The Shimmy 3.10.08: The History of the World Heavyweight Title (Part Three)

Posted by Andy Clark on 03.10.2008

From the Era of the Animal to the biggest underdog in WWE history, check out part three of the History of the World Heavyweight Title!

The Era of the Animal began at WrestleMania 21 when Batista defeated his former Evolution boss Triple H. Despite the dominating fashion in which Batista won the title, Triple H maintained that the only reason he lost was because he was not able to deliver the Pedigree to Batista. Working under the idea Triple H got his rematch at Backlash. This time he did get to deliver the Pedigree and it still wasn't enough. Discouraged, Triple H took his ball and went home. In order to crown a new No. 1 Contender Raw held the Gold Rush Tournament. Thanks to the betrayal of his wife Lita, Kane fell to Edge (who already held the Money in the Bank title opportunity) in the Finals. Unfortunately Edge's momentum in the Gold Rush Tournament did not transfer into his title match as Batista retained. Being preoccupied with Edge did allow Triple H to make his "shocking" return and reinsert himself in the title picture. Being preoccupied with Triple H also made it easier for Ric Flair to perform the same heel turn he had done three times previously on Batista, but that's neither here nor there. Upon his return Triple H made a challenge for Batista: Hell in a Cell. Triple H had never been defeated in a one-on-one Hell in a Cell Match so it made sense that he would turn to this gimmick match for one last shot at Batista. The two men waged a brutal war against one another inside the Cell, including Batista taking a wicked barbed wire chairshot to the back. In the end Batista once again came away with the title.

Shortly after the Hell in a Cell Match Batista would find himself drafted to SmackDown. Before Batista had arrived on the blue team JBL had won a Six Man Elimination Match to, he thought, win the brand new SmackDown Championship. When SmackDown GM Teddy Long found out that he was getting a real World Champ on his show he deemed JBL the No. 1 Contender instead. As JBL was prone to do in his own championship days he won the match at the Great American Bash, but not in the conventional sense. Batista went wild on both JBL and his Chief of Staff Orlando Jordan, but unfortunately for the Animal he went a bit too far. The referee saw Batista whack JBL with a chair and awarded the match, but not the title, to the Wrestling Gawd. Thanks to this victory JBL got one more shot at Batista's title at SummerSlam. This time there would be no pesky disqualification rule in place to save the title. Batista would defend his title against JBL in a No Holds Barred Match in his hometown of Washington, DC and once again proved his dominance in a violent environment. Batista put JBL out with a vicious Batista Bomb onto the steel steps, soaking in the adulation of his hometown crowd.

Despite this brutal beating JBL managed to get one last shot at Batista. On the Friday night debut of SmackDown Teddy Long booked Batista-JBL III, but this time in JBL's specialty, a Bullrope Match. Why the guy got his specialty match when he already lost is beyond me, but in the end it didn't matter. Batista opened the Friday night era of SmackDown putting JBL in his place once and for all.

With JBL having been defeated, and Eddie Guerrero having finished off his intense, personal rivalry with Rey Mysterio, UPN Network Executive Palmer Cannon decided that it would be a good idea to have the two men square off for the World Heavyweight Title at No Mercy. Prior to the match Eddie claimed that he had turned over a new leaf and tried to become friends with Batista. While many people doubted his intentions, it seemed as if Eddie had really changed as he prevented himself from doing his trademark lying, cheating, and stealing in his title match. Eddie apparently wanted to play by the rules and ultimately that cost him as Batista defeated Eddie with a spinebuster. After No Mercy Batista and Eddie would continue their partnership but they would run into a new enemy in the form of Randy Orton, who had just finished taking the Undertaker out, literally, in a blaze of glory. On November 13, 2005 on a special Sunday taping of SmackDown Batista was set to defend his title against Eddie and Orton in a Triple Threat Match. Many feared that Batista's title reign was in jeopardy due to an injury he had sustained, but we would never find out for sure. That morning Eddie Guerrero was found dead in his hotel room.

