If you were unhappy with the Superman booking of Batista back in 2014, you're not alone.
"The Animal" recently opened up about his return, which saw the WWE try and shove him down the fan's throats, leading to a full-scale revolt against him. Batista revealed he had plenty of struggles trying to convince Vince McMahon to pump the brakes on the mega push, which fell on deaf ears.
"Right from before I went back, I was arguing with them," Batista told MLW Radio (via WrestlingInc). "For one, Vince wanted me to come back as a babyface and I was like, 'it's not going to work, Vince. I'm a heel. [The fans] want me to be a heel. They like me as a heel. I'm a good heel!' He was like, 'no, they miss you. They love you.' And I was like, 'Vince, that's going to last for like two seconds.'
"And then, also, the first night I came back, they wanted me to come out and do this goofy thing with all these other people in the ring and I was like, 'it's my first night back! Give me five minutes alone, me and the fans. Let me just have the ring to myself for a night, my first night back.' And they didn't want to do that, so it was a real struggle from the very beginning."
The WWE had huge plans for Batista as they recognized he was set to take off in Hollywood and wanted to build off his rising star. The company wanted him to win the Royal Rumble Match in 2014 (which he did) and go on to face Randy Orton at WrestleMania XXX and win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
A mix of fans revolting against Batista and a groundswell of support for Daniel Bryan caused the WWE to change its plans for the "Show of Shows," and go with "The Beard" as champion.
Batista has revealed in the past he was disappointed over how things went down, but his latest comments showed he was disappointed in not being listened to.
"I was just beating my head against a wall, struggling, fighting with them, arguing, Batista said."Every day I was standing outside of Vince's office waiting to talk to him. Vince just wanted to push me, shove me down their throats, as a babyface. It just got worse and worse and the more they shoved me down people's throats, the more they resented me for being there. And then, there was all this stuff with [CM] Punk leaving and somehow I was blamed for that. I don't know. It was just really odd. It just wasn't very good from the very beginning."
Batista ended up going on what was supposed to be a temporary hiatus in June 2014 to promote "Guardians of the Galaxy," but he hasn't been back since. The six-time WWE World Heavyweight Champion said he had designs to return for SummerSlam in August 2014 as a big draw due to the movie coming out.
"The Animal" said Triple H and Stephanie McMahon disrespected him, snickering at him and saying they were doubtful about how well the movie would do, which has made him doubt a potential future return.
"If I ever went back it would be a lot different, a lot different for sure," he said. "For one, I'd make sure even before I went back that I knew what I was getting into and they had a plan and stuck to it and I'd hold them accountable for what they promised me. The last time, I really didn't and I'm really sorry about the way the whole thing went, man, still. I'm a little sour about it still."
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