10 Part-Timers Who Screwed With The WWE Roster

5. No Animals Were Harmed In The Making Of This Movie

Reams and reams have been written about the ill-fated decision to bring Batista back as a babyface in January 2014.

As everyone knows, the intent was that he would receive a hero's welcome that would roll him right into the Royal Rumble victor's slot and a sure title victory at WrestleMania XXX. Everyone knows how badly that idea fell to pieces, and about the change in direction WWE ended up going for instead. Everyone knows that Dave Bautista warned them long in advance that the crowd wouldn't take to him as a babyface, but they assured him he was wrong. "The fans love you, Dave!"

Well, after Guardians Of The Galaxy, maybe they did, but they were still not sold on 'The Animal'. The problem was - and it's the thing that kind of gets lost in all the rhetoric about Daniel Bryan - Batista wasn't coming back in to put someone over, or to add a little star power to a depleted roster. No, he was coming back in to coincide with the release of the aforementioned Marvel movie in which he had a starring role. He was coming back to win the Royal Rumble, march on down the road to WrestleMania and win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship from Randy Orton.

There wasn't much of a plan after that, but Batista had movies to make, so he absolutely wasn't sticking around. A part-timer coming in to win the most popular match of the year and the most fêted title opportunity of the year, going on to main event the biggest show of the year and win the top title in the company, just because he was in a movie or two? The fans knew who they wanted in that spot, and it damn sure wasn't a forty-five year old grandfather in skinny jeans.