10 Wresting Title Reigns That Were Ruined By Injury
9. Batista (WWE World Heavyweight Champion)
Batista’s most recent WWE return was met with widespread derision. The Guardians of the Galaxy star won the 2014 Royal Rumble at a time when WWE fans were pining for Daniel Bryan’s success. While he tapped to Bryan at that year’s WrestleMania, Batista’s last WWE run won’t be remembered favourably; he was routinely jeered out of every single building he wrestled in.
Knowing this, it’s easy to forget just how strong he looked throughout his original spell with the company. Though never the most exciting or dynamic in-ring performer, Batista was hugely over in the mid 2000s, and 2005 belonged to him. A year after winning his first ever World Heavyweight Championship, he was the most dominant member of a multi-talented SmackDown roster, and engaged in memorable rivalries with wrestlers like JBL and Kane.
2006 rolled around, and Batista was still champion. Sadly, he tore his tricep while wrestling Mark Henry on a house show, and that was that. Batista’s World Heavyweight Championship reign ended at the 282-day mark, but it wasn’t all doom and gloom; he returned six months later, and successfully regained his championship by defeating King Booker at Survivor Series later in the year.