10 Predictions For John Cena’s WrestleMania 34 Opponent

8. Dave Batista

Cena Omega WrestleMania 34
Columbia Pictures/MGM

Dave Batista's career in Hollywood has pleasingly gone from strength to strength since his scene-stealing effort in Guardians of the Galaxy signalled his intent to follow The Rock's trajectory as a mainstream big screen adonis.

It'll have been particularly gratifying for 'The Animal' too, having been so profoundly rejected by a core section of his fanbase during a troubled 2014 return to the ring.

Brought back as the company-selected babyface in a failed effort to distract the audience from the hero they really wanted, Big Dave was caught in the crossfire of a battle of wills between the crowd and the company over Daniel Bryan's WrestleMania trajectory.

When it became painfully apparent at Royal Rumble 2014 that Batista would be the one to face dishwater-dull WWE Champion Randy Orton at the 'Show Of Shows', a vocal majority turned on the former Evolution monster, and never turned back.

Better as a heel anyway, Batista steered into the disdain, but the verbal thrashings clearly took a toll and he was gone again in under six months.

Now charting his own course into films and television, John Cena's recent career move has caused the continuation of comparisons between the two. As both WWE and box office giants, a WrestleMania XXVI rematch would offer lucrative promotional gains should the company convince Batista to don the trunks once more.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett