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Ohio Valley Wrestling may not be WWE’s primary developmental territory anymore, but there is no denying WWE came up with real talent from the Kentucky-based promotion. This is no more evident than the class of 1999-2000, which gave rise to many fine wrestlers, none more evident than Randy Orton, Batista, Shelton Benjamin, John Cena and Brock Lesnar.
But which one of these five was the most successful in WWE? This article looks at this question, and ranks, from least successful to most, these five wrestlers in terms of their success in the company, and how far they have made it in their careers.
Shelton Benjamin
Shelton Benjamin was offered a contract by WWE in 2000, and to start with, was sent straight to OVW, where he was immediately placed into a tag team with his wrestling teammate at his university, Brock Lesnar, in an alliance known as the “Minnesota Stretching Crew”, since the university they went to was in Minnesota. The team held the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship on three occasions, in February, July and October of 2001. After Lesnar was called up on to the main roster in November 2001, Benjamin formed another tag team, this time with Redd Doug Begnaud, called “The Dog Pound”. Benjamin won the Tag Team Championship again in this team in July 2002.
For the remainder of 2002, Benjamin wrestled several WWE house shows and had a brief stint on Sunday Night Heat as a babyface. In September 2002, Benjamin was called up to the main roster, where he debuted in December as part of ‘The World’s Greatest Tag Team’, alongside Charle Haas, initially with Kurt Angle as their on-screen mentor. The team held together for two years, until Benjamin was drafted to Raw.
In this next three years, Benjamin would win the Intercontinental Championship three times, and had feuds with Evolution, Chris Jericho, and Rob Van Dam. Following this, Benjamin was drafted to ECW in 2007, SmackDown in 2008, where he became United States Champion, and back to ECW in 2009. During all this time, Benjamin was mostly always a feature in the Money In The Bank ladder match at numerous WrestleManias, including his last, WrestleMania XXVI. In April 2010, his contract with WWE ended, and he was released. After this, Benjamin found himself in the independent circuit, where he was quickly signed by ROH, where he was for three years, and then NJPW, from 2012. He has also been scheduled to appear on the roster for the up-and-coming Global Force Wrestling.
Batista
Batista, in OVW, was known as Leviathan, and he was immediately joined into a stable headed by Synn called Disciples of Synn. He went undefeated until he was beaten by Kane, who had help from Steve Austin. He would go on to capture the OVW Heavyweight Championship, before losing it to The Prototype. After this, he was called up to the main roster, where he initially debuted as Reverend D-Von’s henchman, Deacon Batista. This carried on until 2003, when he changed his name to Dave Batista, and became a part of the infamous group, Evolution, alongside Triple H, Ric Flair and Randy Orton. Injury took him out for most of 2003, but when he returned, he became the World Tag Team Champion alongside Ric Flair. After a while, tension began to stir between Triple H and him, towards the end of 2004, which carried on to 2005, when Batista won the Royal Rumble and challenged Triple H for his World Heavyweight Championship, headlining WrestleMania 21, and coming out victorious. His feud with Triple H would continue for a while, but Batista remained on top.
After this, he was drafted to SmackDown, where he had feud with JBL, and after which he was taken out due to an injury. After his return, he led the SmackDown team to win at Survivor Series, and then formed a tag team with Rey Mysterio, and then suffered another injury, which took him out of WrestleMania 22. After this, he did return and won back the World Heavyweight Championship, losing it to The Undertaker at WrestleMania 23, in what was considered the match of the night. Following this, he would remain in the World Heavyweight Championship frame with The Undertaker, Edge, Kane and The Great Khali.
For the next two years, his career was going up and down, with a brief WWE Championship run in 2009, which ended because of injury, until, in 2010, he won the WWE Championship again, controversially from John Cena, who he would lose to at WrestleMania XXVI, and the following two Pay-per-views, after which he would retire.
After a short stint in MMA, Batista returned to WWE in January 2014, winning the Royal Rumble, which was poorly received. He lost the main event of WrestleMania to Daniel Bryan, and then would go on to feud with The SHIELD as Evolution, with only Randy Orton and Triple H this time. After two pay-per-view losses in this feud, Batista left the company again.
