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Did WWE really drop the ball not going all in on Batista last year? They clearly messed up attempting to bring him in as a face but once he turned heel he was really killing it. The Wrestlemania XXX main event and the 6 man Evolution vs. Shield tag matches were all amazing stuff. Even his outfits were on point, the "Bluetista" attire has to be the best heel attire of the last 10 years. Of course his movie was huge last summer which would have generated much desired main stream press. I was also thinking if they really are going all in on Reigns, Big Dave would be the perfect heel to try and get him over. After a year of perspective I really loved his run after the heel turn and it's a damn shame he's not on TV right now.

​Bluetista was just the victim of being the wrong guy at the wrong time, unfortunately.  Also, bringing him in as a babyface was a wicked dumb move too, when clearly the Evolution reunion with Big Hollywood Star Dave was the right direction from jump street.  Thankfully Wrestlemania still worked out OK last year, but Dave had bigger career ambitions anyway.  ​

Comments

  1. The bigger missed opportunity was not bringing him back after Guardians to face off against Brock at the September PPV or Survivor Series.

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  2. I still say the best bet was Daniel Bryan beating HHH, fighting both guys in the Main, and then just when he has Orton down, Batista powerbombs him for the pin and the belt. Heel Batista then mocks the fans for backing Bryan, and says how he(meaning Batista) beat two guys etc., and you can then do face Bryan vs. heel Batista one-on-one for the belt later, with Bryan going over, and Batista going back to Hollywood.

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  3. I don't think it was dumb of WWE not to go all in on Batista since A) He was on a limited clock and B) The fans had someone else in mind.

    It's amazing how wonderfully their mistakes worked out for them last year. Batista winning put insane heat on his heel turn and fueled Bryan's face push while also setting the stage for Evolution giving Face Shield a great foil.

    Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good in wrestling booking.

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  4. It's pretty telling that both Batista and Brock have given interviews basically saying they had no problem losing to Bryan whatsoever and Vince still doesn't get it.

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  5. His return got all fucked up by that leak in December. A shocking return at Rumble would have never gotten booed, fact. Coupled with his arrogant tweet just after the leak and it spelt doom for his initial face run.

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  6. Totally disagree - the proper time to pull the trigger was WM, any longer would have been an obvious "second best", with Batista being given the big important win on the largest stage, and Bryan relegated to winning on a B-show.

    Much like Brock going 2-1 with Trips, but Trips getting his one win at WM.

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  7. Disagree - that crowd wasn't going to accept ANYONE other than Bryan winning the "Rumble".

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  8. Between Bryan's de-push and CM Punk leaving, Batista showed up at totally the wrong time. The fact that he came back as a face and the first thing he did on TV was hug the show's biggest heel while dressed as a douchebag solidified that he had no chance.

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  9. At that point Batista was already in line for the next Bond movie. I doubt he gave a shit about wrestling anymore.

    Not running Batista vs. Brock in any fashion was their biggest mistake, period.

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  10. Yes, that night nobody was, but that night doesn't have all that charged up energy if Batistas leak doesn't happen or his arrogant tweet. Keep in mind that the minute his return is leaked people assumed correctly that he would win. If it isn't leaked and his return is a shock at the Rumble then the crowd doesn't go apeshit.

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  11. "hugging fat chicks" heel Dave should be what he always is.

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  12. Batista pointing at his cock, telling fans to deal with it. LOL! How was this man not the heel of ALL HEELS~! ???

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  13. I have to imagine that even if his return were kept secret, the crowd would have automatically assumed that he was winning as soon as he entered the match.

    Plus, even if he wasn't booed immediately, he would have been 24 hours later. The fans wanted Bryan, simple as that.

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  14. This probably sounds weird, but Brock/Batista would probably be one of those rare cases where a heel/heel match would work really well - their heel characters are nothing alike, so there are still two distinct choices in terms of deciding who you wanted to root for.

    Do you go with the no-nonsense, no-frills country boy, or the blinged-out douchebag that likes to run his mouth? Both are hugely entertaining in their own ways.

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  15. Things would have been 100% different if his return was kept a secret, we just don't know what would have happened.

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  16. He didn't start on Bond til November so they could have at least got him on the September or October PPV.

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  17. Just because he didn't start on Bond didn't mean he wasn't already cast in it or was actively pursuing the role.

