Greetings friends in the wrestling world and welcome to another edition of The People’s Column. If you have not had the chance, you should also check out my 10 Thoughts on Raw, posted every Monday night. It’s like 10 little short, concise columns with my trademark wit and awesomeness. Also, my wrestling blognis getting more popular by the day at itswilltime.wordpress.com. Now that I’ve been shamelessly self promotional, I must apologize that my weekly column seems to be becoming bi-weekly. Alas, we are just weeks away from summer, when I should be able to focus my attention on wrestling instead of school.
Since the blockbuster promo by Batista leading up to Wrestlemania XXVI, where he stated that John Cena was the poster-boy of WWE when he should I have been, I have been wondering something. Who was really supposed to be the poster-boy?
Let’s recap the era that was 2005-2006. First, there was Wrestlemania 21. Both men achieved the crowning moments of their WWE careers there. One year after “it all began again” at Wrestlemania XX a new era began at Wrestlemania 21. Both men were put over strongly by their rivals and walked out with world championships.
The next moment came in the 2005 WWE Draft, where these two men switched brands, after effectively finishing their rivalries that began at Wrestlemania. Batista was put over by the face of WWE for 2003-2005 and John Cena was put over by JBL. Looking at this alone, it seems obvious that Batista was destined to be the man.
Both men continued to defend their championships throughout 2005. Batista was limited by the lack of depth on the Smackdown roster (and exposed as lacking some ability in the ring). John Cena was faithfully carrying the Raw brand. Then came one of the first weeks in 2006. In the space of one week, Cena lost his WWE championship due to the first Money in the Bank cash in and Batista was forced to forfeit his championship due to injury. Both men who were crowned at ‘Mania were dethroned.
The path that Batista took from here was a difficult one. He was plagued by injuries that kept him out of action until Summer 2006, where he was thrust into a feud with Mark Henry. He had a slow path back to the championship, which he won at Survivor Series by defeating King Booker. He was back on top, but severely exposed as a performer and WWE seemed to be lacking in confidence in him.
John Cena, on the other hand, regained his belt just three weeks later and held it until One Night Stand 2006, where he lost in an amazing brawl with RVD (the last great match that RVD had). Due to drug use on the part of RVD, the title was switched to Edge, who feuded with Cena throughout fall 2006, until Cena finally overcame Edge and began a 13 month championship reign that included victories over Umaga, Shawn Michaels and Randy Orton. This reign ended when Cena was forced to forfeit the title due to injury on October 2007.
Some would say that Cena’s long title reign was when WWE finally chose one of the two to be the man. After all, Batista had shown himself to be injury prone and not capable of carrying other wrestlers to great matches. On the other hand, Cena was going strong for three years as a top talent and seemed to be improving in the ring every time he stepped through the ropes.
Batista would get his grove back at Wrestlemania 23 with a show-stealing classic with The Undertaker, where suddenly fans realized that these two men had some sort of freaky-weird chemistry with each other. He would have a great series with Undertaker and then with Edge over the championship, before being stuck challenge The Great Kahli for the title before moving back into a program with the returning Undertaker.
No matter how much he could improve, by is point it was too late. Batista was the designated second fiddle to Cena. The Macho Man to Cena’s Hulkster. Sadly, I do not believe that it was meant to be this way. Ideally WWE wanted to bring Batista back to Raw after a year on Smackdown and have him be as big of a star as ever. The hope was that he would remain over and walk into Raw to have ready made programs with Orton and Cena.
This was not a possibility with his injuries. Cena stayed on Raw and something unheard of in wrestling happened. He simultaneously played a heel and a face. Much in the style of Bret Hart in 1997, he split the audience. WWE realized that people would pay money to see Cena, whether they wanted to see him win or lose. There was money on the chase and defense of Cena because he was getting the most heat and the biggest pop of the night at the same time.
Batista, on the other hand, after his program with The Undertaker mercifully concluded seemed to be stale and boring. There was nothing exciting about him. This changed when he turned into the spot-light craving heel at the end of 2009, but by then the writing was on the wall.
The departure of Batista will not be a good thing for WWE. He has a lot left to give, as far as in-ring credibility goes. He can make new stars, by simply being in the ring with them. As a heel he is money. John Cena would be wise to go the heel route on a couple years, because he can have a similar run and most likely make a ton of new stars and freshen up the main event scene.
When WWE made the decision in 2005 as to who the man would be, hey picked Batista. They gave him victories over the company’s biggest star and were prepared to run with his championship reign until injuries got in the way. John Cena was able to take advantage of that and became the face of WWE. Cena never looked back and Batista has seen his career rejuvenated before his departure.
That’s all for this week folks! Be sure to check out my multiple times per week wrestling analysis and thoughts at itswilltime.wordpress.com. I’ll be back on Monday with another 10 Thoughts!
