“WrestleMania Goes Hollywood” might be the slogan for WrestleMania 39, but WWE used that tag line when having the event take place in Los Angeles for WrestleMania 21. The Ruthless Aggression Era may have peaked that night with the deep list of noteworthy names all performing.
WWE had a lot of overlooked moments on the road to WrestleMania that year. Quite a few important memories came at this time to enhance or even take away from a historic event. Any WWE fan of the time will enjoy the deeper glance at the forgotten moments from the build to WrestleMania 21.
10 Triple H Framed JBL For Trying To Run Over Batista
WWE added layers to the WrestleMania 21 main event between Triple H and Batista throughout that entire build. Batista winning the Royal Rumble match meant he had to pick between World Champion Triple H or WWE Champion JBL to challenge on the big stage.
Triple H tried manipulating Batista into picking JBL during the build by staging a hit and run attack with JBL’s limo. The act meant to make Batista pick JBL backfired when Batista overheard Triple H and Ric Flair discussing it. This story led to the infamous contract signing where Batista was done with Evolution.
9 Lita Trained Christy Hemme To Challenge Trish Stratus
The women’s representation for WrestleMania 21 featured Trish Stratus defending the Women’s Championship against Christy Hemme. WWE picked Hemme as her challenger after getting a Playboy cover spread and adopting Lita as a mentor.
However, this all came into place after Lita suffered an injury a few months earlier during her heated feud with Stratus. WWE wanted to utilize the legendary Lita vs Trish rivalry to enhance a colder opponent in Hemme.
8 Randy Orton Turned Heel Two Weeks Before Show
WWE booked a few inter-promotional matches between wrestlers from the Raw and Smackdown sides for WrestleMania 21. Randy Orton represented Raw when challenging The Undertaker on the biggest stage to put his WM streak on the line.
The story started off with Orton as a babyface character wanting to prove his moniker of the Legend Killer. Fans however treated Orton like the heel against an iconic face like Undertaker. WWE went all in just two weeks before the show when Orton hit his girlfriend Stacy Keibler with an RKO and turned heel to prove he had no weaknesses.
7 First Year The Hall Of Fame Class Was Part Of Build
WWE has made the Hall of Fame ceremony part of the WrestleMania weekend festivities over the past few decades. However, it didn’t truly start to become part of the build until the WrestleMania 21 class headlined by Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper.
The broadcast of the show became televised this year after the 2004 event was only shown in minimal highlights. Hogan and Piper both being named as part of the class saw WWE advertising Piper for the Piper’s Pit talk show segment with Steve Austin. WWE teased Hogan appearing, which ended up happening and starting another in-ring run.
6 John Cena Defeated Kurt Angle To Win WWE Championship Title Shot
The storyline of Batista going over a month before picking his opponent for WrestleMania 21 meant that Smackdown had to feature their own plan. No Way Out 2005 featured Kurt Angle and John Cena facing off in the finals of a tournament to crown a #1 contender.
The winner would have faced both Batista and JBL in a triple threat match if Batista wanted to challenge for that title. Cena winning a clean match however led to the singles bout with JBL that started his run as face of the company.
5 Kurt Angle Tried To Relive All Shawn Michaels' Accomplishments
The legendary match between Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle is often considered the peak of the outstanding WrestleMania 21 card. WWE started this feud when Angle wanted revenge on Michaels for eliminating him from the Royal Rumble match.
Angle claimed that he was going to achieve or surpass everything Michaels did during the build ahead of their match to prove he was better. Fans will remember Angle performing his “Sexy Kurt” theme song to match Michaels, but he also won a ladder match and challenged Marty Jannetty on the road to WM.
4 Eddie Guerrero & Rey Mysterio Didn't Have Any Credible Tag Title Challengers
WrestleMania 21 had an underrated opening match between Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio facing each other despite being WWE Tag Team Champions. The match stemmed from Eddie wanting friendly competition and eventually snapping a few months later for being unable to defeat Rey.
WWE didn’t have any great tag team challengers on the Smackdown brand after they defeated the lackluster Bashman Brothers. The plan for the Guerrero and Mysterio team was always to turn Eddie heel, but they ran out of tag team challengers to make their tag title reign part of WrestleMania.
3 Edge Did Not Want To Be In Historic First Money In The Bank Match
One of the coolest aspects of the WrestleMania 21 card is that fans were treated to the first-ever Money in the Bank ladder match. The field of Chris Jericho, Edge, Chris Benoit, Christian, Kane and Shelton Benjamin featured all names that fans cared about.
Edge winning turned into a huge career accolade and set up his first WWE Championship victory down the line. However, an interesting behind the scenes story is that Edge was trying to get out of this match on the build to the show since he felt he was being pigeonholed into ladder matches.
2 Triple H Didn't Save Batista From Elimination In Elimination Chamber Match
WWE started the build between Triple H and Batista for WrestleMania 21 all the way back at New Year’s Revolution 2005. An Elimination Chamber match to crown a new World Champion after Triple H vacated the belt had a controversial ending.
Batista, Randy Orton and Triple H were the final three when Triple H allowed Orton to pin Batista and pretended he was too hurt to make the save. Orton even showed this footage after to plant the seeds of the audience wanting Batista to get revenge on Triple H.
1 Orlando Jordan Won United States Championship From John Cena
John Cena was involved in the United States Championship picture for about a year since WWE wanted to wait until the biggest stage of WrestleMania 21 to make him WWE Champion. WWE needed to get the United States Championship off Cena before his world title shot against JBL.
Orlando Jordan becoming the sidekick of JBL and part of The Cabinet faction made him the perfect choice. JBL costing Cena the mid-card title added to their feud, but it also allowed Cena to drop that belt without vacating or looking weak.