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Throwback Thursday: Looking back at WWE No Way Out 2004

Each and every Thursday I will look back at a different pay-per-view event from the past via the WWE Network. Want to see a certain event covered? Send your suggestions to @VaughnMJohnson on Twitter.

Last time, I covered the WWE Vengeance 2002

WWE No Way Out 2004

Date: Feb. 15, 2004

Venue: Cow Palace, Daly City, Calif.

Some random notes

This was the sixth No Way Out event, but it was the first time the event was exclusive to the Smackdown brand.

Although WWE's first brand extension began back in 2002, it didn't begin producing brand-exclusive pay-per-view events until June 2003.

The Cow Palace may not be a major venue to most, but it is a venue steeped in wrestling history going back to the 1960s. It was most notably run by Big Time Wrestling, which was promoted by Roy Shire.

The event opened with Torrie Wilson and Sable introducing everyone to the pay-per-view. The duo had recently appeared on the cover of Playboy Magazine.

After the lovely welcomed everyone to the show, we then got the usual video package and pyrotechnics.

About midway through the show, a mysterious video popped up on the big screen warning that dead would rise again in 28 days. It just so happen that WrestleMania was 28 days later.

This was obviously alluding to The Undertaker's return to WWE television. More important than that was his return to the dark and ominous character that made him famous. Since The Undertaker was still technically a member of the Smackdown brand, it made sense for his promo to pop up here.

With that said, let's get to the matches.

WWE Tag Team championship (Handicap inter-gender match) – Rikishi & Scotty 2 Hotty def. The Basham Brothers & Shaniqua

One of the forgotten tag teams of this era was the Basham Brothers. They were a solid pairing, but their sexual bondage gimmick had to be drummed up by someone that was sort of sexually frustrated. That's just my opinion.

The Basham Brothers had an Amazonian-like woman as they manager by the name of Shaniqua. She was essentially a dominatrix that shouted orders to the Basham Brothers.

To her credit, Shaniqua was pretty tough, as she took some big bumps from Rikishi during this match. Rikishi's butt may have been big, but so was the rest of him.

Unfortunately for Shaniqua, this was her last television appearance in WWE.

Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty retained the titles in a mostly forgettable match.

Jamie Noble def. Nidia

One of the biggest issues with the brand exclusive pay-per-views from the first brand extension is that it often forced WWE to put on matches that were not worthy of being on pay-per-view.

This match is a prime example.

The story behind this match was that Noble was mistreated his girlfriend Nidia after she had been temporarily blinded by Tajiri's mist.

Instead of finding a surrogate to go against Noble for Nidia, WWE put Nidia against Noble. The caveat was that Noble had to wear a blindfold.

The match was nothing like Jake Roberts and Rick Martel from WrestleMania 7 and ended with Noble choking out his former girlfriend with a dragon sleeper.

This would not fly in today's society and for good reason.

The World's Greatest Tag Team def. The APA

This was near the tail end of the APA's run as a tag team. Bradshaw, who had already cut his hair, completely reinvented himself and became the money-grubbing heel known as John Bradshaw Layfield or JBL for short.

This was a fun tag team match that saw some classic tag team troupes. The match was probably better suited for television and not pay-per-view, but it was still fun nonetheless.

The story of the match was Bradshaw's injured arm and how much Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas targeted it. They targeted Farooq's left shoulder as well.

Bradshaw hit the clothesline from hell, but did so with the injured arm, which allowed Benjamin to hit him with a super kick to pick up the victory.

Hardcore Holly def. Rhyno

This was another match that was pretty standard and was probably better served on an episode of Smackdown and not on pay-per-view.

Hardcore Holly, who was fresh off a WWE championship match against Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble, picked up the win.

WWE Cruiserweight championship – Chavo Guerrero def. Rey Mysterio

Mysterio had former world champion boxer Jorge Paez in his corner. Paez had retired from boxing only a couple of months earlier after participating in 98 professional fights.

