly performed moves on, Cena and Angle. Thereafter, Cena delivered an FU, while Angle threw Big Show out of the ring with an Angle Slam. Angle then applied an ankle lock on Cena, forcing him to submit. As a result, Angle won a WWE Championship match at WrestleMania XX. This match would also be the last time Cena would submit in a match until his retirement match in 2025.
Main event match
The main event featured Brock Lesnar defending the WWE Championship against Eddie Guerrero. Lesnar used his size advantage over Guerrero throughout the match. However, as Lesnar attempted an F-5 late in the match, he inadvertently took down referee Brian Hebner in the process. Realizing that the referee was out cold, Lesnar left the ring to retrieve his championship. Just as he was about to hit Guerrero with it, Goldberg returned to the arena and speared Lesnar, leaving both competitors and the referee motionless in the ring.Guerrero was able to revive himself first and slowly crawled over to the fallen champion, covering him. Hebner was able to count to two, but Lesnar's kickout knocked him back down. The challenger then decided to take a page from Lesnar and grabbed the championship belt, with the intent of using it on the champion like Lesnar had tried just moments ago. Guerrero swung at Lesnar after he rose to his feet, but missed.
Lesnar then countered with a boot to the midsection, which caused Guerrero to drop the belt. He then went for a second F-5, but Guerrero was able to counter the move with a tornado DDT and drive Lesnar's head into the championship belt. Guerrero then tossed the belt out of the ring, ascended the ropes, and hit Lesnar with a frog splash for the pin to become a world champion for the first time in his career.