5 most important Royal Rumble matches in history

#2: 2005

The torch was passed to these two starting on that night.

Before 2005, WWE was in a weird place. It hadn't yet fully found its footing after the end of its Attitude Era peak. Its two megastars disappeared. Stone Cold Steve Austin had retired. The Rock left for Hollywood. To make matters even more difficult, the man who was supposed to lead it into the next era, Brock Lesnar, had left a year earlier to try his hand in the NFL.

In 2004, meanwhile, Batista and John Cena were rising stars on RAW and SmackDown, respectively, and the company made the momentous (and correct) decision to go all in on them. They were the final two contenders in the 2005 match. In controversial fashion, Batista won. Both would go on to become their respective brand's world champions at WrestleMania 21, an event seen as a changing of the guard.

Though he lost the match, John Cena would go on to become the bigger star of the two. WWE had finally found its next "guy." He would go on to lead the company for a decade.