Classic Match: Batista vs. Triple H (Hell in a Cell), Vengeance 2005

Kimberly Schueler
Batista (source: WWE)
Batista gains control of Triple H’s sledgehammer inside Hell in a Cell at Vengeance 2005.

RondaRousey.com’s Classic Match series takes a closer look at significant and super cool matches from wrestling history.


Batista recently returned to WWE with a strong, violent statement for Triple H—attacking Ric Flair during his 70th birthday celebration. The two men are now set for a No Holds Barred match at WrestleMania. For longtime WWE watchers, this must have brought to mind the original, epic feud been Triple H and Batista in the early 2000s, during which their good vs. evil alignment was reversed. That’s why this week, RondaRousey.com’s Classic Match is the intense ending to their trilogy for the World Heavyweight Championship: the Hell in a Cell match at Vengeance 2005.

When Batista arrived in WWE in 2002, it was quickly clear he was going to be a star. He was huge, jacked, and had the charisma that would later help him become the movie star he is today. As Ric Flair put it when “The Animal” was drafted to RAW: “What a physical specimen! You might even be bigger than the champ, Triple H.”

Triple H, the World Heavyweight Champion at the time—in the ninth world title run of his career—had been a fixture in WWE long before Batista came on the scene. He was a stuck-up Connecticut blueblood in the early ’90s and a founding member of D-Generation X in the Attitude Era. By the time the new millennium rolled around, “The Game” had become a regular main-eventer known for his ruthlessness.

In 2003, Batista joined Triple H’s faction Evolution (along with Flair and Randy Orton). The team wrestled and often cheated their way to money, power, and success, at one point in 2004 holding every male championship possible. However, in the background, there was always tension between Triple H and Batista. Unsurprisingly, the man who now calls himself “The King of Kings” was not a fan of anyone who looked like he might be able to someday usurp his throne.

As the relationship between the two men began to deteriorate, Batista also seemed to start developing a stronger sense of morality. Though he continued to help in Evolution’s villainous schemes, viewers could also see he was disgusted by them.

Batista, Triple H, Ric Flair (source: WWE)

A critical moment in the story came when Triple H—now in the midst of another World Heavyweight Championship reign, his 10th with a world title—tried to convince Batista not to enter the 2005 Royal Rumble, saying it would be selfish. But Batista entered and won in one of his great Rumble performances. Despite Triple H and Flair’s attempts to trick Batista—who overheard his rival telling his mentor, “Sometimes Dave is not smart enough to know what’s good for him.”—he chose to challenge for Triple H’s World Heavyweight Championship.

Batista went into WrestleMania 21 a heroic challenger and defeated the dominant champion in an incredibly satisfying climax to a well-done wrestling storyline. However, even though Batista won a major battle on “The Grandest Stage of Them All,” there was still more of the war to come. He retained his title in a rematch against Triple H at Backlash, but that still wasn’t the end. After another successful defense against Edge, Triple H attacked Batista with his signature sledgehammer before challenging him to a Hell in a Cell match, one of the most extreme types of bouts in WWE and a kind that “The Game” had never lost.

Batista, Jonathan Coachman (source: WWE)

The aggression between the men was amped up with confrontations before the Vengeance pay-per-view and even part of the way through the show during a backstage interview with Jonathan Coachman. Batista denied he felt any fear about wrestling a Hell in a Cell match for the first time and made it clear that he was not just fighting in the show’s main event for his title but for revenge. In his words:

“Tonight is for every time Hunter stabbed me in the back, for every time he hit me with that damn sledgehammer… Triple H is going to have to kill me to take this title from me. Triple H and I are going to Hell, but I’m the only one walking out.”

Triple H stepped up to the champ and vowed to make him a “nobody,” and the men started brawling. As they were pulled apart by officials, it was clear that the hatred between them could barely be contained until their match—and it was about to be locked inside the “demonic structure” known as Hell in a Cell.

Batista, Triple H (source: WWE)

Triple H—who entered the ring looking very focused—scored the match’s first offensive blow after the cage lowered, distracting Batista to land a kick to the gut. But after a sidewalk slam, Batista started controlling the match in and out of the ring. The Las Vegas crowd loved this, but Triple H’s experienced, expert use of the Hell in a Cell environment soon turned the momentum of the fight in his favor.

Batista (source: WWE)

He beat Batista up enough to buy some time to reach under the ring for the match’s first weapon, a chain. Triple H whipped and choked his opponent with the chain, and when Batista was able to escape, he repaid Triple H in kind. The sequence provided some extreme visuals and established how Batista’s revenge would be carried out throughout most of the match, but it was nowhere near as brutal as other weapon use to come.

Batista (source: WWE)

Batista used his advantage to drive Triple H from the cage to the ring post, causing Triple H to start bleeding profusely from the forehead as a result. But Triple H was still able to buy himself recovery time with a spinebuster before going back under the ring for an even more sadistic weapon, a chair covered in barbed wire. He used to wire to scrape Batista’s back, but after an exchange of high-impact wrestling moves, Batista was able to gain control of this weapon as well. The use of the barbed wire chair on Triple H’s face was clearly not just revenge for the recent injury but for a long history of being held down and betrayed, of being played by “The Game.”

Batista (source: WWE)

The use of the chair and the chain became more extreme as the match went on, so much so that commentary wondered if this was “the homicide of two careers.” A DDT to the barbed wire and steel left Batista bleeding from the head like his opponent, looking stunned. The addition of the sledgehammer from under the ring promised only more brutality, though Batista was able to prevent it from being used right away. After kicking out of a pin after a strike from the weapon, he actually kneed the champion in the groin to prevent a deadly-looking blow to the head. At this point, the referee started trying to get both competitors to stop with the use of weapons, even though they were legal in this type of match.

Triple H, Batista (source: WWE)

Things looked bad for Batista, but he finally seemed to get a new burst of energy after he blocked a second-rope chain-assisted punch from Triple H with a sledgehammer blow to the throat. He got the better of a strike exchange and slid the steel ring steps under the ropes, finally introducing a weapon to the match himself. As he propped them up in the corner, commentary theorized the Cell itself had finally corrupted him. In Jerry Lawler’s words: “He’s become evil alright. He’s thinking evil thoughts.”

Triple H, Batista (source: WWE)

With this new element introduced and both men pushed beyond their limit, the match became an exchange of finishers and high-impact moves to the finish. Batista kicked out of a Pedigree, countered another to spinebuster Triple H right onto the steps, and set up for the Batista Bomb. Triple H raised his hammer to save himself, but it was too late. Batista pinned Triple H after his signature powerbomb to retain the World Heavyweight Championship.

Batista, Triple H (source: WWE)

As commentary exclaimed, “It’s over! Batista did it! Batista went to Hell and he survived!” Batista looked like he almost couldn’t believe what he had achieved. His hand raised from his knees on the bloody canvas made for a happy, intense ending to the pay-per-view. His reign would end up being the longest of any wrestler with this title at 282 days, just two more than the previous record held by—who else?—Triple H.

This match would also mark the end of the Batista/Triple H rivalry for the time being. Batista was drafted to SmackDown later in the month. But Evolution reunions in 2014 and then at SmackDown 1000 would lead to the two men clashing again and providing more memorable WWE moments.


You can watch this match in its entirety along with more of Batista’s greatest matches and moments in the Batista Unleashed Collection on the WWE Network.

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