Ranking Who Was Really The Man In Wrestling Every Year 1990-2020
16. 2005 - Batista
Nothing was worth living through the Reign of Terror, but Batista's rise made you glad it existed in retrospect.
Batista was a gigantic, elemental destroyer irresistible to get behind with the most perfect villain to overcome at the perfect time: Triple H, the suffocating presence who might have been labelled a pantomime villain, were any of it any fun. Batista's success was more than situational, as he proved throughout the course of his long-term programme with Triple H. The match quality improved throughout, considerably, as the novelty of a new superstar gave way to the substantive craft of a Champion.
The first match was the weakest in-ring, but the biggest of all time gauging by one key metric: WrestleMania 21 set a record number of pay-per-view purchases.