Moore and Hardy continued to work together until November 17, when Hardy left SmackDown! and joined the Raw brand. As a result, Paul Heyman, SmackDown!'s then-general manager, decided to punish Hardy vicariously for leaving his show by forcing Moore to face a series of much larger opponents. In successive weeks, Moore was squashed by Matt Morgan, Nathan Jones, and The Big Show before unexpectedly defeating A-Train in an upset on the December 11 episode of "SmackDown!". The following week, WWE Champion Brock Lesnar was scheduled to defend the championship against a wrestler chosen by a lottery machine, which produced Moore's name. After defeating Moore, Lesnar revealed that the process had been rigged, and Moore's name was on all the balls. Immediately afterward, Moore teamed with Hardcore Holly to defeat A-Train and Morgan, earning Holly a championship match against Lesnar. In 2004, at WrestleMania XX Moore took part in a "Cruiserweight Open" for the Cruiserweight Championship, but was eliminated by Último Dragón. His next high profile appearance was on the July 8 episode of "SmackDown!", which saw Moore wrestle under a mask as "El Gran Luchadore" to face John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) in the match for the WWE Championship. Initially Moore was dominated by his much larger opponent, but a second Luchadore (the disguised Eddie Guerrero) took Moore's place, prompting Layfield to run away and giving Moore the victory by countout. For the remainder of 2004 and early 2005, Moore competed in the cruiserweight division and on "Velocity". Moore received a WWE Championship match on the December 30, 2004 episode of "SmackDown", but was quickly defeated by JBL. Moore appeared at the No Way Out pay-per-view in February 2005, competing in a gauntlet match for the Cruiserweight Championship, but was eliminated by Paul London.