"Leviathan" was a completely blown opportunity for Batista

[Blue Chipper]

Batista was given the gimmick of an eerie beast in OVW called "Leviathan". If you haven't heard of this, that's probably because his gimmick was quickly refashioned into the guy we know today.

I feel that it was a bad move, as I believe there was untapped potentiality in this persona and that Dave could play it well. Batista is naturally ripped, and it looked good for this character. He looked like an animal. With all the extra aspects such as eye lenses, the character was complete. Leviathan was believable.

Look at him:

Now, I don't think he would be as successful as Batista, but I felt they needed to gauge it a little more instead of dropping it as fast a they did. Leviathan had potential to be a monster heel akin to Kane circa mid 90's. It was the appearance of him, he could just strike fear in you instantly.

Two other pros is that his in-ring and mic ability seem to play to this character. He is slow and uncanny in the ring. Also, he wouldn't have to have diverse mic skills as he would do more in terms of acting instead of talking, and when he did speak, it would only be a few unemotional words.

Again, I think the Batista character would be more successful than leviathan, but I think there was potential in Leviathan. He could have been a mystical beast the likes of early Kane, and they needed to explore it more.

So, do you think Leviathan should have been experimented with more? Do you think he could have been as successful as other dark, beastly characters? How much untapped potential do you think was in this charterer?

 

[Dagger Dias]

So, do you think Leviathan should have been experimented with more? Do you think he could have been as successful as other dark, beastly characters? How much untapped potential do you think was in this charterer?

Yeah, I think this could have been an interesting character. I doubt he would have been as successful in this character than he was as Batista, maybe after leaving Evolution he could have reverted to this character and said something along the lines of that being his true self, or something....

He probably would not have been as successful as other dark/beastly characters because the best dark/beastly characters were more entertaining than Batista.... (guys like the original version of Kane, and of course Taker)

However, this character might have had more potential to add more of an interesting backstory to Batista, say if they had made the two characters be different versions of him. I would have liked to have seen this character, but it's fine that we didn't because he has been very successful as Batista.

 

[PEP3]

While these kinds of 'super-natural' characters might start out intriguing, it's very rare that they stay interesting for long. Think of how well Gangrel started in the WWF...only to be a complete waste within six months. What about the The Boogeyman? Or Kevin Thorne and Ariel? Think of the assortment of failed "monsters" tried by WCW during the Dungeon of Doom days. (Think of -- or try not to! -- Kevin Nash as "Oz.")

Yes, Kane has maintained a long and productive career as a "beastly" character as well, but there was never any kind of contention that he was un-human, which was the assertion with Leviathan. He was built up as a human freak who was burnt/disfigured in a childhood fire (a fact which was conveniently forgotten when he was unmasked, unless having a bad haircut and shaved eyebrows equals "deformity").

Strapping a guy with this kind of other-worldly character just generally doesn't work. The only character which has ever really worked in this genre is The Undertaker, and that's been a true anomaly. I don't think even the WWE thought it could last too terribly long, and I would bet my ass they were shocked that he was able to go more than a year or two with the gimmick. They true shock was when they tried to move him away from this -- into the much more human "American Bad-Ass" character -- but it just wasn't as popular, so he went back.

I think for a small, regional promotion like OVW, Leviathan worked. Over the years, characters like Lord Humongous (based on a Road Warrior character) and Jason the Terrible (both based on the Friday the 13th character) have worked, as have a few other similarly "supernatural" characters, but in the long run, we all know these people are human and those gimmicks just look silly.


I believe if Batista was introduced as Leviathan, people would have very quickly been asking why he couldn't just be himself and see how far that took him. To question whether or not that character should have been given greater opportunity to develop seems especially pointless now, when in retrospect we already know the guy became a superstar within a year of his debut.

That kind of speculation is generally reserved for when a guy's push flops. For Batista, it's been anything BUT a failure, so why question his success?

 

[Pure]

I agree with PEP3.

