8 Wrestling Heels Who Took Real Hatred And Turned It Into Heat

4. Batista

He never stood a chance. WWE, in an almost unfathomable display of not knowing what their fans wanted, brought back Batista to face Randy Orton at Wrestlemania 30 for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. He made a hero's return on RAW and proceeded to win the Royal Rumble one week later. And the fans were ready to execute him for it, because they had other plans for the main event. They wanted Daniel Bryan, the man who had briefly sniffed at the title throughout late 2013 but was constantly denied it, on the grounds that he a B+ player. The fans were convinced that this was going somewhere, and so, when a moviestar returned from Hollywood, visibly out of wrestling shape, sporting shades and skinny jeans and snatched the top spot from Bryan after four years away, the fans revolted. Bootista was born. The onslaught of negative emotion was staggering, so much so that after the fans booed his Rumble win out of the building the returning babyface flipped off the crowd. The WWE persisted with his face run throughout a feud with Alberto Del Rio at Elimination Chamber. Del Rio had never received such fan support. The company eventually relented as, almost at gunpoint, turned Batista heel and inserted Daniel Bryan in the title picture. Finally, Bootista made sense. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib6dFfpB9Is The flatcap, the skinny jean, it all started to pay off as, not only was The Animal the perfect villain to topple for Bryan at Mania, it opened the door for a Evolution reunion, which in turn led to a fantastic feud between them and The Shield.