10 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE SmackDown From 2008
2. Batista’s Forgotten Shot At Shawn Michaels
Until now, you probably thought that Batista only pretended to have a big ol' machine gun during his entrances. It turns out that Dave was packing some artillery all along, because he went shoot, shoot, shooting on the 4 April '08 episode of SmackDown. That doesn't sound too bad at first glance, but it was kinda out of place.
Batista blasted Shawn Michaels for retiring Ric Flair at WrestleMania XXIV. Throughout his promo, Dave kinda made it sound like HBK had pushed Ric in front of an oncoming train, or something. It was overkill. He also went into shoot mode by suggesting that things would be different if Michaels would do the job just once in his career.
That, dear readers, made no sense.
Y'see, Shawn in 2008 wasn’t the same as Shawn in the 1990s. He’d done plenty of jobs, and everyone agreed he’d changed big time, so this didn’t really fit. Most could see what they were going for, but it was a little too late in the day to be calling Michaels a selfish sort. It wasn't his fault that Ric had a retirement angle hanging over him.
If Batista was suggesting that HBK should've willingly laid on his back and let Flair pin him at 'Mania, then he was naive at best. Someone really should've ironed out the specifics of this promo before sending him through the curtain, 'cause Davey boy just looked like an absolute whiner here.
Shawn sort of/almost/kinda agreeing with his sentiments helped, but the whole crux of Batista's argument was skewed. He was calling Michaels selfish whilst demanding that he look out for Flair's selfish needs instead.