The Shimmy 5.19.08: The History of the World Heavyweight Title (Part Five)

Posted by Andy Clark on 05.19.2008

From Deadman to Deadman the History of the World Heavyweight Title series concludes this week!

With his victory at WrestleMania 23 over Batista, the Undertaker was not only 15-0 at WrestleMania, but for the first time in his career he was the World Heavyweight Champion. Despite having held the equally as prestigious WWE Championship on three occasions this was his first brush with the big gold belt. Many people predicted a long reign for the Deadman. Batista had other plans.

On Undertaker's first night as champion Batista offered his congratulations…and declared his desire for a rematch. He would receive that rematch at Backlash, but not just under any conditions: this time it would be a Last Man Standing Match. For over twenty minutes the two men brutalized each other until neither man could stand to answer the ten count. The match was declared a draw which kept the championship with Undertaker. Seeing as how the Last Man Standing Match settled nothing another rematch was booked for a special edition of SmackDown from Pittsburgh, PA. Undertaker and Batista would clash one more time, but this time inside the confines of a 15 foot high Steel Cage. Once again the two men battled each other, this time with Undertaker also battling an injured triceps. The end of the match would see both men escape the cage…at the same time. Once again the bout was determined to be a draw. Unfortunately for Undertaker his night would not end there. "The World's Strongest Man" Mark Henry would make his return from injury and viciously attack the already wounded and exhausted Undertaker. When Henry made his exit the Undertaker's night still wasn't over. Out came Edge, the man that had just defeated Mr. Kennedy for his Money in the Bank briefcase just four nights ago on Raw. Edge handed the briefcase to the referee, speared the champion, and picked up the win and the title. The Rated R Superstar had come to SmackDown and won the World Heavyweight Championship.

With Undertaker out of the picture rehabilitating, that left Edge and Batista to war over the World Title. At Judgment Day the two men battled and Edge capitalized on Batista's injured leg to come away with his title. A few weeks later at One Night Stand Batista once again found himself inside a Steel Cage against the champion, and once again found himself walking out without the title. Edge narrowly beat Batista to the floor and an enraged Batista would destroy the ringside area after his defeat. Thanks to a mentally unbalanced Mr. McMahon Batista would receive one more shot at Edge at Vengeance: Night of Champions, but this would be it. The match would be a Last Chance Match and if Batista did not win the title he would not receive another title shot so long as Edge was champion. Edge attempted to work his way around that clause by intentionally getting himself disqualified, giving Batista the win but not the title. SmackDown GM Teddy Long wouldn't have any of that and restarted the match. Following the restart Batista was a house of fire, taking the fight right to the champion. The two men exchanged blows outside the ring when Batista rocked Edge with a vicious Batista Bomb on the floor. While all this going on the referee had started his ten count and Batista had to then get Edge's limp body back in the ring or risk getting counted out. He managed to roll Edge's body back into the ring just in time…but not his own. Batista's last chance at the title had vanished as the referee counted the Animal out of the ring.

With Batista in his rearview window Edge moved on to his next challenger, Kane. In the lead up to their match at the Great American Bash, however, Kane injured Edge, forcing him to vacate the title. For the second time in as many years the vacant World Heavyweight Title was on the line in a 20 Man Battle Royal, this time coming down to three men. Kane, The Great Khali, and Batista (who was now eligible to compete for the title now that Edge was no longer the champion) were the last three men in the ring and in an amazing feat of strength Khali eliminated both of his opponents to win the World Heavyweight Title. Later that same night the new champion would interrupt a No. 1 Contender's Match between Kane and Batista, inadvertently setting up a Triple Threat Match for the title at the Bash. The three giants would slug it out at the PPV and Khali made his first successful title defense, pinning Kane.

With Kane having been beaten Batista was interested in his one-on-one shot. At SummerSlam the two goliaths met for the title and it appeared as if Batista would wrest the title from the Punjabi Nightmare, but for the second consecutive SummerSlam Batista would win the match but not the title as the champion got himself intentionally disqualified to save his gold. A mini-tournament was set up in the next few weeks to establish Khali's next challenger at Unforgiven, and a surprise winner was crowned in Rey Mysterio. In an attempt to even the odds Teddy Long added Batista to the match to make it a Triple Threat. At Unforgiven all three men got their licks in but in the end Batista forewent an opportunity to pin the smaller Mysterio and instead pinned The Great Khali after a spinebuster to once again reclaim the championship. A month later Batista would grant Khali his rematch, this time in the challenger's own environment, the Punjabi Prison. After a hard fought match Batista would wow the crowd with a spectacular leap from one cage to the other and escape the prison with his gold intact.

