The Better Heel or Face: Batista

[cmedge]

Batista had one hell of a run during his time in WWE. Even though he got injured billions of times, he still proved to be pretty relevent. Batista was Ok as a heel during his Evolution run. Batista gained tons of popularity for his amazing face turn in 2005. Batista was actually a believable face, In 2005 Batista and John Cena were both the face of the company. Batista was a little more over than John Cena. Batista then got injured and returned as a horrible, boring face had a couple of boring World Title reigns. Nothing special and he basically got injured a bunch of times. Then he turned heel. He became so much better as a heel. His mic skills improved so much, he was a believable heel. I just wish he was heel for longer. I wish he returned in 2006 and turned heel. That would have been awesome. So Is Batista The Better Face or Heel?

 

[Chill]

For me, Batista was absolutely at his best earlier this year when he played the heel. I agree, as a face he became stale, couldn't really cut the sort of promos a main event face typically does and didn't really display all that much of a personality in that role. That all changed when WWE finally pulled the trigger and turned him heel against Rey...his mic work become much more believable, he seemed more comfortable delivering heelish promos and he appeared energized in his feud with Cena leading up to Wrestlemania.

That, combined with his flash look and intimidating physique all combined to make Batista possibly the best main event heel WWE had at the time. Overall, it may not have been that he was an amazing heel so much as he was so overdue a heel turn that it was no longer funny, but yeah, I have to say I enjoyed Batista as a heel in 2010. If he returns, he should remain a heel...

 

[Shamalanighya]

Well, if you are going by how watchable and how well he played his heel character. I guess I would go heel. Because I do believe he played that character closer to what he is in real life, it just felt natural.

On the other hand if you go by matches he wrestled I think he is better as a face. Hear me out. I dont think Batista ever feuded with Taker as a heel, but can we all agree Batista's best matches ever were against Taker? I still believe his match with Taker at Mania is Batista's shining moment as a wrestler, he has never and if he ever comes back will never top that match in my eyes.

 

[Farse]

I think his heel run this year was the best work of his career. It seemed natural. Seemed like he was just being himself x 1000...... (Note: Not saying he's a dick in real life. I never met the guy. Just saying that he was so good at it, that it was very believeable that he might be one outside the world of wrestling). His intial face run after turning on Triple H was good, but lost momentum quickly. It became stale-ish like many have said. If he ever came back for a short stint/ last run, I wouldnt imagine him being a face. Its rare that someone comes back as a heel. I would imagine that WWe would play up his return...

I think he gets a bad wrap from alot of folks for being a terrible wrestler. I think he played his role well. He was a powerhouse. Did power moves. Nothing finesse or flashy about him. He was straight foward.... Not everyone needs to be Brock Lesnar as a powerhouse or should be technically sound like Daniel Bryan...I digress though. This is not about him as a wrestler. I did enjoy his match against Taker. Was very good and probally his best...

 

[FunKay the Inevitable]

While he served longer as a face, Batista, as a main eventer, is much better (and more natural) as a heel. Initially as a face Batista was fairly solid, ending the tyranny that was the diabolical monopoly of the Raw World Title that Triple H had set-up. He took down the Game on not one but three straight PPV's, including WrestleMania & inside Hell in a cell. That's unprecedented. He held on for several months, defeating the likes of JBL & Eddie Guerrero before being forced to drop the championship due to injury. It's at this point that Batista as a face began to become stale.

His runs in 2006 & 2007 as a face were rather bland. His chase after King Booker and the World Heavyweight Title was dull and his personality (as well as his backstage respect) was in the toilet. His best in-ring year was probably in 2007, but that was mainly due to him playing the more tweener character against a face Undertaker and against the hottest heel at the time in Edge. he remained dull in 2008 and 2009, until he turned heel on Rey Mysterio. It was in that moment where Batista reinvented himself and became a far better character.

His heel run has seen him get almost Universal respect as he began to come across as far more natural in his roll and he even put together a wide array of good in-ring performances (after being labelled as Boretista by many) His feud with John Cena was highlighted by several fantastic promos and three good to great PPV matches, including one at WrestleMania.