Brock Lesnar
Brock Lesnar and Shelton Benjamin rose together in OVW, but Lesnar was called up first, attacking Al Snow, Maven and Spike Dudley on his debut, with Paul Heyman alongside him. In his first two televised matches, he defeated both the Hardy Boys, separately, by knockout. In June 2002, Lesnar won the King Of The Ring tournament, enabling him to have an Undisputed Championship shot at SummerSlam, where he defeated The Rock, when he became the youngest champion of all time (until broken later), and also the holding the record for shortest time taken since debut to win a major championship.
As the face of SmackDown, Lesnar feuded with The Undertaker, defeating him on every occasion, and later Edge, to retain his championship. At Survivor Series, Lesnar was betrayed by Heyman in a match against The Big Show, leading to him losing his title and turning face. Lesnar would go on to win the Royal Rumble in 2003, which enabled him to defeat Kurt Angle in the main event of WrestleMania XIX, after which he would defeat John Cena to retain. He would go on with various feud involving the WWE Championship for the rest of the year.
At the Royal Rumble in 2004, Lesnar, who was still champion, attacked Bill Goldberg to cost him the match, and begin the feud which would lead up to WrestleMania XX, during which Goldberg cost Lesnar his championship to Eddie Guerrero. With Stone Cold as guest referee for the match at WrestleMania, it was expected to click, but failed miserably, and soon after that, Lesnar departed from WWE, and went on to NJPW, and after that, a career in MMA.
On the Raw after WrestleMania XXVIII, Lesnar made his return to WWE by attacking John Cena, and then losing a match to him at Extreme Rules. He would go on to feud with Triple H after this, in which he won the rubber match at the following year’s Extreme Rules. At SummerSlam 2013, Lesnar began a dominant run by defeating CM Punk.
At WrestleMania XXX, WWE began booking Lesnar as the ultimate beast, after he ended The Undertaker’s 21-0 undefeated streak, and then at SummerSlam would capture the WWE World Heavyweight Championship from John Cena in the most dominant fashion. He would retain the title until WrestleMania 31, during which he was a part of one of the greatest Triple Threats ever against John Cena and Seth Rollins. During his match at WrestleMania against Roman Reigns, he would lose his championship to Seth Rollins who cashed in his Money In The Bank. Before WrestleMania, Lesnar signed a three-year deal with WWE, meaning there is still more to come.
Randy Orton
Randy Orton was quite late signing with WWE, and did so in 2001, after which he was sent to developmental. In OVW, Orton was a two-time Hardcore Champion.
Orton’s main roster stint initially was on SmackDown, with a small series of matches against Hardcore Holly, then after was drafted to Raw and picked up an injury. He returned to join Evolution, and this part of the story is almost identical to Batista’s. He won the Intercontinental Championship during this time, and later went on to defeat Chris Benoit at SummerSlam 2004 for the World Heavyweight Champion, breaking Brock Lesnar’s record of being the youngest champion ever. After this, Evolution turned on him, as Triple H was jealous of Orton’s success, and soon he went rogue, with a continuation of his ‘Legend Killer’ gimmick, with which he competed against and took out several WWE legends. After losing to The Undertaker at WrestleMania 21, and continued a long feud with the Dead man until Armageddon that year, where The Undertaker came out on top.
Orton was the last person eliminated from the 2006 Royal Rumble by Rey Mysterio, but would scheme his way into turning the World Heavyweight Championship match a Triple Threat, in which he was pinned by Mysterio. After his, he was suspended for ‘unprofessional conduct’, and upon his return, feuded with Hulk Hogan, a match in which he lost.
Following this, he would form a tag team with Edge, known as Rated-RKO, and won the Tag Team Championships once. Soon after, Orton would go in pursuit of the WWE Championship, beginning his infamous rivalry with John Cena. After attacks on Cena’s father and being unsuccessful in all attempts, Orton did capture the title after being awarded it due to Cena vacating it because of injury. He would retain it against Triple H and Cena at WrestleMania XXIV, and lost it to Triple H at next month’s PPV. After headlining WrestleMania 25 with a loss to Triple H, Orton’s career went moderate, until 2011, when he was trading the World Heavyweight Championship back and forth in a brilliant feud against Christian, and losing the title to Mark Henry.
