5 most influential WWE Superstars of the Ruthless Aggression era

#2 WWE's Resident Animal: Batista

Batista sometimes gets lost in the shuffle when thinking of all-time WWE greats. From 2002 to 2010, Batista won six world titles, four World Heavyweight Championships, and two WWE Championships. He also held the World Tag Team title twice and won the WWE Royal Rumble twice. Lastly, the Animal has headlined Wrestlemania twice.

Batista became the fan's choice during the slow build towards Evolution's breakup, and the WWE had to switch gears and go from Randy Orton to Batista as the main foil for Triple H. Batista took the ball and ran with it. He defeated Triple H at Wrestlemania and subsequently had two excellent follow-up matches with him. He would eventually headline Smackdown and have some great feuds with the likes of Eddie Guerrero, JBL, Edge and eventually The Undertaker.

Batista always came ready to perform, especially in big matches. He had the look, attitude, and ability to fit the era perfectly. If not for our #1 performer on the list, he might be remembered even more for his role in helping forge Ruthless Aggression.

---

#1. WWE's Flag Bearer: John Cena

If you coin the phrase, you almost have to be the #1 most influential superstar of the Ruthless Aggression Era. John Cena burst onto the WWE stage with his infamous slap to the face of Kurt Angle on an episode of WWE Smackdown. Interestingly, Cena's star did not take off, at least not right away.

John Cena was just another muscle-bound WWE superstar until he came upon his "Thugonomics" gimmick. The WWE Superstar/rapper became a featured performer on each week's episode of Smackdown. His performances got so strong that he soon turned face to satisfy the WWE crowd that enjoyed his rhymes. John Cena then became THE face of the Ruthless Aggression Era.

First, Cena won the US Title, showing impressive strength against The Big Show at Wrestlemania XX. By next year's Wrestlemania, along with Batista, Cena would have won gold. Cena would win the WWE title while Batista won the World Heavyweight Title. While Batista's matches were probably slightly better than Cena's at the time, Cena was light years better than Batista on the mic and soon surpassed him as the face of WWE and was moved to RAW.

Cena went on to headline five Wrestlemanias, which is third only to Triple H's seven and Hulk Hogan's eight. He is tied with Ric Flair for the most world championships of all time and is now an established Hollywood star. Thanks to the Ruthless Aggression Era and starting with the slap heard around the world, Cena truly became the face that runs the place.