Batista: WWE World Champion To Guardian Of The Galaxy

In December 2013, Batista would agree to return to WWE. The company was hoping to make his return a surprise, but apparently news leaked, forcing them to change their plans. The return of “The Animal” was advertised for the 2014 Royal Rumble. His return should’ve been a “win win” situation, but instead, neither side got much out of the run. For starters, Batista was booked to win the Royal Rumble match, and challenge Randy Orton for the WWE World Championship at WrestleMania XXX as a babyface. I can see why that might have seemed like a good idea when it was first pitched. After all, Batista was arguably WWE‘s number two star at the time of his departure, but that was 2008. In 2014, the WWE Universe had 2 clear favorites, CM Punk and Daniel Bryan. To them, anyone else was simply standing in between them and the WrestleMania main event. When Batista won the 2014 Royal Rumble match, the fans weren’t happy. Things were only made worse the next night when CM Punk walked out of the company in protest to Batista being given the main event at WrestleMania. Fans began to lash out at Batista and began showering him with boos when he was supposed to be a babyface. When Batista stepped in the ring for a warm up match with Alberto Del Rio, he had some pretty evident ring rust. Fans showed him no mercy, and #Bootista began trending worldwide. At the same time that they were rejecting Batista, fans were getting more and more behind Daniel Bryan. They wanted him in the WrestleMania XXX main event, and surprisingly WWE obliged. Batista‘s one-on-one match at WrestleMania for the WWE World Championship was turned into a triple threat. He wasn’t happy about it, but he went along with the changes anyways and tapped out to Daniel Bryan to end WrestleMania XXX and send the fans home happy.