From @BeardyJonKenobi: How do you think WWE will handle the crowd heat on Batista?
It's pretty simple to me: a heel turn. While WWE seems to think that fans are automatically going to cheer Batista because he's a former top guy, the reality is that fans don't seem to care about him. You know why? Because he doesn't come across as a sympathetic guy or a legend in the same way that men like Shawn Michaels or The Undertaker do. Batista comes off as an arrogant guy who has few likable qualities about him. Just because he yells periodically or tries to fire up the crowd doesn't make him nice. The reason he went in 2005 was largely because he was opposing Triple H, who was the top heel. Then he faced other heels and he did fine, but he was better when he turned heel. What's interesting is that right now he's positioned as the babyface that will challenge for the WWE WHC at WrestleMania, but if he faces Randy Orton at WrestleMania the fans are going to boo him. WWE has two months to fix it. Will they? I hope so. If they don't add Daniel Bryan as the third man in that match then they are going to have an angry crowd of 70,000 people to deal with. I wish Batista luck because he has a tough situation to deal with. Fans aren't going to care about his rivalry with Del Rio. Fans are sick of that guy. They want something new. This doesn't feel new even though they never interacted before. It just feels boring. Turn Batista heel sooner rather than later. It's what he's better at and it's what the fans want anyway.
John wrote at WhatCulture from December 2013 to December 2015. It was fun, but it's over for now. Follow him on Twitter @johnreport. You can also send an email to mrjohncanton@gmail.com with any questions or comments as well.
