Here's the 'Batista Incident' from a storytelling standpoint:
So we have a former WWE Superstar (a genuine star on top of that) who is making his return to WWE after a four-year absence. He's part of a big movie coming out in Hollywood, which ups the celebrity angle.
-So far so good. In a vacuum, the return of Batista is a nice mark-out moment, even though the surprise was spoiled in advance. He'll probably command a good portion of the spotlight, as most part-timers will, but it's hard to foresee anything going wrong.
Then we get rumors and predictions saying he'll win the Royal Rumble. Meanwhile, he's making nice with most of the Authority and having his sights set on Randy Orton and the title.
-A little alarming, but not by much. It;s the standard bravado on Batista's part, and one likes to think Reports can be deliberately swerved to work the audience.
Royal Rumble comes, with Batista pretty much winning the whole thing as reported. The current wrestler people seem to be behind on, Daniel Bryan, is nowhere to be found in the Rumble itself.
-The crowd reaction was more pro-DB than anti-Batista, but consider the story; Traditionally, the Hero gets his big chance to slay the Evil Empire in the big moment, a la Wrestlemania. But in THIS narrative, the Hero is pushed aside almost at the last minute by a bigger, grander-looking hero, who steps right in to claim the glory as soon as he arrives. And this is the key thing; the ONLY time you ever saw that shit happen in Wrestlemania was 9, when HULK HOGAN shat on the Main Event. Every other freaking time, have you ever seen the established Good Guy shouldered out of the way for a returning former star as soon as said star comes back? (Don't say Rock/Cena II, because if you didn't see it coming a year in advance than you had CM Punk's tights pulled over your eyes.
Almost immediately Batista is being portrayed as the 'Babyface' against Orton in Wrestlemania.
-Same problem as the Royal Rumble. Say what you will about DB being Main Event material, but the Main Event story had him there ever since SummerSlam. Replacing him with Batista- who just arrived- is something WWE has only done ONCE, and the results of that were miserable. But at least THAT happened without much warning. It's been a month since the Rumble and another month to go and the aggravation is getting to be excruciating.
As if the rest wasn't an affront to everyone, Batista shows a massive lack of stamina, if not a large degree of ring rust.
-The ring rust makes sense after four years... it's probably why The Rock didn't have it so good during his return. And it's not as if Batista had major skills as a wrestler to begin with. But gassing out embarrasingly easy when booked to win? That's just a sign of weakness, and further incentive for the fans not to BUY what he's selling. He's booked like the Big Hero but performs like he should be a road bump for DB to run over on the road to WM.
Meanwhile, the original hero of the story(if you believe that's what the story was) has now shifted from persuing the Title to persuing HHH.
-Is a confrontation with the Leader of the Authority more important than fighting for the WWE Title? I say No. I say 'No' because it ultimately defeats the whole purpose of chasing that Title in the first place. I say 'No' because you should never believe there's something more important than that Title if you want to take the prize seriously. I say 'No' because I have no faith in HHH putting DB over properly (even when he put others over in the past, you always got the feeling that it wasn't as good a match as it ought to have been. This includes his matches with the likes of Batista and Sheamus). I say 'No' because it proves ultimately that DB will never get the title unless it's a B-Level PPV like Extreme Rules(which apparently gets all the discarded resolutions or the excruciating feuds like fucking Cole/Lawler in order to make it a better PPV). I say 'No', because I'm too invested in a concrete storyline that I thought I saw as far as Post-SummerSlam.
And now Batista, after several major moments where fans took a shit on him and his supposed 'role' in Wrestlemania, is 'turning heel'.
-Batista could turn once every minute of this Smackdown show and it wouldn't make a lick of difference. Not based on what he represents and what he's supposedly doing to blockade what was 'supposed' to occur.
This isn't to say things could still change before WM. The HHH/DB fight isn't confirmed by a long shot (confirmation being both wresters agreeing to it on a show in this case). And there are enough weeks between now and WM for the story to shift. Still, it's a ever-shrinking window. And I do have to admit, if they really did go through with this after all the shitting the fans do to it...
...well, it's been a fun year-plus, but I'll have no problems dropping Wrestling entirely.
