WrestleMania title shot: Lost to Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania XXX This is still fresh in fans minds, but its safe to say that history will not be kind to Batista, even if he doesnt really deserve all the criticism. Batista returned to WWE last year to much fanfare after a four-year absence, immediately declaring that it was his goal to win the Royal Rumble and headline WrestleMania. While fans (and WWE) definitely missed having some star power on Raw, Batista (and the WWE brass) had an obstacle in his path: massive fan favorite Daniel Bryan. Fans had pretty much married themselves to the idea of Bryan winning the Rumble and overcoming the Authority once and for all by capturing the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. When that didnt happen at the Rumble, fans revolted. Batistas mega-push was dead before the Rumble match itself had ended. He would be shunted into a secondary role as WWE scrambled to shoehorn Bryan into the main event, where he would give fans what they desperately wanted. Worse yet, Batista was the one who tapped out and he still never got his one-on-one title match.
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 fortunately became a fan in time for WrestleMania III and came back as a fan after a long high school hiatus before WM XIV. Monday nights in the Carlson household are reserved for viewing Raw -- for better or worse.