 

[MMSoldier]

I say heel. He had more chances and better stories when he was heel. I can't remember the last time something had me as intrested as batista-cena.

 

[GangstaPriest15]

Heel all the way for me. Unless they have an amazing aura of charisma about them, most big guys do better as heels IMO. Batista was a monster in his heel tenures. I absolutely love seeing these mammoth guys and watching as the E just lets em wreak havoc. Its more of a realistic feeling. When Batista would just powerbomb the crap out of somebody repeatedly it was insane.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

I would definitely have to go with heel Batista. During his Evolution days, Batista was just the big scary enforcer who would do Triple H's dirty work, but his hell turn at Bragging Rights last year was done so well. His viscous attack on Rey Mysterio made him look like a monster. I enjoyed his feud with Cena, and I think Batista was peaking as a heel during this time. He was arrogant, flashy, and you could believe this guy was a real dick.

If you ask me, Batista's run as face kind of peaked out after his feud with Triple H. I gained interest in him again once the feud with The Undertake began, because I thought these two worked very well together, and they managed to put on some good matches. Still, there were plenty of times where Batista did seem kind of stale as face. I wish we could've seen more of him as a heel.

 

[LitasRevenge79]

I definitely say he got bigger impact as a heel, despite having BIG time impact on both sides of the fence, but the heel was something everyone had the , because if you are a female and ever had the unfortunate pleasure of encountering him, or read about his many wonderful encounters in his bio, you know it probably isn't much of a stretch for him. But the heel was something funny to watch, to see him crying about this or that, and how such a big, muscular man would whine about not getting his chance at something.

He was basically the WWE's answer to Kanye West in a sense, how supposedly (thinking he was god's gift), he felt like he should've been the face of everything. Even at a house show I was at, the dude spent 20 minutes flexing his man-boobs (ala Masters' peck dance) trying to impress them. LOL. Who didn't LOVE the "Batista loves fish-sticks" sign at WM 26? You knew it had to be eating at him to NOT get that same adoration he was used to having before, and the fact he wasn't chosen for whatever supposed WWE project that was given to HHH, according to the dirt sheets.

 

[Ferbian]

Batista to me has always been a better heel. No matter what period of time he has wrestled, in Evolution he was a better heel as well as in 2010. Batista just has that brutality, that cockiness and everything that screams heelish.

Batista's way of wrestling in the ring, his promo abilities. Everything about him has a heel attitude, and while he certainly made it work brilliantly as a face back in 2005 and onwards. He just comes more natural as a heel. He cuts better promos as a heel, which can be CLEARLY showed in 2010 as opposed to what he managed to cut back in the days as a face.

So it should be pretty obvious that Batista is a better heel.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

Batista was certainly a better heel. His initial face turn was awesome and I'd say he was even hotter than Cena at that point but that might be expected because Batista turned against Triple H while Cena stood up to JBL. And we all know that Triple H was more hated than JBL at that point.

But Batista lost steam as a face as he progressed. None of his other feuds as face are memorable in the least. Whenever he started to get mildly interesting as a face, he would get injured. He ultimately turned heel in around 2009 and had a very entertaining feud with Rey Mysterio before main eventing Wrestlemania with Cena. The promos he cut against Cena are the best promos he has ever cut. I wouldn't say that there was a considerable improvement as far as his matches are concerned but then I have never enjoyed his matches. But the mic work was top notch and above my expectations.

 

[Mr. Artistic guy]

I wasn't watching wrestling from about 2002-08 at all so I've got a limited scope on his work, but for me his heel turn against mysterio and run up to wrestlemania absolutely pissed on anything that personally I had seen him do. He had about 2 years of forgetability for me, than etched out by 4 or so months of major impact on me. At the time I was asking myself who was playing a better part as a heel, CM Punk or batista, tahst how caught up I was in it all.

For me based upon the two years I watched him for, heel easily.