    If he was cast in a James Bond movie (or at least in the running), I doubt he's going to risk injury wrestling. He can make way more off a Bond movie -- especially long-term with the residuals -- movie than he could do a PPV

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  18. Exactly. It would've been a good match for a variety of reasons, mostly because we haven't really seen it before.

    I would've much rather have seen Lesnar face Batista once instead of three matches with Triple H and four matches with Cena.

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  19. Have we ever heard Big Dave's thoughts on his run last year???

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  20. Big Blue Dave was awesome... just the wrong time. He got over as a "lone wolf" type of character... hell, his theme song screams I WALK ALONE. So what's the very first thing they do? Have Triple H and Steph announce his return with smiles and hugs.

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  21. I remember reading an interview where he said the initial plans laid out for him were changed before he made his return. He expressed that he didn't think it was going to work.

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  22. He came back to headline Mania and win the title.

    That didn't happen. So he stayed around to get the Shield over, then left. Ergo Batista put over four guys who weren't at his level cleanly. Kudos.

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  23. Hey remember when HHH beat The Rock at Mania and they fought again at Backlash? And The Rock won with a mega pop and stayed over all year?


    The best roll with whatever booking they get. Bryan'd have been fine in this scenario.

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  24. Bryan is still in it at 29, has tossed everyone else... I Walk Alone!

    Batista comes out at 30, destroys the goat. They have a good 15 minute match ending with batista standing tall as the Authority's 'secret weapon'.

    Put Bryan over in February if you must.

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  25. He was so good in GOTG. I hope that translates to other roles, and he does so well that he doesn't need WWE to promote his movies.

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  26. Yep. How the ego of HHH & Stephanie would blind them to the fact that having Bautista hug them wouldn't help get him over is shocking. It's one of the many reason that they are so counter-productive to the product.

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  27. Also, the fact that he gassed so bad didn't help matters. He could barely lift his arms to celebrate. Everything else falls on WWE though.

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  28. He's in the new James Bond movie.

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  29. That was also during the tail end of the period when The Authority would randomly switch from making heel decisions to suddenly making face decisions while still being heels.

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  30. GOTG while it didn't make Baptista a star, it did increase his credibility as an actor. If nothing else, he'll be in a position to take the roles the Rock refuses.

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  31. I remember listening to DAVE on Jericho's podcast a few months ago and it was obvious that he was pretty annoyed with how his run went last year. I think he was supposed to end up doing more, but then the combination of the bad booking and then his movie career taking off made it easy for him to not bother with the WWE anymore.


    Batista seems like a good guy. Good for him. In the podcast it seems like he really gets the wrestling product and his counterpoints to what the fans gave him crap for was well pointed out. It is too bad that people like him are driven out of being creative and interested in working because of the WWE bad TV machine.

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  32. I'm sure Johnny Mundo wishes he had Dave Baptista's career right now.

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  33. Is douche Batista vs. babyfaced Brock a legit dream match yet?

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  34. He pretty much ran creative down, backed over them and hit the gas again on Jericho's podcast.

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  35. God, I hated that shit. I don't mind The Authority (HHH and Steph, that is; Big Show and Kane can disappear into the night) at all, but that thing where HHH was changing alignment week to week and sometimes segment to segment made him come off as a dude who doesn't reliably take his meds.

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  36. They should bring him back with a Drax gimmick; a monster who's unable to comprehend figurative language.

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  37. You spelled Melina wrong. No, ha ha, I'm only kidding!

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  38. I feel like this place seems to not like Batista, but I've always liked him. He's a solid worker and a good promo. The E put him in good angles usually (last year was a huge exception).


    I mean, yeah, he's been out with silly injuries, but he's always been entertaining and solid at worse.

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  39. You can't spell Melina without head.

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  40. Agreed. He wasn't even solidly a heel until the build-up to the Bryan match started. Otherwise he was mostly a heel unless he decided to be "cool guy Triple H" again.

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  41. What I like about Batista is how surprisingly unselfish he is. He put over Daniel Bryan HUGE (even though, in his eyes, perhaps Bryan stole his moment?) and helped to put over the Shield huge in the months that followed. Really, his entire return was him putting over other people. On top of that, he went to bat for Daniel Bryan during their Raw match when Bryan was jobbing to everybody on NXT. More than anything else, the guy came across as super likable when he interacted in that video with Connor (where he asks him to ask Bryan to not hurt him in their match). He seems like a pretty good guy.

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  42. Charismatic eNegro Jef VinsonMarch 16, 2015 at 10:52 AM

    They do that with foreign wrestlers all the time.

