10 WWE Stars Who Only Won Gold Because Of The Brand Split

4. The Great Khali

JBL Royal Rumble 2005
WWE.com

The Great Khali was indeed World Heavyweight Champion. The same Big Gold Belt that was proudly held by such legendary names as Ric Flair, Sting, The Undertaker, and David Arquette graced the shoulder of the Punjabi Playboy in 2007, when Khali won a battle royal following yet another occasion where Edge had to vacate a championship.

SmackDown was in fairly dire straits at the time, and one look at the competitors in the battle royal give the depressing reality that The Great Khali may very well have been the best option. Batista was the only other main event talent involved, with the majority of the field made up by men such as Chris Masters, Finlay, and Kenny Dykstra.

Khali was getting the 'has anyone manhandled Undertaker like this' push at the time, so given the circumstances a world title run makes sense. However, those circumstances were a depleted roster due to injury and the brand split. Without that split, Khali would never have been World Heavyweight Champion.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.