Dave Batista to Return

[skbucks1985]

Punk looked like he belonged in the stands on the same screen as Rock with his hoodie and gym shorts.

Yet that match still did the best Rumble numbers since 2002.

[kblo247]

Yeah it drew, buy the point remains ... The guy looked out of place, which I've never got with punk because he dresses down so much it takes away from his appeal in casual attire. It was rock challenging for the wwe title for the first time in over 10 years, we could draw there.

For what it's worth jan 20 according to commercials

[skbucks1985]

Why, because you say so? You are the first person I have ever heard or read say that because of his attire Punk looked out of place in that segment.

[kblo247]

You ever been on wf? It was said a lot how he looked out of place alongside Rock, average joe

[skbucks1985]

No, i haven't. But I'm guessing there was probably a handful of people saying it. I don't know what the exact number is but II'm certain it was a lot less than the 15k people he had in the palm of his hands in that segment.

[kblo247]

Perception is probably skewed from years of wf battles back and forward of smalls vs big, Indy guy, credibility, and all ... Those threads to on forever.

Lets just agree to disagree for right now, see what happens, and then assess things after SummerSlam

[skbucks1985]

I can definitely relate to that idea of sometimes not realizing just how small the universe we live in is in comparison to the larger population.

[kblo247]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeuShEXP_2Y[/youtube]

[Starkiller]

8 years? Batista retired in 2010. That's a little over 3 and half exactly.

In order he worked a mma match because he said he had that on a bucket list and never wanted to make a career out of it, saw his daughter graduate from school and go off to college which he said was important to him on a personal level, opened a gym, got Titus ONeil employed, did man with the iron fist, did riddick, and then got a role gotg. He also stopped by at nxt and hosted a performance center session months ago.

He is better than punk or Bryan. Bryan's over in terms of chants but has some of the worst buyrates attached to his big matches, low ratings dating back to his sd run, and so on. Dave was a sell out around the world, main evented mania as a face because he could draw, drew on raw and sd, worked some of the better matches in the company. Heck there was a 3 year period where Batista worked more dates including live events than anyone on. The roster including Cena. Punk and Bryan can be said as better in the ring but not as assets. The summer of punk did diddly, 400 days did diddly, and so on while Batista actually could headline a brand by himself. He's a better asset and easily the biggest star since Cena and is a different tier from guys like Edge, Orton, Jericho, Punk, and Bryan in the history books as they even acknowledged that being Vince and trips in his documentary ... He was an A player, not a B

I actually read through this Batista blowfest of a thread until that bolded part and I stopped to post this, you have absolutely no remote clue what you are talking about and should just stop. That is literally one of the worst wrestling opinions I have ever hear.

[kblo247]

He is better in grand scheme than Punk or Bryan, like Trips was better than Jericho or Eddie, like Warrior was better than Steamboat or Perfect. He's the better and bigger star, as in more important

[whysoserious]

Did you just use Ultimate Warrior as a big star?

If you want to use the Vince McMahon decision basis of who's a star than you're right that Bautista and Warrior are stars cause they fit his vision. But the Warrior was pretty much a flop as a big star when he won the title from Hogan.

Bautista was nothing more than a bit player as a champion too.

Mr. Perfect was actually next in line to take the title from Hogan and was probably the top star, his injuries held him back but they also opened the door for Bret to take the title, who was far more successful than Bautista ever was and when Bret won the title, he became the first small guy to hold the title to open the era of good wrestlers actually holding that title which led to Shawn Michaels. And then on down the line.

Vince will always prefer big guys, that's been his vision forever but this is a rigged sport so pointing to a guy on top or holding the title as being better than someone else is completely flawed. There's reasons that go beyond why Mr Perfect or Steamboat never held the title. There's a lot of politics in this sport. The fact that Bautista is close to trips and Vince will mean he's always put in a better position than Punk or Bryan. But Punk and Bryan are far superior to anything Bautista could ever do.

I should add that Savage was also instrumental in getting the smilers guys chances as champion.

[studcrackers]

There is a logical progression of smalls to beat bigs but it was built up over time. HBK beat bigs over time, and was always talked up as the WWEs best big match player, their best ever to perform in a ring, and so on so when he faced someone he was always believable.

Rey, let's ignore WCW outright because wwe really does when it comes to him short of some old documentary. The wwe doesn't on screen on their main programs promote what Nash and crew did Rey, the filthy animals, or him being unmasked for example. They really treat Rey like a wwe guy, not some Indy guy who made it big, not a ship jumper, and not some Mexican jumping bean like the mexicools and sin Cara. They booked Rey against Cws where he dominated. Then they moved him up to heavyweights. He didn't win initially, hell he got his ass badly kicked by Kane, show, Brock, Khali, and the like. Over time he kept coming back, kept being played up on TV as getting better, and then he started beating them clean. He started slowly and gradually making the climb to being seen as just a wrestler with no weight class like Michaels.

I use Rey as example because that's doing it right compared to Punk and Bryan. Punk has never beat any top guy on his own convincingly. In fact to be blunt, even when he had help he's protected as getting his ass beat historically. Rey beat him and the whole SES by himself, big show tossed him around, taker squashed him in one of the fastest cell matches there was, he never once beat Cena clean, and Rock laid his ass out after run ins. Punks 400 day reign saw him struggling to beat midcarders like Kofi by himself without cheating and it saw the likes of Kofi shrugging off his strikes. Then he went from that to fighting and hurting Brock Lesnar, former UFC champion, last undisputed wwe champ, and so on. It's no logic to that, no level or disbelief suspension, it just makes casuals say **** this **** you're kidding me unlike when its a Cena or Trips trading blows with the guy. Even Bryan is problematic because he was the weak link who lost the tag titles, was squashed in 18secs at WM, and he didn't even earn a title match was just given one by Cena while Total divas shows them being basically brother in laws. Bryan went from no solid build or momentum, and he just knocked Cena out at the second biggest ppv of the year in Hollywood clean and it fell flat. They screwed up, where Rey or Michaels can believably conquer anyone because they had foundation to do so, these two lil Indy guys are now fighting Brock Lesnar and John Cena out the blue evenly on a Hollywood stage ... Diehards, some of us, we can outright love the match but the problem is you're not selling the attraction to casuals to bite their teeth into it, and Punk/Bryan weren't ready for that stage or to be those opponents from a business nor booking sense.

do you not understand how wwe books faces and heels?

[kblo247]

Trips scored big as he according to Meltzer talked Dave into a multi year deal