8 Wrestlers Who WWE Gave The 'Diesel Push' At Royal Rumble

4. Batista (2005)

Great Khali Undertaker
WWE

Another great example of the Royal Rumble to launch someone into the stratosphere arose in 2005 with the evolution of Batista.

Triple H had been using his Evolution stablemates as henchmen to protect his World Heavyweight Championship, but in 2005, Batista presented a threat to him. And when the Animal entered the Rumble at #28, it quickly became apparent why.

Batista tossed five men in about 10 minutes, including Edge, Chris Jericho and runner-up John Cena, earning a world title shot and garnering a huge ovation from fans. He got wise to Triple H’s deception, challenged The Game and defeated him at WrestleMania 21 for the WHC. He would hold that title until the following January, vacating it due to injury.

The Animal would win five more world championships before leaving WWE in 2010 and has had a fairly successful movie career since then. Not too shabby.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.