10 Fascinating WWE Royal Rumble 2005 Facts

5. The Final Four Was Without Any Previous World Champions

Chris Benoit Royal Rumble 2005
WWE.com

For the first time since the 1988 Royal Rumble match, the final four consisted solely of men that had never before held a World title in the business. The 1989, 1995, and 1998 editions were without men that had previously held the WWE World Championship, but Rick Martel, Lex Luger, and Ron "Faarooq" Simmons were all World Champions elsewhere.

The 2005 final four consisted of Batista, John Cena, Edge, and Rey Mysterio, none of whom had reached the top of the mountain as of January 30, 2005. Fourteen months later, all four men had held the WWE or World Heavyweight belt at least once apiece.

As of today, the quartet have a combined 36 World titles - Cena with 16, Edge with 11, Batista with six, and Mysterio three. Nobody except for Cena has won one after July 2011, meaning that 20-plus reigns took place between WrestleMania 21 and the summer of 2011, a mere six years-plus. That's a lot of title changes.

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Justin has been a wrestling fan since 1989, and has been writing about it since 2009. Since 2014, Justin has been a features writer and interviewer for Fighting Spirit Magazine. Justin also writes for History of Wrestling, and is a contributing author to James Dixon's Titan series.