Royal Rumble (2004) was the seventeenth annual Royal Rumble PPV. It was presented by Sony's PlayStation 2, took place on January 25, 2004 at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and featured talent from the Raw and SmackDown! brands. Beginning with this Royal Rumble, the winner could challenge at WrestleMania his choice of either the WWE Championship or the World Heavyweight Championship. The main event was the annual 30-man Royal Rumble match, which featured wrestlers from both brands. The primary match on the Raw brand was a Last Man Standing match between Triple H and Shawn Michaels for the World Heavyweight Championship. The predominant match on the SmackDown! brand was Brock Lesnar versus Hardcore Holly for the WWE Championship. The featured match on the undercard was a Tables match for the World Tag Team Championship between Evolution (Ric Flair and Batista) and the Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von).
WrestleMania XX was the twentieth annual WrestleMania . It took place on March 14, 2004 at Madison Square Garden in New York. The main match for the Raw brand was a Triple Threat match for the World Heavyweight Championship between champion Triple H, Shawn Michaels and Chris Benoit. The main match for the SmackDown! brand featured Eddie Guerrero versus Kurt Angle for the WWE Championship. The event featured the return of The Undertaker, who challenged Kane. Also on the card was a match between Goldberg and Brock Lesnar with Stone Cold Steve Austin as the special guest referee. WrestleMania XX was the third WrestleMania at Madison Square Garden but the fifth to take place in the New York metropolitan area (following WrestleMania I, WrestleMania 2, WrestleMania X and Wrestlemania 29). The event grossed US$2.4 million in ticket sales, making the Pay-Per-View the highest grossing event ever for WWE at Madison Square Garden. More than 20,000 people attended the event.
SummerSlam (2004) was the seventeenth annual SummerSlam PPV. It was presented by Stacker 2's YJ Stinger and took place on August 15, 2004 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario and featured talent from the Raw and SmackDown! brands. The main match on the Raw brand was Chris Benoit versus Randy Orton for the World Heavyweight Championship. The predominant match on the SmackDown! brand was John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) versus The Undertaker for the WWE Championship. The featured matches on the undercard included Kurt Angle versus Eddie Guerrero and Triple H versus Eugene.