No Way Out (2004)

Brock Lesnar as WWE Champion

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.

After winning a 15-man Royal Rumble match on the January 29 episode of SmackDown!, Eddie Guerrero earned the right to challenge for the WWE Championship at No Way Out against the champion Brock Lesnar in a singles match.[2][3] Outside the storyline with Guerrero, Lesnar was involved in a staged rivalry with Goldberg, a member of the Raw brand. The feud between Lesnar and Goldberg began at the Royal Rumble. Lesnar interfered in the Royal Rumble match attacking Goldberg, which caused Goldberg to be eliminated from the match.[4][5] On January 26 and January 29 Goldberg and Lesnar conducted promos on respective episodes of Raw and SmackDown!, in which they insulted each other.[6][7] On the February 2 episode of Raw, Sheriff Steve Austin gave Goldberg the option of attending No Way Out by giving him a front-row ticket.[8][9] 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.[10][11]

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.[10][11] The winner of that match would face the WWE Champion at WrestleMania XX for the title.[10][11] The rivalry continued to develop on the February 12 episode of SmackDown!, when Angle was scheduled to team with Guerrero to face The Big Show and Lesnar, but was found unconscious backstage. Cena then replaced Angle in the match and defeated the opposition with Guerrero.[12][13]

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!.[10][11] 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.[12][13]

At WrestleMania XX, Eddie Guerrero defeated Kurt Angle via pinfall and retained the WWE Championship.[23] John "Bradshaw" Layfield, portraying a new character after the semi-retirement of his tag team partner Faarooq,[24][25] challenged Guerrero for the WWE Championship and defeated him at The Great American Bash to win the title.[26] Guerrero failed to recapture the title from Layfield in a steel cage match on the July 15 episode of SmackDown!.[27][28] After Guerrero's death in November 2005, WWE held tribute shows on Raw and SmackDown! During these programs, No Way Out was the main highlight of Guerrero's career, as it was where he won his only world championship.[29][30] John Cena began a rivalry with Big Show over his WWE United States Championship[31] and, at WrestleMania, Cena defeated Big Show to win the title.[23][32] Goldberg and Lesnar continued their rivalry, leading to a match promoted at WrestleMania, in which Goldberg defeated Lesnar.[23][33] After their match, Goldberg and Lesnar left the company,[29] although Lesnar would make his return in April 2012 and Goldberg made his return in October 2016.

Rey Mysterio and Chavo Guerrero's storyline over the WWE Cruiserweight Championship also continued, culminating in a battle royal match at WrestleMania XX involving other wrestlers. Guerrero last eliminated Mysterio to retain his title in this match.[23][29] After the Draft Lottery, a mock sports draft lottery in which wrestlers switched programs, Rico was drafted to SmackDown!, while Shelton Benjamin was drafted to Raw, in the process splitting up The World's Greatest Tag Team. Afterward, Charlie Haas and Rico won the WWE Tag Team Championship from Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty on the April 22 episode of SmackDown!.[34][35]

The Cow Palace arena usually can accommodate 13,000, but the capacity was reduced for No Way Out 2004.[36] This event grossed over $450,000 from an approximate attendance of 11,000 which was the maximum allowed. It also received 350,000 pay-per-view buys. No Way Out helped World Wrestling Entertainment earn $43.7 million in revenue from pay-per-view events versus $31.8 million the previous year; Linda McMahon, then CEO of WWE, confirmed this statement on June 21, 2004 in a quarterly financial report.[37] The event received mostly positive reviews. Canadian Online Explorer's professional wrestling section described the event as "Smackdown! [giving] us our money's worth last night but they also set up what's probably going to be the best match at Wrestlemania."[18] Kevin Sowers from PWTorch described the main event between Eddie Guerrero and Brock Lesnar as "one to remember for a long time."[16] The event was released on DVD on March 16, 2004.[38] After its release, the DVD received a rating of 8.5 out of 10 points by IGN.[39]

• Official No Way Out 2004 Website