12 Richest WWE Matches Of All Time
9. Triple H Vs. Batista (WrestleMania 21)
WrestleMania 21's 'Hollywood' aesthetic was very much in keeping with the blockbuster card presented to the Staples Center crowd in 2005, but the wrestling business has always credited the main event with 'drawing the house' regardless of the multiple reasons audiences engage with the product.
On a night where Edge became the inaugural Mr Money In The Bank, Kurt Angle and Shawn Michaels stole the show, John Cena won his first WWE Championship and Randy Orton came within a mat-slap of ending The Undertaker's WrestleMania streak, Triple H and Batista were given the duty of closing the show.
It would be 'The Game' and 'The Animal' claiming credit for its success, just as they would responsibility for its failure. The latter was of no such concern. Though the match didn't exactly exploit everything the audience had come to adore about Evolution's former heavy, the climax was fitting enough comeuppance for the scheming World Heavyweight Champion.
Hunter and Big Dave's severance had been expertly teased for months, with Batista at long last the permanent solution to his gaffer's stranglehold over Monday Night Raw's main event scene. Audiences knew it, and were only too happy to pay to see it. 1,085,000 fans tuned in, making the show the third most-bought in company history.