Line #43 YMMV/Batista


1	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: "[[Music/{{Saliva}} BAA-DUM, BAA-DUM, BAA-DUM, BAA-DUD-A-DUM... KABOOM!]]" (Famously got bigger pops even than ''Wrestling/JohnCena's'' ring entrance)
2	* BadassDecay: After they made him talk more and started scripting his promos. He didn't really regain any of his previous badass status until he became Douchetista, and even then he spent like three months losing to Cena in ''three straight pay-per-views'' before his initial retirement. Indeed his last appearance in 2010 had him whining and ranting about how mistreated he was and he ended up rage quitting.
3	* BrokenBase:
4	** Winning the 2014 Royal Rumble. It really doesn't help that he's previously won one before, and that fans greatly would have preferred the likes of Wrestling/DanielBryan, or even [[Wrestling/TheShield Roman Reigns]] to win. Just his 2014 return in general. See XPacHeat below.
5	** On the Devil's Advocate side of the broken base, he still does have fans who feel like he doesn't deserve nearly as much venom as he's gotten. On one hand, they mention how he's appeared more regularly and been much more involved and "in the trenches" than some other recent returns, not to mention how he did help to put over up-and-comers such as Daniel Bryan and the Shield. Others feel like he's merely the flashpoint for a lot of long-building fan resentment at the number of “part-timers:” a dirty-word in the IWC to reference the number of older returning wrestlers who fill up the card and take time away from the current roster. It had been simmering for a while, and he just happened to be there when it boiled over.
6	* FanNickname:
7	** Botchtista.
8	** And after what Wrestling/SantinoMarella called him one time, the Manimal.
9	** Upon his 2014 return, "Bootista" (in reference to the surfeit of boos he has thus far received) and "Potista" (owing to his resemblance to a potato).
10	** After Payback 2014, "Bluetista" (Dave wore a bright blue outfit when everyone else involved in the match was wearing black and white).
11	* FashionVictimVillain: One of the things most heavily snarked about during his 2014 return is that his fashion sense is... odd. His preference for skinny jeans is frequently brought up, since they just look weird on a man with his build. Then there's the blue outfit from Payback 2014. Contrasted further by the fact that everyone else in the ring (even the referee) was clad in black and white or all-black.
12	* FountainOfMemes: Batista is very much the poster child for memes in professional wrestling as a result of his BadassDecay.
13	** "Basketballs... don't hold grudges!"
14	*** ...which became an AscendedMeme on the "[[{{UsefulNotes/Basketball}} Lakers vs. Nuggets]]" episode on ''Raw'', when Batista came out with a basketball in his hands.
15	** "That's my title, and come this Sunday, I'll be taking it back!"
16	** The Batista Code (for his seemingly endless amounts of shots at world titles)
17	** "Congratulations. I want my rematch."
18	** And from his entrance theme, [[Music/{{Saliva}} "YEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAH!"]]
19	** Batista is pretty much Photoshop fodder at various wrestling forums (the majority of which comes from the former Website/{{WrestleCrap}} forum).
20	** To [[{{Wrestling/ReyMysterioJr}} Rey Mysterio]]: "[[WeUsedtobeFriends YER SAHPOZED TA BE MAH FREEEND!!]]"
21	*** Also, "I'm gonna rip your head off."
22	** "Weapons aren't only welcomed... they're allowed!"
23	** "...stoop! that! low! Duct tape!? Are you serious? Really? Duct tape?"
24	** There was also his trademark ring entrance, which involved him miming the firing of a machine gun (which looked more like he was cabbage-patching) to the tune of [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic Saliva's "I Walk Alone"]], which has been imitated by some WWE fans.
25	*** There was an episode of RAW which showed Batista warming up for his match, then a "fan" comes by and stands in front of him and imitates Batista's entrance. He is then chased away by security.
26	** "[[{{Wrestling/JohnBradshawLayfield}} JBL]], at The Great American Bash... I'm gonna expose your ass!"
27	** [[WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}} "Goodnight, everybody!"]]
28	** "[[{{Wrestling/JohnCena}} You]] keep on kissing babies and hugging fat girls."
29	** " I hate you Batistaaa!" "I hate you too!"
30	** "DEAL WITH IT!"
31	** [[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KzVyvAL70YY/Ut4gzcnWKvI/AAAAAAAAT_8/RHffoK67bsM/s1600/batista%2Bdel%2Brio.jpg This photo]]
32	** Bootista.
33	*** Bluetista.[[note]]The 2014 edition of ''Payback'' featured Wrestling/TheShield versus Wrestling/{{Evolution}}. The Shield's outfits were completely black, Wrestling/TripleH and Wrestling/RandyOrton wore black with white designs, and even the referee was wearing black and white. Then Batista comes out in a blue outfit. #bluetista trended during the match.[[/note]]
34	** How big is Batista's dick?
35	*** For an explanation....a troll on the Kayfabe Commentaries site constantly sends in this question to ask whomever the guest is. The host, Sean Oliver, almost apologetically asks this question, and the response ranges from bemused to enraged to usually just confused why someone would want to know this so badly.
36	** "Give me what I want!"
37	** A popular Batista meme among Filipino fans is turning an old 20 Philippine Peso bill, which features former president Manuel L. Quezon, into a "Batista bill", by folding Quezon's forehead and drawing Batista's signature beard onto his chin. Sadly, this largely stopped when the 20 PHP bill is given a design update and a coin version (Quezon is still featured on them, though the new artwork of him on the new bill made him being turned into The Animal himself impossible).
