Chris Benoit: Encyclopedia II - Chris Benoit - World Heavyweight Champion

Chris Benoit - World Heavyweight Champion

On January 25, 2004, Benoit won the 2004 Royal Rumble, last eliminating Big Show, and thus a title shot at WrestleMania XX. As a result of the long-standing Royal Rumble tradition that the winner receives a shot at the world champion at WrestleMania and the fact that there were effectively two world champions due to the brand split, Benoit exploited a "loophole" in the rules and challenged World Heavyweight Champion Triple H instead of the WWE Champion Brock Lesnar. This "loophole" clause has become standard storyline practice, with the Royal Rumble winner being free to choose which title he will challenge for.

With this win, Benoit became one of only two men to enter at #1 and win the Royal Rumble (Shawn Michaels was the first) and he set the record for being in a Rumble match the longest at 1:01:34, narrowly surpassing Bob Backlund's record of slightly over an hour (1:01:10), while Shawn Michaels' Rumble win was at 38:37 and even surpassing Ric Flair's legendary record of 59:26.

Though the match was originally intended to be a one-on-one match, Shawn Michaels, whose Last Man Standing match against Triple H at the Royal Rumble for the World Heavyweight Championship ended in a draw, thought that he deserved to be in the main event. When it was time for Benoit to sign the contract putting him in the main event, Michaels superkicked him and signed his name on the contract, which eventually resulted in a Triple Threat Match between Michaels, Benoit, and the champion Triple H.

On Sunday, March 14, 2004, at WrestleMania XX, in what is considered to be the greatest moment in his career, Chris Benoit won the World Heavyweight Championship, forcing Triple H to tap out to his signature move, the Crippler Crossface, which ended the main event of WrestleMania for the first time in submission. After the match, an emotional Benoit celebrated his win with his good friend, the late Eddie Guerrero, the reigning WWE Champion. The two of them came to WWE together and on that day, they were standing in the ring at Madison Square Garden, both of them world champions.

This was Benoit's first official WWE World title win - he had "won" the WWF Title on two occasions, once at Fully Loaded and once at Unforgiven 2000. However, both times the decision was over-ruled. Besides his single day reign as WCW World Heavyweight Champion, this was Benoit's first real World Heavyweight Title reign in any promotion. The triple threat was hailed by many fans as one of the year's best matches. The rematch was held at Backlash in Benoit's hometown of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Benoit once again came out the winner, this time making Shawn Michaels tap out to the Sharpshooter.

On August 15, 2004, Chris Benoit was defeated by Randy Orton for the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam. His reign had lasted 5 months, with 7 straight pay-per-view victories. He had successful, high-profile defenses against Triple H, Michaels, and Kane, among others. During this time, he became the only man to retain a title in an Iron Man Match. He also defeated Kane in back-to-back nights to retain the belt. Later, Benoit participated in the Elimination Chamber at New Year's Revolution on January 9, 2005. He would then reunite with old partner Chris Jericho, making a few attempts at capturing the World Tag Titles. The two separated after the team failed to capture the gold from then-champions La Resistance.

Benoit participated in a "Money in the Bank" ladder match for a title shot at the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 21 on April 3, 2005, which was won by Edge. An infuriated Benoit had wrestled Edge the night after with taped ribs, ten stitches, and crippled arm. He, surprisingly, rolled him up for the win. The two would interfere in each others matches throughout April. This led to a brutal Last Man Standing Match, which was won by Edge, due to a brick to the back of Benoit's head. The night aterwards, Benoit was entered into the Gold Rush Tournament for #1 Contendership for the World Heavyweight Championship. First night, he forced Triple H to submit to the sharpshooter. The next week, he would lose to Kane, after being attacked from behind after he helped Kane's wife, Lita.

This led to announcement of ECW One Night Stand, a reunion for former wrestlers of Extreme Championship Wrestling. Benoit, himself, was an alumnus, so he wanted to commemerate the promotion by wrestling Tajiri, but was cancelled due to the interference of Eric Bischoff, claiming it was garbage wrestling. An outraged Vince McMahon came back the next week to hold the match again. Benoit won by making Tajiri submit to a Crossface with a kendo stick. The build-up for the pay per view was immense, and Bischoff put Benoit in a tables match against Gene Snitsky a week before ECW. Out of no where, D-Von and Bubba Ray Dudley came into the ring, and beat Snitsky to a bloody pulp. Benoit took to the air, and flew through the table with Snitsky.

Chris Benoit - Return to SmackDown!