Faced with a SmackDown without Eddie Guerrero, Batista decided to hold off on the surgery that was required of him in an effort to stabilize the SmackDown brand. The only title defense he had booked for the next few months was a No Holds Barred Match against Orton that never materialized due to invaders from Raw, but that didn't mean The Animal wasn't busy. In fact he was too busy. After a particularly brutal assault by Mark Henry, Batista was forced to relinquish his World Title. Batista tearfully surrendered his championship belt to Teddy Long and later that night a 20 Man Battle Royal was held to determine a new champion. Nineteen members of the SmackDown roster were shocked to find out that Kurt Angle had just defected to SmackDown and had been entered in the Battle Royal. In the end the Battle Royal came down to two men: Angle and Henry. Henry used his strength to toss Angle around but ultimately the Wrestling Machine won out. Only a half hour after he made his return to SmackDown Kurt Angle was World Champion.

Mark Henry was still out for championship gold, however. At the Royal Rumble Angle and Henry met one-on-one for the title and thanks to a ton of cheating Angle managed to retain the title. Things didn't get much better for Angle, though, as the Undertaker made his return, riding to the ring in his chariot of death and causing the ring to fall apart while Angle was still in it. The message was clear: Undertaker was coming for Angle's title.

At No Way Out the two men met for the title. At the time I don't think anyone expected the match to turn out as great as it did, but this match was many people's Match of the Year in 2006 (including myself). The two fought back and forth in an epic battle that finally saw Angle bridge out of a triangle choke and into a pinning combination. Undertaker had been that close to winning the title, and he wasn't done with Angle just yet. The two would engage in a rematch on SmackDown broadcasting from our nation's capital, and once again had one hell of a match. This time, though, Mark Henry would interfere, attacking Undertaker for taking what he felt was his rightful spot in the main event. Angle, Taker, and Henry would get one more shot at battling each other as they met in a Triple Threat Match for the title as part of WWE's Road to WrestleMania 22 tour in New Zealand in a WWE 24/7 exclusive show. Apparently the rules of the Triple Threat Match are not the same in New Zealand as the referee stopped the match by disqualifying Mark Henry for hitting Undertaker with a chair just as he was about to Tombstone Angle.

This wouldn't be the last time Angle would have to defend his title in a Triple Threat Match. Rey Mysterio had won the 2006 Royal Rumble Match and therefore should have been the No. 1 Contender at aWrestleMania. But Randy Orton goaded Mysterio into putting his title shot on the line and thanks to an assist from the ropes scored the victory. Teddy Long rightfully felt that Mysterio was cheated, so to amend the situation he placed Mysterio back into the championship match and made it a Triple Threat Match instead. At WrestleMania 22 the three men engaged in an action packed nine minute affair that included the band P.O.D. playing Mysterio to the ring. Angle was on fire in the match, even forcing both men to tap out while the referee wasn't looking. It was Rey Mysterio's night, however, pinning Randy Orton to become the smallest World Heavyweight Champion in professional wrestling history.

To be concluded…

The Shimmy Likes It Raw!

What's on tap for tonight's show?

It's WrestleMania Rewind Night! All the matches tonight will be rematches of past WrestleManias. What matches will we see again?

Randy Orton is in Charge! John Cena was able to pick Orton and Triple H's opponents last week, what does Orton have in store for Cena and The Game tonight? If I had to guess we'll see Triple H take on Batista (with Umaga interfering) and the long awaited Cena-Michaels III. It's a three hour show so they can wrestle as long as they want!

The Weigh In; Big Show and Floyd Mayweather will weigh in prior to their WrestleMania showdown. Will Mayweather be weighed down by all that money?

There is a Tide in the Affairs of Men

If you like drama this week's One Tree Hill is for you. I suggest you go read An Unkindness of Ravens to read all about it.

Well that wraps up this week. I'm off next week so I'll see you in 14 days with the conclusion of the History of the World Heavyweight Title. Until then, don't die. Clark…out.