Surely fans remember many things about WWE in 2005, such as WrestleMania 21, ECW One Night Stand, Royal Rumble, Vengeance, Batista's babyface turn, Randy Orton's Legend Killer run, Shawn Michaels overselling Hulk Hogan's moves, and many other things. There were several great moments and some outstanding matches.
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The 2005 WWE roster featured wrestlers such as John Cena, Triple H, Batista, Randy Orton, Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle, The Undertaker, Edge, Ric Flair, among others. However, in that year other well-known wrestlers wrestled for WWE, but they went unnoticed. So, without further ado, let's take a look at 10 wrestlers you didn't realize wrestled for WWE in 2005.
10 Dolph Ziggler
Dolph Ziggler made his WWE debut in 2005, but under the name Nick Nemeth. He teamed with Kerwin White on a couple of episodes of WWE Heat and that was it. Considering he only had two televised matches and his name was different, it's no wonder you didn't realize Dolph Ziggler wrestled for WWE in 2005. Now it's 2023 and Ziggler is still working for the same company, and it's safe to say he's had a great career.
9 Marty Jannetty
Marty Jannetty is mostly remembered for his time as Shawn Michaels' partner, as The Rockers. After parting ways, Jannetty was unable to become a megastar like his former partner, but he was a good midcard wrestler in the 1990s. What people forget, or don't realize, is that Jannetty returned to WWE in 2005 and had a couple of matches.
He reunited with Shawn Michaels on the March 14, 2005, episode of Monday Night Raw to defeat La Resistance (Robert Conway and Sylvain Grenier). Three days later, on SmackDown, he lost to Kurt Angle (a very good match, by the way).
8 Sgt. Slaughter
Sgt. Slaughter wrestled for WWE in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. Obviously his best times were in the 1980s and 1990s, and then in the 2000s and 2010s it was few matches and cameos mostly. Fans may not realize it, but Sgt. Slaughter wrestled for WWE in 2005. It was only a forgettable two-minute match against Muhammad Hassan during the January 31 episode of RAW, which Hassan won.
7 Tatanka
Tatanka was a relevant WWE wrestler in the 1990s. In fact, he had a long undefeated streak and had some good matches, although he never won a championship. Tatanka left WWE in 1996, and it looked like he would never return. However, he returned in 2005 and had a match against Eugene on August 1st on RAW. The match lasted only two and a half minutes and Tatanka lost by disqualification.
6 CM Punk
CM Punk has had a memorable wrestling career, and everyone remembers when he became a megastar in WWE. However, what many fans don't know is that CM Punk made his WWE television debut in 2005, appearing on two episodes of Heat. In April, he teamed with Russell Simpson to face Maven and Simon Dean. A month later, Punk lost a singles match to Val Venis. After that, Punk did not appear in WWE until August 2006.
5 Doink
Doink The Clown had one WWE match in 2005. That's right, The Brooklyn Brawler (also known as Steve Lombardi), who worked for WWE on a regular basis from 1983 to 1995 (and then made several appearances in the following years), wrestled with the Doink gimmick for the first time in a televised match on the October 10, 2005, episode of Monday Night Raw, when he lost to Rob Conway.
4 Shawn Spears
Believe it or not, AEW’s wrestler Shawn Spears wrestled for WWE in 2005. It was only one match, on the February 27, 2005, episode of Sunday Night Heat. Spears teamed up with Mikael Yamaha to take on Rosey and The Hurricane. Spears and Yamaha lost this forgettable five-minute match. With such a fleeting performance, it is no wonder you didn’t realize Shawn Spears worked for WWE in 2005.
3 Roderick Strong
Roderick Strong wrestled for WWE in 2005. Yes, you read that right. We're talking about the current AEW wrestler who wrestled in NXT until 2022.
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On the January 13, 2005, episode of SmackDown, Strong faced off against none other than Kurt Angle. Obviously, Strong filled a jobber's role and lost in less than two minutes. That was Strong’s only WWE match until 2016.
2 Mickie James
Mickie James is one of the greatest female wrestlers in WWE history, and fans know a lot about her, but some didn't realize she wrestled for WWE in 2005.
James made her WWE debut in late 2005 and wrestled nine matches in the last couple of months of the year. Obviously, fans had no idea who she was, but she quickly became popular and was already winning the Women's Championship by the time WrestleMania 22 was over.
1 Greg Valentine
The iconic Greg Valentine began his wrestling career in 1970, so it's hard to believe he wrestled for WWE in 2005, but he actually did. Valentine had one match, against Rob Conway on the October 21, 2005, episode of Heat. It was a three-minute match that ended with Rob Conway winning via disqualification. As expected, Valentine looked rusty and very slow, but it was interesting to see him back in WWE.
