What if John Cena and Batista hadn’t swapped brands in the 2005 WWE Draft?

#1 The Great Khali might not have won a world title

For as imposing he was, WWE may not have turned to The Great Khali as world champion were it not for injuries at the top of the SmackDown roster

One of the Hallmarks of John Cena’s original main event push was how injury proof he seemed. Fellow emerging top stars of the era like Batista and Randy Orton each had stretches in which they had to miss significant time, and Triple H suffered more than one injury that cost him months of action.

Cena, however, didn’t miss any significant time from when he won the WWE Championship in spring 2005 all the way to fall 2007.

It’s unclear that WWE ever meant to crown The Great Khali a world champion. His size and aura made him a legitimate choice, but his in ring skill and talking made him a hard pick to justify in that most featured spot. That he got a two-month reign on top in 2007 was largely symptomatic of injury issues. Between 2005 and 2007, major injuries to Batista and Edge each led to major shifts in creative plans for the World Heavyweight Championship.

We can never know for sure if Cena would have stayed healthy if he had stayed on SmackDown. In reality, though, Cena demonstrated an ability to avoid getting sidelined, not to mention an alarmingly fast recovery time from what injuries he has sustained. It’s quite possible that if Cena had been on the blue brand from 2005 to 2007, the title wouldn’t have gone vacant or necessitated backup plan champs.

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