The fans turned Batista heel in 2014?

[The Rick Jericho]

Because re-watching his run here, he did nothing of note heelish. He returned as the conquering hero winning the rumble, then it all went to hell.

[mj0mn0m]

Apr 21, 2023 8:13:22 GMT -5 The Rick Jericho said:

Because re-watching his run here, he did nothing of note heelish. He returned as the conquering hero winning the rumble, then it all went to hell.

Evolution vs. Shield was a great unexpected the match up afterwards. 👍

I'm so happy how it all went down, WrestleMania XXX is the greatest baby face story I've seen in wrestling.

[Fake Jesus]

Quite famously?

[Nosnorb]

Dude just came across as an absolutely massive douche, and it didn't help that in the first few months of his return, dude was awful in ring.

[government mule]

It was because he wasn't Daniel Bryan. The prospect of Orton vs Batista at WM XXX wasn't going to go down well. Can you imagine if Vince stuck to his guns and booked that shit for the main event, and HHH just steamrolled Bryan in the opener? Because there was no way Hunter would be losing that if he didn't have to.

[Jindrak Mark]

I mean his first night back the week before the Rumble he came out and gave HHH and Stephanie big hugs. Not all faces need to hate heels etc but in this case The Authority had been screwing over the faces for months that it was weird to have this big triumphant babyface return then he's acting all buddy buddy with these evil people.

[bob]

it was simply because Batista wasn't Daniel Bryan

of course, it didn't really help that Batista showed up out of nowhere and it was obvious he was going to win the Royal Rumble and when he did...

oh boy

[asuka007]

Apr 21, 2023 10:39:51 GMT -5 bob said:

it was simply because Batista wasn't Daniel Bryan

of course, it didn't really help that Batista showed up out of nowhere and it was obvious he was going to win the Royal Rumble and when he did...

oh boy

He also was out of ring shape noticeably when he first came back.

TBF Batista wanted to come back as a heel to begin with.

[sdoyle7798]

Apr 21, 2023 11:52:42 GMT -5 asuka007 said:

Apr 21, 2023 10:39:51 GMT -5 bob said:

it was simply because Batista wasn't Daniel Bryan

of course, it didn't really help that Batista showed up out of nowhere and it was obvious he was going to win the Royal Rumble and when he did...

oh boy

He also was out of ring shape noticeably when he first came back.

TBF Batista wanted to come back as a heel to begin with.

And I gotta imagine if you're out of ring shape, being the heel is easier.

You can do stall spots, you can get cheap heel heat to get a breather, shit like that.

[bluebeach25]

I still think they f***ed up by announcing his return before the Rumble and even bringing him out that Raw before were he litteraly got zero reaction. Had it been a surprise he would have got cheers for sure. But Bryan was always going to be fan favorite at that time no matter what.

[Dub H]

Funny enough Batista wanted to be heel from start, he told Vince(or it was Trips, I dont remember) that people wont accept him as a face winning the rumble.

[fw91]

As much as it was because he wasn’t Daniel Bryan, I think his run as Douchetista in 2009-2010 was too good to not go back too.

[wildojinx]

I remember he had a match shortly after the rumble where he wrestled Alberto Del Rio and the fans were basically treating Del Rio as the defacto face for that match.

[Cvslfc123]

WWE not bringing him back in the summer to help promote Guardians of the Galaxy was just moronic.

[darbus alan]

It was definitely the "he wasn't Daniel Bryan" reaction. But to Big Dave's credit, he pivoted perfectly to one of my favorite heel personas ever.