Ranking All 30 WWE Royal Rumble Winners

5. Batista – 2005

steve austin 2001 royal rumble
WWE.com

WrestleMania title shot: Defeated Triple H at WrestleMania XXI

Put aside the godawful finish of the 2005 Royal Rumble match where both Batista and John Cena were eliminated at the same time, a la Lex Luger and Bret Hart in 1994. The entire storyline of Batista as a member of Evolution winning the Rumble and going on to challenge team leader Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship was perfectly done. It was everything that Randy Orton’s ascension the previous year wasn’t.

Batista was Evolution’s Animal, the physical enforcer for the group. At the time he won the Rumble, he was emerging as a massive fan favorite, and the slow burn would culminate on an infamous episode of Raw. That night, Batista was going to decide who to face, and Triple H and Ric Flair were desperately trying to convince Batista to challenge JBL on Smackdown instead of Hunter.

Batista grew wise to the plot and gave Triple H the thumbs down, and it was on. Batista won the WHC at Mania, kicking off a nine-month reign. From that point, Batista was made as a main event star. That is a pretty valuable Rumble victory.

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.