In 2012 and early 2013, Orton had no real direction, until he won the Money In The Bank briefcase that year, and broke millions of hearts by cashing in against Daniel Bryan at SummerSlam and turning heel to join The Authority. After a story with Daniel Bryan, Orton became the first ever WWE World Heavyweight Champion by unifying the WWE and World Heavyweight Championships at TLC 2013 against John Cena. He would lose the title at WrestleMania XXX to Daniel Bryan, but continue serving the Authority as part of Evolution and as Triple H’s right hand man.
After breaking away from the Authority late last year, Orton is on a roll at the moment and will continue to do so for years to come. Orton has never looked in better shape than he is in now.
John Cena
John Cena debuted for WWE in 2000 as ‘The Prototype’ in a SmackDown dark match against Mikey Richardson, which he lost, and would continue several tryouts on SmackDown, all of which he would lose. In 2001, he signed a contract with OVW, where he was Southern Tag Team Champion once, with Rico Constantino, and also held the OVW Heavyweight Championship once, for three months.
In June 2002, Cena made his famous official main roster debut, answering Kurt Angle’s open challenge, and losing after a hard fight. This earned him respect from many wrestlers, including The Undertaker. One of the men, Billy Kidman, formed a tag team with Cena, but was broken up short after as Cena turned heel and blamed him for one of their losses. This is when Cena began adopting the rapper gimmick, and would carry it on into 2004, where he would make it to the final six in the Royal Rumble and be eliminated by The Big Show, who he would defeat in his WrestleMania debut at WrestleMania XX for the United States Championship. Over the next year he would trade the championship back and forth with Booker T and Carlito, before making it to the final two of the next year’s Royal and defeating JBL at WrestleMania 21 for the WWE Championship, and in a series of matches following. Later, when he was drafted to Raw, the crowds started booing him while in a feud with Eric Bischoff and his hand picked challengers for his championship, which he would lose at New Year’s Revolution 2006 to Edge, who cashed in his Money In The Bank, but won it back in three weeks. After defeating Triple H at WrestleMania 22 with a heavy negative reaction, he was subject to a torturous crowd when he lost the WWE Championship to Rob Van Dam at ECW One Night Stand 2006. Edge would win the title and feud with Cena until he won the championship back, and then began a long reign, defeating Shawn Michaels, Edge, Randy Orton and The Great Khali on different occasions. After the first feud between him and Orton ended with Cena on top, he had to vacate his title due to injury and returned surprisingly early to a huge pop to win the 2008 Royal Rumble. He would be unsuccessful in winning the WWE Championship, and then restarted his feud with JBL.
At SummerSlam, Cena lost to Batista and received a neck injury which is still mentioned today. He returned in November, and at WrestleMania 25, won the World Heavyweight Championship from Edge in a Triple Threat involving The Big Show, but immediately lost the title the next month to Edge. In September, Cena won his fourth WWE Championship in an I Quit Match against Randy Orton, and continued a series of matches against him for a few months, to lose it at Elimination Chamber and gain it back from Batista at WrestleMania XXVI. At SummerSlam, Team Cena defeated The Nexus, and Cena was heavily criticised for ‘burying’ the talent from the faction. This feud would carry on until The Royal Rumble, where Cena eliminated most of The Nexus.
Cena lost the main event of WrestleMania XXVII to the Miz due to The Rock’s interference, which set up a match at WrestleMania XXVIII. In Summer 2011, Cena was involved in an infamous feud with CM Punk over the WWE Championship, which he lost, and would go on to lose his match against The Rock at WrestleMania, only to win the Royal Rumble the next year and challenge the Rock who was WWE Champion, and defeat him.
After a 2013 where he was mostly a step behind the top, he stepped down the midcard of WrestleMania XXX, where he defeated Bray Wyatt. After a brief stint as WWE World Heavyweight Champion, he lost to Brock Lesnar and failed to win his championship back. Following, he feuded with Rusev over the United States Championship and won at WrestleMania 31, and is still United States Champion, defending every week in his popular “US Open Challenge”, and is, by far, the most successful Superstar to come out of the golden OVW class of 1999-2000.