'Super-Natural' characters' are a interesting thought at first, but after the long run they run tired and everyone forgets that they even were "evil" in the first place.

The Undertaker of course is one of these characters, that in the long run, worked out. But look at characters' like, Gangrel and Kevin Thorn, both of these characters had the "Strange, Strong, Super-Natural, Beast, Invincible." Now if you look at them, "Kevin Thorn" is getting an extreme makeover in FCW or some other lost land nobody knows about, And I have not heard from Gangrel in years.

Batista as this character would have not worked, period. It would have been booking at its worst. It would be adding another useless character to a full roster that would have just been dropped once everyone noticed how stupid it was.

And yes, Batista alone right now is doing great with his "Animal" gimmick, and is in a World Title picture.

In my opinion, if Batista would have been Leviathan for to long, he would be a gimmick after thought.

P.S. Creative...Kevin Thorn nor Mordicai worked for him, so you might want to go for something, I don't know, something normal.

 

[jlwiseman]

Batista hated the Leviathan gimmick though. I was in OVW around the time he was there and he was constantly grumbling in the back about how horrible the gimmick was and how awful being in OVW was. He has had nothing kind to say about OVW and that is a shame because the people who run the promotion are first class and know how to work a show.

I do not think Leviathan would have been successful in the WWE because Batista simply would not have let it be. If Nick Dinsmore, who was a natural worker and had a natural look, had stood up to creative and said, hey, you know, this Eugene thing kind of sucks, come up with something else, he would probably still be there even if on Smackdown.

I think the WWE lost an opportunity to bring Dinsmore and Conway up as a babyface tag team, they popped the girly demographic in OVW and I believe they would have been just as successful on a national stage.

 

[WhyTravisFelt]

I'm not quite sure the point of asking this question. Why mess around with a successful marketable thing? You could just as easily asked why not let him keep with Deacon Batista, see if there is any juice left in that? Maybe they never really explored John Cena's "Doctor of Thugonomics/Marky Mark" gimmick? There's no point to rely on cheap gimmicks, supernatural or otherwise, when you can get over better with your own gimmick-free character. I also have trouble understanding how "untapped potential" could arguably outweigh "overwhelming quickly-gained success". Why even bother talking about untapped potential in this situation? Like "Stunning" Steve Austin? Diamond Stud? Oz? Isaac Yankem, DDS?

I suppose some argument could be made that if he was Leviathan in WWE before becoming Batista than he could've been bigger than he is now which I'll put the odds of that at about one in a thousand.

 

[PEP3]

I suppose some argument could be made that if he was Leviathan in WWE before becoming Batista than he could've been bigger than he is now which I'll put the odds of that at about one in a thousand.

You're being pretty generous there! I mean, the man is a multiple-time World champ, so I don't see how this gimmick would have gotten him more over. If anything, a supernatural gimmick would have prevented him from participating in the EVOLUTION storyline, which is what truly propelled him to stardom. Seriously, can you imagine Ric Flair trying to roll with some "demon from the deep"?! No, I don't think so. Colossal fail.

 

[King Douche]

Supernatural gimmicks have no place for wrestling, Taker was lucky it got pulled off in the first place, but no super natural gimmicks do not work in this business or should not be allowed. I mean you need to draw the line somewhere. That gimmick would of sucked on Batista just like the deacon Batista gimmick did back in 2002. Batista's fine with this Miami Vice crap they got going on now with him lol.

 

[Tastycles]

While I'm not sure about the Leviathan character itself, I never saw it, but it seems to be a little far fetched and ridiculous, even by wrestling standards. However, Batista would have had much more positive reviews throughout his career, had he been a monster heel. Batista is possibly one of the worst mic talkers in history to grace the main event, and in the ring he is monotonous. These things are expected in monster heels, and he'd have been fine. I'm really not sure why anyone likes Batista now, and I'm not sure that anyone truly does, I do know I'd like him more if he had always been a monster heel.