Batista was once again champion but he would have to face a familiar adversary in the coming months. Undertaker had returned from his injury and after extracting revenge on Mark Henry and reuniting with his half-brother Kane was now coming back for his World Title. The rematch was booked for Cyber Sunday and the fans had the option of voting for the guest referee. Stone Cold Steve Austin won the vote, beating out (and beating up) Mick Foley and JBL. Austin called the match right down the middle and after two Batista Bombs the Animal finally secured a win over Undertaker. The two men would meet one more time at Survivor Series, but this time inside the most sadistic structure in sports-entertainment, Hell in a Cell. The two proud warriors bloodied each other inside the cell, unleashing the hell that the match was named for. It appeared as if Undertaker would once again win the gold until he was attacked by a camera man inside the cell. A camera man that turned out to be the returning Edge. After an attack with the camera and a vicious Con-chair-to onto the steel steps, Edge placed Batista over the lifeless body of Undertaker and the champion retained his title.

Edge knew that he could beat Batista and together with new SmackDown GM (and the "love of his life") Vickie Guerrero planned to regain the title he never lost. He was granted a title match against Batista on SmackDown but a pissed off Undertaker wouldn't allow anyone to emerge victorious from that one. All three men would do battle at Armageddon and thanks to some help from his new cronies Curt Hawkins and Zach Ryder, Edge once again won the gold. Hawkins and Ryder would also be there to team with Edge as he defended the title against Batista in a Handicap Match the next week on SmackDown. Batista thought he had the title won after he pinned one of the Edgeheads, but Guerrero would restart the match stating that he had to pin Edge to win the title. Threatened with the possibility of losing his gold Edge just got himself disqualified and proceeded to put a beatdown on Batista.

Thanks to the help of his new familia Edge managed to keep Batista and Undertaker at bay, but he would still have to defend his title. Rey Mysterio would win the Beat the Clock Challenge, defeating Edge himself in a non-title match and earn a shot at the gold at the Royal Rumble. Rey very well may have won the title at the Rumble had Vickie Guerrero not sacrificed herself so that her man could win the match. With Vickie recovered from her injuries at the Rumble, now Assistant GM Teddy Long booked a rematch for No Way Out and this time Edge's familia was banned from ringside, but unfortunately for Rey he injured his tricep the weekend before the show, forcing him to compete at a lower level than usual. Edge made quick work of his challenger and looked forward to his WrestleMania date with none other than the Undertaker.

Undertaker had won the SmackDown Elimination Chamber Match at No Way Out and earned his shot against Edge in Orlando at WrestleMania XXIV. Heading into the event Edge made it clear that he was not intimidated by the Deadman, but maybe he should have been. The Undertaker was 15-0 at WrestleMania and following locking in "that lethal submission hold" he walked out 16-0 and the new World Heavyweight Champion. Edge invoked his rematch clause at Backlash, but before then he and Vickie attempted to soften Undertaker up by having him defend the title in a No DQ Match against his old nemesis Batista. Undertaker escaped with the title thanks to interference from Batista's Backlash opponent Shawn Michaels, and just two days later once again forced Edge to submit to his unnamed submission.

Due to the violent nature of the hold Vickie Guerrero decided to ban the move and stripped Undertaker of his title. She awarded him an opportunity to win back his championship at Judgment Day against the winner of the Chase to the Championship series held on SmackDown, a series that was won by, surprise surprise, Edge. If you're on this site you all know what happened at Judgment Day and that just about catches us up on the history of the World Heavyweight Championship.

The Shimmy Likes It Raw!

What's on tap for tonight's show?

Did you know we have another PPV in two weeks? All gimmick matches too. What might be see on that show? I would imagine we get some PPV matches announced tonight.

Holy shit, it's May 19! If you happen to see a big bald ECW Champion with no eyebrows you better watch the fuck out!

The real story is that tonight is the fifth Season Finale of One Tree Hill. There will be some good-byes, there will be some surprises, but most importantly there will be Gavin Degraw!

Well that's it for me folks. I'll be here in seven. Until then, don't die. Clark…out.