10 Great Matches From WWE Vengeance PPVs

The rise of Batista from stable enforcer to genuine main event superstar was one of WWE's great success stories of the past fifteen or so years. Breaking away from Triple H and Ric Flair, The Animal turned babyface in a powerful angle after months of build, powerbombing The Game through a table.

Their big showdown in the main event of WrestleMania 21, where Batista won his first World Heavyweight Title, was slightly underwhelming, as was the rematch the following month at Backlash. As good as the feud was, the matches just weren't producing and the whole thing was quickly becoming a disappointment, at least from an in-ring perspective.

Thankfully, things took a turn for the better at Vengeance, where the two met one final time inside Hell in a Cell. Triple H was no structure to the demonic structure, but this was Batista's first time. Not that it effected him, of course. Entering to a massive reaction from the Las Vegas faithful, Batista oozed confidence. He looked like a man on a mission.

Big Dave controlled the early going with power moves, before the wily veteran came back and punished the champion by using the structure. A steel chain was introduced to allow further malice, followed by a steel chair wrapped in barbed wire and The Cerebral Assassin's trusty sledgehammer.

Both men used these instruments of destruction to their advantage before Batista kicked out of a Pedigree, landed a spinebuster on some steel stairs and a Demon Bomb to just about walk out of the pay-per-view as the World Heavyweight Champion. This was everything their WrestleMania 21 showdown could (and should) have been and a huge improvement on Backlash, too.

It was worth the wait in the end.