Benoit appeared at ECW One Night Stand, defeating Eddie Guerrero and on June 9, 2005, returned to SmackDown! after being selected in the 2005 WWE Draft Lottery.

On July 24, 2005 at The Great American Bash in Buffalo, New York, Benoit failed to win the WWE United States Championship from Orlando Jordan. Benoit faced Orlando Jordan in a rematch for the United States Championship at SummerSlam 2005. Benoit defeated Jordan in 25 seconds with the Crippler Crossface to win the title. On the next two editions of SmackDown!, Benoit defeated Jordan by submission in 23.4 seconds and 22.5 seconds. Two weeks later, Benoit defeated Jordan by submission in 49.8 seconds.

Benoit retained his U.S. Title in a fatal four way match against Orlando Jordan, Booker T and Christian when he made Christian submit to the Sharpshooter at the 2005 No Mercy. He lost the U.S. Title to Booker T on the October 21, 2005 edition of SmackDown! due to interference from Sharmell, Booker T's wife.

On the October 28 edition of SmackDown!, General Manager Theodore Long showed a highlight footage of Sharmell interfering in Booker T's matches. Booker T and Sharmell went out to apologize to Benoit and Booker offered him a rematch for the U.S. championship. It turned out to be a set-up as Booker T knocked Benoit with the belt from behind, distracted by Sharmell.

The following week on SmackDown!, in light of the events that took place the previous week, General Manager Theodore Long sanctioned a United States Title match between Chris Benoit and Booker T. But after narrowly escaping a Crippler Crossface from the challenger, Booker retreated backstage with Sharmell and the match was declared a count out victory for Benoit. But since a championship cannot change hands on a count out, Booker ended up retaining the title.

On the November 11 edition of SmackDown!, Chris Benoit went one-on-one with John "Bradshaw" Layfield to try to earn a spot on the upcoming Survivor Series team for the SmackDown! brand. However, due to Booker and Sharmell's ringside interference, JBL ended up winning the match and securing the spot on the 'Survivor Series team.

Chris Benoit appeared on RAW the following Monday (but taped on the 13th), the same day as the death of Eddie Guerrero, for Guerrero's tribute show hosted by both RAW and SmackDown! superstars. Benoit got very emotional during a series of video testimonials, which was a testament to the friendship that endured between Benoit and Guerrero throughout both men's careers. The same week on SmackDown! (also taped on the 13th), Benoit defeated Triple H in a remarkable tribute match to his fallen friend. Following the contest, Benoit, HHH, and Dean Malenko all assembled in the ring and pointed to the sky in salute of Guerrero.

During a rematch for the WWE United States Championship, against the champion Booker T, Chris Benoit managed to counter Booker T after a superplex, and roll him up for the pin. There were two referees in the ring due to one being knocked out during the match, and another coming down to replace the injured one. At the time of the superplex, the first referee regained consciousness. So after the superplex, Benoit rolled Booker T up for a pin, but both men’s shoulders were down and both referees counted the one-two-three. One referee claimed that Chris Benoit was the winner; the other claimed that Booker T was the winner. Teddy Long, the SmackDown! General Manager, came to the ring and claimed that the title was being held up due to the disputed match, and that Booker T and Chris Benoit would have a best of 7 series, and the winner of the series would be the United States Champion.

Booker T won twice in a row, due largely to his wife Sharmell 's interference, and Chris Benoit faced elimination in the series. Sharmell started carrying a broom to the ring when she came out with Booker T, indicating that he was going to “sweep” the series. At the 2005 Armageddon PPV, Benoit was able to kick out of a three count after a low blow through the ring ropes by Sharmell and a scissors kick by Booker T. He was then able to reverse Booker T’s Bookend into a DDT and force him to tap to the Crippler Crossface. After Booker suffered a legitimate groin injury, Randy Orton was chosen as a stand-in. Chris Benoit won twice against Orton (thanks to disqualifications by Sharmell, Booker's wife, and Orlando Jordan), bringing the series to a tie at 3-3. On the January 13, 2006 edition of SmackDown!, the series with Orton defeating Benoit with the help of Booker T, Sharmell, and Orlando Jordan. When the referee was down Benoit got Orton to submit, but the referee never saw it, and also failed to see Booker hit Chris Benoit in the back of the head with the championship belt, allowing Orton to get the pinfall.

Benoit is currently scheduled to be one of the thirty participants in Royal Rumble match at the 2006 Royal Rumble in Miami, Florida on Sunday, January 29th.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "World Heavyweight Champion", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki