7 Ups And 8 Downs From WWE Raw (Dec 9)

5. A Deserving Headliner

Batista HOF
WWE

The number of slam-dunk WWE Hall of Fame headliners are dwindling as the years roll on, but most people can agree that Batista was a no-brainer.

The Animal is a six-time world champion, four-time tag champ and two-time Royal Rumble winner. More importantly, he was one of the dominant stars of the 2000s, with a solid main-event run on both Raw and SmackDown. Batista evolved from being a prototypical “big man” with power moves to having legitimate good to great matches. He worked on his promos and developed his character, with his spotlight-craving heel being gold.

And then Batista parlayed that success into a successful Hollywood career, where he’s become a star in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Drax the Destroyer. Shortly after the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, he returned to WWE and had a brief run with the company, to mixed reviews. However, you couldn’t fault him for his effort – but you could blame the writers for booking Hollywood Dave as a babyface when fans wanted no one but Daniel Bryan on top.

Batista retired last year after a final WrestleMania match against Triple H this year, putting a cap on a successful career and setting up this announcement of going into the Hall of Fame in 2020.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.