Do you think Batista has improved since Royal Rumble?

[HeymanHustler]

Back when Batista returned and won the Rumble, I think the main reason why he returned to a negative reaction (other than fans claiming he "stole Bryan's spot") was that it was clear at the Rumble that his ring work was still rusty. His Batista Bomb's were sloppy, his spears were sloppier, and he moved sluggishly. Not to mention his mic work was more cringe worthy than he was back in the day. People didn't want to see someone who still needed to get back to proper form put in the WM main event before he was ready.

Judging by tonight, even though he didn't have a match, he looked better; considering he was awful at RR. His spear and his Batista Bomb to Orton looked better and his mic work, well...it's as good as you'll get from a guy like Batista, but it wasn't bad. Do you think he has improved overall; promo work and ring work included. Or do you think he just happens to work with people who are making him look good?

 

[hacksawrowdyhogan]

I just think they are hiding his shortcomings in the ring better now. Protecting him so to say.

His promo work is very straight forward but he still spits and says things like "ww woold heavyweight championship" as a perfect example from tonight.

His schtick was being the biggest bad arse around. But when he was in the ring with Orton his arms and especially his legs looked smaller than Randy's. Randy Orton isn't one of the big guys on the roster either.

 

[KitsuneDreamer]

I will say that he is better than he was at Royal Rumble, but nowhere close to where he should be considering the position he's in. Something is clearly not working with him. Hopefully they can work out some more kinks before WrestleMania.

 

[CyberPunk]

I don't think he's really improved whatsoever. He's been protected well by WWE; however, I just think the Wrestlemania match might expose how bad his cardio is at this point. He still has a long way to go before he's ready in the ring.

 

[BenChillin]

Nope. Still can't do his own sit down power bomb finisher right.

 

[rwest615]

I am still trying to figure out how someone who can't even cut a decent promo ever thought he could be a movie star. Batista fumbles over his words all of the time and has the stamina in the ring of a 50 year chain smoker. He is terrible.

 

[AfflictionRoten]

No not really. His match with ADR at Elimination Chamber was just painful to watch. Too sloppy, too slow, and yes he definitely sucks on the mic.

 

[enviousdominous]

I see him improving, slightly. Is he where he needs to be to main event Wrestlemania? No, but then again this is Batista we're talking about here. By Batista standards, he can wing a few spots and cash his paycheck, Wrestlemania is no reason to work on that cardio.

I don't know if it's just the bald look, but the dude looks like a freak without a hairline to cover up the slope in his forehead. Just saying, if Phrenology was still a science then he'd be scraping barnacles off of ship hulls.

I don't know the extent of what he's going to get out of this run with the WWE, I sincerely hope that he doesn't leave Wrestlemania with the belt(s) and that he's off of our tvs after a few more feuds.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

I wouldn't say Batista "improved." His cardio is still poor, and he's 45 now, so you can't expect 2005-2008 Batista anymore.

WWE had to jump into damage control mode after the Rumble, and there's no way around it. There's a chance WWE waited for a while before they pulled the trigger on Smackdown for the chance to rule out any knee jerk smarky reactions, but the fans are pissed off about another part-timer returning for the red carpet treatment, and a high profiled match at Wrestlemania.

Now, WWE is using the negative reaction from the fans to fuel Batista's heel run. They're acknowledging the "Boo-Tista" stuff, the fans disgust with WWE favoring Batista over Daniel Bryan, and Batista's ego. Last night, Triple H and Orton tore into Batista. Orton placed all the blame on Batista's flop for the direct cause of the triple threat, and Triple H took another jab at Batista with the "returning Hollywood movie stars" stuff.

Plus, Batista is more entertaining as a heel. He hit a ceiling as the jacked up muscle head years ago, and he's more comfortable and entertaining in the heel role, because Batista has a natural flow as the narcissistic dick with a massive ego.

WWE horribly overestimated Batista's appeal as a star, but they're turning the corner with this heel turn. With the way things are now, we have a more intriguing main event at Wrestlemania, and Batista is better off as one of the top heels in the company.

 

[gbast]

No, he's still pretty awful in the ring, and he has lost a lot of what made him memorable before since he has lost much of his muscle mass and has gotten older. He looks like just a guy now.

 

[enviousdominous]

Triple H took another jab at Batista with the "returning Hollywood movie stars" stuff.

Call me crazy, but I think that was actually a jab at The Rock.

I'm just glad that HHH stepped up and made Batista more interesting by getting emotionally involved. Batista usually has a "der, what?" look two seconds after he releases rage on the mic. He looks a lot better with HHH helping him along.

 

[Mongoose McQueen]

I believe he has gotten better for sure, to give the guy some credit it was his first time in a WWE ring since May of 2010 working a match. You can't expect him to be the same right away, I do think he will get back to his old ways eventually and hopefully we get to see Batista vs Brock Lesnar down the line.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

Call me crazy, but I think that was actually a jab at The Rock.

It's possible, I guess. After all, Batista is not a real Hollywood movie star. He's a a guy, who starred in a handful of crummy straight-to-video action flicks, and if we're talking about movies in the profiled mainstream zone, The Man With Iron Fists was a pretty lousy film, and Batista is just another goon in Riddick.

It'll be interesting to see how WWE handles the inevitable cross promotion for Batista's role in Guardians Of The Galaxy. You have to believe fans will boo the crap out of promo videos and trailers, and the middle finger to the fans attitude for Batista's character won't help the problem.

 

[RedRegan1005]

As far as the in ring part of his work goes he seems to be slowly but surely regaining his footing. He was never a master between the ropes, but he played his style of a hard hitting power guy well. I think his promo ability has gotten much better compared to the infamous return promo, "I'm back to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. So deal with it!" . . . . Uh Ok? Ever sense he turned heel I've enjoyed his promos much more, maybe that's just because i favor a heel Batista.

 

[kadroan]

Yes, he's improved. He's finally back to doing what he's good at, being a bad guy. That's huge for him. It would have hurt him long run if they kept forcing him to try to be a good when the crowd wasn't buying into it. As far as his in ring performance, he's doing great, doing more matches than The Rock did to get back in ring shape.

The Rock had only two matches before his match with Cena at Wrestlemania last year. Long run, Batista will be better off, just need to get back in wrestling shape still