10 Wrestlers Too Big To Fail (That Failed Anyway)

Batista’s rocket rise to the WWE main event in 2005 changed his life. Never as gifted a wrestler as his mentor Triple H or as good on the stick as John Cena, ‘The Animal’ had an intense charisma as his selling point.

When he left in 2010 to pursue acting as a second career, most predicted he’d find some small success, realise it wasn’t for him and head back to the WWE sooner rather than later. And in December 2013, vignettes began to air publicising his January return. Batista was booked to win the Royal Rumble and face Randy Orton at WrestleMania XXX.

Why did it backfire so spectacularly? Well, the company made two mistakes: dismissing the crowd’s overwhelming desire to see Daniel Bryan as the focal point of the show, and booking Batista as a babyface, under the mistaken impression that all returning stars would be treated like conquering heroes.

WWE had read the room wrong - but to their credit, once they finally figured that out, they set about solving the problem with the same creativity that characterised Batista’s rise to the top nine years earlier. Bryan was added to the main event and pinned Batista himself to give the crowd the greatest WrestleMania main event and moment in years.

And Dave himself? At loggerheads with the office over creative, he quit again in June, but with Guardians Of The Galaxy in his back pocket. Filmed the previous year, it was released in July 2014... and it changed his life once again.