6. Deacon Batista To The Animal Batista
You have to wonder if the same genius who came up with The Spirit Squad thought that a wrestling deacon was also a good idea. Dave Bautista was stripped of his great Leviathan gimmick that he used in OVW, the WWEs developmental territory at the time, and was paired up with the newly repackaged Reverend D-Von (see 10 New Gimmicks That Failed Dismally article for more details on that one.) as his enforcer, Deacon Batista. Yeah, the WWE fans were about as inspired by the gimmick as you are reading this. Wrestling and the clergy have never mixed well and the man predicted by Jim Cornette to headline a future WrestleMania seemed to be lost in the shuffle. That is until he was repackaged, dropping the Deacon outfit, being renamed as simply Batista and was added to the Evolution stable along with Triple H, Randy Orton and Ric Flair, a WWE attempt at remaking The Four Horsemen. All of a sudden, Batista was big time. A charismatic big man with a huge physique, his limitations could be hidden by the other three seasoned campaigners alongside him. Evolution then split, with Batista turning babyface. He won the World Heavyweight Championship from former stablemate Triple H in the main event of WrestleMania 21, and then spent the rest of his time in the WWE firmly sitting at the top of the card. He was the typical Vince McMahon headliner. Batista ended up becoming a four time World Heavyweight Champion in the WWE, and had an excellent match with The Undertaker at WrestleMania 23. He quit the company, and the wrestling business, in 2010, stating that he didnt like the PG direction that the WWE was heading in. He returned to the WWE in January this year, where its safe to say that the reception he received wasnt what he was expecting. But its also safe to say that if he was still a Deacon, he wouldnt have returned at all.