[loopydate]

DECEMBER 27, 2004 - MONDAY NIGHT RAW

Last night's Starrcade was the best pay-per-view of 2004, and tonight's RAW is going to set the stage for the Road to WrestleMania 21! WWE.com announced 14 participants in the Royal Rumble, and three more RAW Superstars will qualify tonight! Plus, a Starrcade rematch between Rumble participant Shelton Benjamin and Undertaker! Eric Bischoff announces a new #1 contender for the World Title! And a massive tag team main event pitting World Champion Rhyno and John Cena against Brock Lesnar and Christian! Everyone but Rhyno in that match will be in the Royal Rumble, and they may be coming after the Manbeast's title!

"If ya smeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelll..." The crowd goes bonkers as the former WWE Champion The Rock makes his way to the ring. He cuts a quick promo about underestimating Tajiri last night. He joked for weeks about how Tajiri came out of nowhere, but last night he proved that he's arrived. And the People's Champion isn't going to underestimate him again. He calls out Tajiri, then tells the champion that he's invoking his rematch clause at the Royal Rumble, and he's going to take the belt from Tajiri in the champ's own match. It's going to be a Hardcore Match for the WWE Title!

Matt Hardy Version 2.0 is backstage. He hypes his appearance in the Royal Rumble and takes some potshots at his rival, the Cruiserweight Champion Paul London. He knows they're both in the Rumble match, and he can't wait to get his revenge for losing at Starrcade by personally eliminating London!

WWE.com announced 14 names in the Rumble match earlier today, and we're about to find out who is going to be the 15th participant as ECW Original Lance Storm takes on one-half of the WWE Tag Team Champions, La Resistance's Rene Dupree! It's a solid match between two technically-sound Superstars, and Dupree pulls off a bit of an upset as he gets Storm to tap out to the Figure-Four Leglock!

WWE Chairman Eric Bischoff appears on the TitanTron and says that we have one of our world title matches set for the Royal Rumble, and he's ready to announce the other. Rhyno needs a new contender for the World Title after he put away Brock Lesnar last night in their Texas Death Match, but Bischoff didn't have to look too hard to find one. Based on his impressive string of victories over Rob Van Dam, one Randy Orton has earned the title shot at the Royal Rumble!

Chris Jericho is in the ring to cut a promo about the Royal Rumble and his win last night over Eddie Guerrero, but he gets cut off by Guerrero who comes out with one of the World Tag Team Title belts. Eddie talks about how they're both in the Rumble match, but what he wants more than anything is to finish this rivalry with Jericho for good. So what he's proposing is - one last time - Guerrero versus Jericho... in a ladder match! Jericho smirks and accepts and the match is on!

Two more spots in the Rumble match are at stake next in a tag-team match as former WWE Tag Team Champions Big Show and Kane take on their former leader in the Natural Born Ministry Sean O'Haire and his newest convert, Haas! It's a decent contest that mainly showcases Haas' newfound mean streak. In the end, O'Haire hits his Seanton Bomb on Kane for the win and two spots in the Rumble for himself and Haas!

After the match, O'Haire calls the rest of the Natural Born Ministry to the ring, and Undertaker, Damien, Chuck Palumbo, Johnny Stamboli, Shawn Stasiak, and Mark Jindrak all oblige. O'Haire talks about how the Ministry was formed to be the most dominant force in World Wrestling Entertainment, but lately they've been anything but. And he and Undertaker have thought about it, and they've fought about it, and they finally came to a conclusion as to why. They're carrying around too much dead weight! If the Ministry is to take over RAW, they can't be letting just anyone ride their coattails, regardless of past history. So at this point, if you're not doing your part, we're going to make sure you rest in peace! On that cue, everyone turns their attention to Jindrak and Stasiak. The two exchange an "oh, shit" look before attempting to defend themselves, but the numbers game is too much for them, and the now six-man Ministry stands over their former colleagues as we go to commercial.

Rob Van Dam is backstage when we come back, and he cuts a promo about the Royal Rumble match. He's excited for his shot at a world title of his choice, but he's still not wild about what happened leading up to Starrcade. Yeah, Orton beat him in three out of five matches, but he only got a couple of those wins clean. So if Orton's up for it, somewhere down the line, RVD's ready to finish things!

Undertaker is still inside the ring after the Ministry beatdown, and here comes his archrival Shelton Benjamin, just one night after beating him at Starrcade. Undertaker wanted this rematch tonight, but Shelton puts him away with a superkick for his second straight win over the Deadman!

Backstage, Chris Benoit gets in Rey Mysterio's face, continuing the verbal tirade he's been throwing the new United States Champion's way for weeks. Benoit finally says that he's using his rematch clause to challenge Rey for his title, and he's going to take back his title just before throwing Rey out of the Rumble match and adding another title shot to his bank!

Our main event features three participants in the Royal Rumble and the World Champion in a tag match! It's Rhyno and Cena versus Lesnar and Christian. It's a really good tag match that showcases all of the potential challengers, but Rhyno picks up another big win by hitting the Gore on Christian. After the match, while he's celebrating, he gets blindsided by an RKO from Randy Orton, who stands tall over the champ as we fade to black.