10 Greatest Rivalries in The History of WWE SmackDown

#4 The Undertaker vs. Batista

Face vs. Face

This feud had a pretty simple beginning. Batista was the World Heavyweight Champion, and The Undertaker was the winner of the 2007 Royal Rumble. WWE spent a couple weeks building up to which brands Champion would Taker challenge, ultimately choosing to remain on SmackDown to challenge Batista.

The build-up in this feud was pretty solid, as similar to the RAW WrestleMania main event of John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels, both men were babyfaces. A RAW vs. SmackDown match was set up for No Way Out, pitting Batista and The Undertaker vs. John Cena and Shawn Michaels. They spent weeks teasing that Shawn could tun on Cena, but stead, Batista planed Taker with a spinebuster during the closing moments of the match. The two had several great segments during the build-up to each match they had.

While both were babyfaces throughout the year, they would collide five times in one-on-one matches for the World Championship. The match between them at WrestleMania 23 is considered by many to be the best match of 2007. They battled to a draw in a Last Man Standing match the following month at Backlash which was almost as great. The would then collide in a Steel Cage match a few weeks later which was pretty good but also ended in a draw.

Following the Cage match, The Undertaker took the next five months off TV to heal from injuries. The month following his return, he challenged Batista to a World Championship match at Cyber Sunday, another solid match for their series, this time that Batista won clean. They had one final one-on-one match in 2007 at Survivor Series in a thrilling Hell in A Cell match which Batista won the following interference by Edge.

They briefly reopened their feud on SmackDown in late 2009, where Batista defeated The Undertaker in a Chairs match at the TLC event.