Chavo Guerrero had his father and Eddie's brother, Chavo Sr. in his corner.

Although Paez was out there to neutralize Chavo Sr., Mysterio still lost the title. That was because Paez knocked out Chavo Sr. early on in the match, which prompted the referee to eject him from ringside.

Mysterio and Chavo Guerrero proceeded to have a pretty entertaining match while Chavo Sr. was knocked out at ringside. However, the elder Guerrero eventually regained consciousness just in time to cost Mysterio the title.

Kurt Angle def. John Cena & Big Show

Since one of Cena's slogans today is "Never give up," Cena doesn't submit in matches very often if ever.

However, this was way before "Never give up" was all over Cena's merchandise and on this night he tapped out to Angle's ankle lock after a very good match between the three men.

However, Cena was still somewhat protected as he was nursing a real-life knee injury that he suffered back at the Royal Rumble.

Angle won on this night, but this led to Cena challenging Big Show for the WWE United States championship at WrestleMania. Cena won to claim his first championship in WWE.

As we all know, he has since gone on to win many, many more.

WWE championship – Eddie Guerrero def. Brock Lesnar

This was Eddie Guerrero's finest hour in professional wrestling.

This was when he finally reached the summit of the wrestling industry — an industry that was entrenched in his family.

Eddie Guerrero's father and almost all of his siblings were involved in the wrestling business and reached varying levels of success and notoriety. That same family was on hand to see Eddie Guerrero go far beyond any of them had ever gone.

In the midst of Eddie Guerrero's triumph was everything that surrounded the man he took the championship from, Lesnar.

Lesnar had his fill of WWE and the lifestyle that came with it and wanted out. Lesnar's desire to leave plus his impending cross-promotional match with Goldberg at WrestleMania made it an easy decision to give the title to Eddie Guerrero.

But to say that Lesnar's departure was the biggest reason Eddie Guerrero gained the championship would be unfair to him and would undermine his talent and popularity at the time.

Eddie Guerrero's babyface run in 2003-04 was the best he had ever been in WWE. He may have had better years in the ring, but that time period was his peak as a character, which was the loveable hero the fans adored despite the fact that he lied, cheated and stole his way to success, including the WWE championship.

Although Lesnar had his sights set on leaving WWE and eventually trying his hand at the National Football League, WWE was still in the midst of setting up a potentially titanic matchup between him and Goldberg, who was a member of Raw.

Earlier in the show, Goldberg showed up to No Way Out as a fan, but eventually disrupted the show and attacked Lesnar, which was in revenge for what Lesnar did to him at the Royal Rumble.

Goldberg popped up during the championship match and speared Lesnar, which cost him his WWE championship, setting up their match for WrestleMania.

That match had all the makings of an epic encounter, but turned out to be anything but.

As for the match at No Way Out, it was what most would expect between the beastly Lesnar and the shorter Eddie Guerrero.

Lesnar used his power advantage to dictate the pace while Guerrero used his veteran guile to frequently outsmart the champion.

With Goldberg's help, Guerrero found a way to slay the dragon and win his first and only WWE championship.

Professional wrestling is a simulated sport with pre-determined outcomes, but the emotion behind Eddie Guerrero's WWE championship victory on this night felt very, very real. The tears that flowed down Eddie Guerrero's mother's face after he embraced her during his celebration were real. There was nothing fake or pre-determined about them.

All of Eddie Guerrero's demons that were brought up in the prelude to this match were real. He really was an addict and his problems with addiction really did get him fired from WWE in 2001.

As real and authentic all of that was, so was the joy of seeing him finally achieve his dream.

All of those years growing up in the wrestling business as a member of the famed Guerrero family, all of those years traveling up and down roads in Mexico, Japan and the United States had finally paid off, as Eddie Guerrero had truly redeemed himself.

Eddie Guerrero left this earth way before he should have in 2005, but the memories like the one he created on Feb. 15, 2004 will fortunately live on for eternity.