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  43. Charismatic eNegro Jef VinsonMarch 16, 2015 at 10:52 AM

    ...and his woman.

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  44. Hell, I was such a Batista mark, it's in one of my email handles

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  45. I said this in the other thread, that most of my issue came from how they shoehorned him into the main program last year. But I loved most of his wwe career. He just got injured too much.

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  46. "He's a solid worker and a good promo"

    as a heel.

    His babyface is terrible.

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  47. I think I agree with Stuart here, I think they wanted that stadium full of people doing the "Yes" point and chant, and while it technically may have worked out at the next PPV/Special Event/Whatever this is one of those times where a "Wrestlemania" moment was warranted.

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  48. If he doesn't at least come back to host a RAW or something in the fall when Spectre comes out this company is completely dumb. I mean missing a tie-in opp on GOTG is one thing, but to miss out with a Bond movie that is likely going to be bigger...maybe Vince can ask about hanging out with Roger Moore lol.

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  49. I'm just arguing that they COULD have stretched it a month.

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  50. Batista is very talented, but after last year I doubt he has much enthusiasm to return. The man was a victim of poor booking and vision on Vince's/HHH's part. He might see returning to wrestling as hurting his acting career.

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  51. Funny that with Orton shitting in gym bags, flair's baggage, and HHH's ego, Batista may be the nicest guy from evolution.

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  52. Kanye Douchebag Heel Dave is great; Silent Killer Face Dave isn't bad either.

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  53. The lack of variety in Lesnar's opponents is really stunning to me. Is WWE really just that uncreative? They couldn't have matched Brock up against even company favourites like Batista, Orton or Sheamus, let alone the likes of Bryan or Ziggler?

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  54. AverageJoeEverymanMarch 16, 2015 at 1:15 PM

    as is his belly-button tattoo

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  55. Bullshit! They didn't make heel decisions and face decisions. They made best for business decisions.

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  56. Works for me. Let's hook em up!

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  57. Brock/Batista probably would've sucked from a workrate standpoint (Batista's had great matches with another big guy in 'Taker and another powerhouse in Cena, but those guys were ring generals unlike Brock), but I'd love it anyway. Both guys have awesome characters that are superficially similar (huge powerhouse) but mostly different (silent killer Brock vs loudmouthed, flamboyant douchebag Batista), they'd match up well in terms of size for a 'Clash of the Titans' encounter, and the match could've had more of a 'big time fight' atmosphere than any of Brock's other matches save for the ER return against Cena.

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  58. His turn on Rey was all time great. No seriously, I'm going to kill you.

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  59. Batista's a weird one because so much of him comes off as a douche but when you hear him talk he's a really good guy who's a lot smarter than he's probably given credit for.

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  60. definitely one of those few "dream matches" (albeit a smaller one) they haven't done yet.

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  61. another proof that the concept of "their real life personality amped up" doesn't always apply.

    (there's quite a lot other examples as well, including Vader and Mark Henry who are both said to be both super friendly and "sensitive")

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  62. as said before, I would have so loved Lesnar vs. Ziggler and/or Lesnar vs. Ambrose.

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  63. some sort of "luck" has always been involved in the biggest angles. for example, it took so many variables to have McMahon vs. Austin be as huge as it was.

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  64. you are kidding yourself if you don't think that the Backlash match wouldn't have been a MUCH bigger deal if it had taken place at WrestleMania.

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  65. Rock winning that shitty four way wouldn't have been a big deal at all. It was a clusterfuck of epic proportions.

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  66. Riddick, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Man with the Iron Fists & Spectre is a nice little resume at least for his genre type.

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  67. but just as you I was refering to the Backlash match. if you imagine that very same match taking place a month earlier at Mania you literally wouldn't need to change anything else about it to be remembered as one of the all time great WM main events.

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  68. "You think I'm playing? Rey … I'm not playing. I'm gonna rip your head off."


    Drops mic, crowd gasps and then he clotheslines Rey. Beautiful.

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  69. it def was batista is pretty underrated imo.

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  70. I agree the iwc don't put him over but for a guy his size and age id say hes a great worker

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  71. to me it is.and batista vs the rock would be big money.

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  72. yea hes a humble guy but can really amp it up on tv.his heel run from 2009 is one of the best imo

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  73. they shouldn't have unified the belts with dave coming back and bryan getting over but wwe thinks bryan isn't over for some reason.

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