During the 2005 WWE Draft, Batista was surprisingly moved to Smackdown once more. Yet again, this was a statement of intent from company officials, who likely wanted to see if the guy could work miracles away from Monday Night Raw. As it would turn out, he could, and launched straight into a feud with JBL, the top heel on the show. It would have been easy for this rivalry to feel like a comedown after what Batista had achieved with Triple H, but it felt relatively fresh by comparison. Triple H and Batista had worked against one another extensively, so fans were pleased to see the latter doing something different and taking on new challenges. Batista had also settled into a nice grove, working well under the WWE main event style. Facing JBL at The Great American Bash and SummerSlam, Batista was also meant to work matches with Eddie Guerrero. That particular program wouldn't come to anything, due to the Latino star sadly passing away towards the end of the year. Going into 2006, Batista was injured during a match with Mark Henry, and was forced to vacate the World Heavyweight Title.
