SPECIALIST - SMACKDOWN: Has Batista been a good champion?

the sunbabe wan

I DONT know if this article was put up recently, but i spotted it a while ago and yeah i know this was written about 2 months ago i think. it's a good article and it does have a couple of good points..

SPECIALIST - SMACKDOWN: Has Batista been a good champion?

By Doron Barbalat, PWTorch.com Smackdown Specialist
Jan 2, 2006, 11:15


To most fans, 2005 was not the best year to be a wrestling fan. Compared to previous years, neither WWE brand put together the great matches we’ve been used to in the past. Naturally, part of the blame for that must lie on the respective champions of Raw and Smackdown, John Cena and Batista. Those two were given the most main events of any men on their shows, and since the main events are often given the most amount of the time and build, should have been the best matches on their shows. Neither Cena nor Batista managed to do so on a regular basis.

Cena, as champion, wasn’t terrible in terms of his in ring work. While he was given many chances to work with great wrestlers and in great gimmick matches, you can’t disagree that in those cases, Cena was successful. At Judgment Day, Cena and JBL battled in a great I Quit Match, and later in the year, he a good series of matches with both Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle.

Batista on the other hand, hasn’t been that good in the ring. His feud with Triple H produced a set of solid matches, though none of them managed to be all that memorable. Batista later engaged in a long feud with JBL, where the matches were far worse than those with HHH.

So if its clear that in the ring John Cena had the best year, than why is that Cena gets booed while Batista, night after night, is cheered without question?

Despite less-than-average main event match quality, Batista has been a very good champion.

Batista became champion in April by defeating Triple H. Triple H was the largely stale Raw champion at the time, and Batista was red-hot in his chase for the title, coming off one of the greatest babyface turns in recent memories. It was Batista’s first WrestleMania main event appearance, and the fifth for Triple H. With the overall great build up for their main event at WrestleMania, the Batista-led show shocked most estimation with a fantastic buyrate – one of WWE’s all-time best.

Batista was drafted to Smackdown in July, and immediately became the brand’s top star. Clearly, the move was aimed at capitalizing on the marketability of John Cena by placing him on WWE’s flagship show. Batista was sent to Smackdown, often called the ‘B-show’, with the feeling that he was the champion with the least potential. To this day, fans have stood solidly behind Batista, while Cena’s diminishing popularity has caused a major problem for the creative team.

Batista feuded with John Bradshaw Layfield throughout the summer. A year prior, JBL filled the summer by feuding with the Undertaker, in a feud that was often damaged by terrible crowd reactions to both participants.

In September, Batista became a perfect representation for Smackdown. Like their champion, Smackdown was dumped. In their case, it was to Friday nights, a terrible slot for TV programming geared towards WWE’s audience.

With the transition to Friday nights came another transition for Batista, as he entered into a feud with Eddie Guerrero. The feud/storyline between the two was great. It benefited from Batista’s fantastic ability to display subtle reactions as well as Guerrero’s incredible acting range. The feud gave fans a reason to go out of their way to tune in to or tape the weekly Smackdown show, even if it was on a Friday night. Even when teasing problems with the mega-popular Guerrero, Batista was always cheered.

To end out the year, Batista teamed with Rey Mysterio. Despite towering over Mysterio, Batista managed to never seem corny or like a 1980’s babyface.

There’s something about Batista that makes him the perfect top-level babyface. Sure, it would be nice if he could have the amazing matches that Brock Lesnar had in his role two years ago, but then again, I have doubts that Brock could ever have a championship reign as solid as Batista’s has been.

Most people this year have been most intrigued with the title reign of John Cena. Most opinions stemmed on keeping Cena original and not a hybrid of Steve Austin and the Rock. As the year progressed, Cena added a Hulk Hogan element to his make up.

Batista, on the other hand, managed to create a unique character. Sure, there were instances when he rebelled against authority and battled back when the deck was stacked against him, but with Teddy Long as Smackdown’s GM, Batista was generally just given chances to go out to the ring and wrestle. And in most cases, he was dominant.

Most of all, however, Batista had his one different quality. Being subtle has set Batista apart from every other WWE and World Champion since the don of the Attitude era. Outside of the ring, Batista was an often soft-spoken wrestler who never seemed to get very worked up. Inside the ring, he was an intense animal. With Batista, the contrast works. Asides from the little thumbs up/thumbs down and rope shaking things he does, Batista largely avoids playing to the crowd in his matches. The crowds don’t seem to mind. All it takes for Batista to get them back on his side should the need arise is a little crack of a smile or shake of his head.

In the age of twenty-minute promos, Batista as the headliner for Smackdown is a definite breath of fresh air. In the era of gigantic men fighting up-and-down the cards, it takes a great performer to stand out from the pack.

In the year 2005, Dave Batista was one hell of a great champion.

source: http://www.pwtorch.com/artman/publis...le_15730.shtml

yak_kadafi

yea i do agree that batista was a good champ...altho he wasnt the greatest wrestler...he did make up for it it with him gimmick and on the mic......
we did see when 2006 was nearing that he had a few terrible injuries and regardless of what anyone says I gotta hand it to the guy for willing to work through those injuries....
It was only when he got the torn tricept(which amazingly he was also willing to work through) that WWE management refused to allow him to do so.I would like to see him as champ again for sure but somehow I think that is unlikely that we will see him as the wwe champ

the sunbabe wan

I DISAGREE WITH U there... i do think he will be wwe champion, he was a far better champion than john cena currently is.... least batista has been consistant....

yak_kadafi

the sunbabe wan wrote:

I DISAGREE WITH U there... i do think he will be wwe champion, he was a far better champion than john cena currently is.... least batista has been consistant....

dont get me wrong i'd LOVE to see him as champ again but it seems like WWE wanna give the title to younger stars and it did emerge late last year that they looked at batista's age(nearly 40),and were lookin for someone younger to get control of the title....
When batista does come back I dont expect WWE to make him a number 1 contender straight away........however I would like to see him and Orton go at it

Vince135792003

I think they might be hesitant given his injury history to give him the belt for a long stretch again. But he'll be in the main event picture. I can easily see them doing Orton V Batista for Summerslam.

J.R.HARTLEY

Vince135792003 wrote:

I think they might be hesitant given his injury history to give him the belt for a long stretch again. But he'll be in the main event picture. I can easily see them doing Orton V Batista for Summerslam.

what a build up you could do on that dating back to the evolution days in 2004, it could be a great feud, with something sadly missing in a lot of wwe tile feuds these days, history and reason.