How to win the crowd back for Batista

Scott,

Instead of coming up with creative backstage segments and camera/audio tricks to mask the negative crowd reaction to Batista, why doesn't WWE take the path of least resistance to getting Batista's babyface heat back? Create a situation in which Daniel Bryan is getting beat up by some Authority goons and have Batista make the save. Or have Bryan team up with Batista in tag match, or have Bryan talk up Batista as his good friend, or have Batista say when he wins the title at WM he's going to give Bryan the first shot. Basically use Bryan to get Batista over again. Seems easy enough, right?

The fact that they haven't done this yet makes me believe WWE is really planning to turn Batista heel and have him feud with Bryan, either before or after WrestleMania, which is why they're keeping them separate for now. Thoughts?

You'd be wasting Bryan on him.  I'd actually have Hulk Hogan make the save and do the posedown routine with Bryan to give him the rub in the same way he did with Edge in 02.  Fans would see right through the babyface act if Batista was doing it and would just keep booing him anyway.  Trust me, they tried it already a million times with John Cena and it never works.