7 Greatest Backfires In Wrestling History
4. Batista's Return
At the very end of 2013, WWE broke major news on Raw - multiple time world champion Batista, who had left the company of his own volition in 2010, would finally be making a comeback. He returned the following month, drawing huge ratings for his long-awaited Raw arrival.
Unfortunately, fans tired of Batista almost immediately - they were much more interested in a push for crowd favourite Daniel Bryan. Nevertheless, WWE stuck to their plans, and soon after his return, Batista was crowned the winner of the 2014 Royal Rumble. Fans absolutely rejected "The Animal" from that point on, and he couldn't buy a good reaction from crowds across the country.
Still, WWE planned to go with a Batista-Randy Orton WrestleMania main event, one that would undoubtedly have been one of the more disappointing ones in company history. Daniel Bryan, meanwhile, was penciled in for another match with Sheamus at the show of shows. It wasn't until CM Punk walked out of the company that the card was reshuffled and, eventually, Bryan was put into the main event.
In the end, circumstances led to a great WrestleMania, but WWE's good fortune was purely that. Batista's return as a babyface was a flop, and WWE very nearly rode that wave of antipathy to a terrible show.