38	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Or rather, Filipinos love Batista. Justified since he is half-Filipino and is proud of it. He even had the flag tattooed on his left biceps beside the Greek flag as a tribute to his lineage. They even created their own meme of him, by turning Manuel L. Quezon's face from an old 20 PHP bill into Batista.
39	* HarsherInHindsight:
40	** Wrestling/RomanReigns being cheered over him at the 2014 Royal Rumble, considering a year later Reigns' own Rumble victory received arguably an even worse reception than Batista's did. In fact, despite the company's attempt to turn him into another Wrestling/JohnCena, many point out that Reigns actually shares more similarities with Batista, which, for whatever reason, the company seems to be ignoring. He's so much like Batista that those same people believe that Reigns is just better off turning heel like he did, especially after the crappy booking of 2015. Fortunately, Reigns eventually turned heel in 2020.
41	** Batista's expressions of support for fellow Filipino fighter Manny Pacquiao, such as escorting him to a fight against Ricky Hatton, feel tragically ironic now that some homophobic remarks Pacquiao made have given him a BrokenPedestal - to the extent that Batista delivered a ClusterFBomb on ''TMZ'' to call out Pacquiao's insensitivity.
42	* HilariousInHindsight:
43	** Dave wanted to come back for Summer Slam 2014 — a few months after he departed that year — to do some cross promotional work for ''Guardians''. According to Batista, Triple H and Stephanie [=McMahon=] actually laughed at the idea, saying "We don't even know if that movie will be any good." ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' would go on not only to significant critical acclaim, but would gross more money than every single WWE Studios film ''combined''. Speaking of which...
44	** ...at one point he and ''Wrestling/CMPunk'' feuded with ''Wrestling/{{Evolution}}'' as part of a team. After Punk retired, good ol' Phil went to write comics, having a hand in ''Drax'' stories before Batista landed the role in the [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse MCU]].
45	* LoveToHate: Batista even describes ''himself'' as [[SelfDeprecation "the worst babyface in the history of wrestling"]], but he is ''such'' a good heel. "Douche-tista is best-tista" indeed.
46	* NarmCharm: Batista is usually at his most entertaining in the WWE when he’s an over the top heel. His infamous “GIVE ME WHAT I WANT” promo is evidence of that where he forgot what to say to push the bit to the next stage and compensated by going bigger and hammier by several magnitudes in his delivery to make it clear he forgot what cue to make. As a result, the promo hit memetic status almost immediately.
47	* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: While he was only a Scrappy to a small portion of the audience, specifically the [[{{Smark}} smarks]], Batista became a major favorite among that minority after his heel turn. [[DracoInLeatherPants Douchetista: The Bes-tista.]] This even started to happen again after his return in 2014. At first? People hated him for the reasons you can see under XPacHeat below. But as time went on, the man was at least willing to turn Heel[[note]]Never mind "willing", he ''wanted'' to be a heel from the moment of his return![[/note]] (when playing Face was too bad of a cognitive dissonance), tap out to Daniel Bryan at Wrestlemania, and helped put over the Shield at back-to-back [=PPVs.=] During this time, the ring rust started to come off too, and he got ''really'' good at the [[FanNickname Douchetista]] schtick along the way. When he left to promote ''Guardians of the Galaxy'', a lot of the same people who hated him at first wished he wasn't going.
48	* StrawmanHasAPoint: After Batista turned on Rey Mysterio at ''Bragging Rights 2009'', the latter tried to reason with him by bringing up their friendship with Eddie Guerrero to which Batista replied with "Eddie's dead." While the comment was supposed to be a KickTheDog moment for Batista, he was right in a sense since at that point of time, Guerrero has passed away for 4 years and Mysterio should stop treating him as a larger than life figure and move on. The promo was also treated as a CheapHeat in order to get Batista booed (since Batista look conflicted to say those words) and another attempt by the creative team to exploit Guerrero's death like they did back with Mysterio in 2006.
49	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: His 2014 had the potential to be so much better than it was, but it was dead in the water for a couple of reasons:
50	** An initial reluctance to turn him heel, likely because of the cross-promotion with ''Guardians of the Galaxy,'' despite Batista being a natural heel in the past with his "Douche-tista" gimmick, which would play naturally into a "egotistical movie star" return that's been done brilliantly in the past by Wade Barrett and currently by the Miz. This one was later fixed, turning him heel and aligning him with Triple H and Randy Orton as an Evolution reunion.
51	** The other was his push directly into the title picture so fast, winning the ''Royal Rumble'' during his first match and getting a fast track directly into the title match at ''Wrestlemania XXX'' over Daniel Bryan, who had been Triple H's favorite [[KickTheDog dog to kick]] for months and whose push at the time was generally coming across as a "keep knocking him down so his victory is all the sweeter" type of story that would logically culminate at the biggest show of the year. In comes Batista, and Bryan's fans (which was pretty much everybody at that point) led a revolt Batista just couldn't overcome even if he'd wanted to.
52	** Much of the plot wastage was also due to the fact that the way they built hype for his return ultimately ended up undermining the entire thing. His return was heavily announced in January and he had already debuted on Raw prior to the Royal Rumble PPV, meaning the excitement his sudden return would have gotten if he was a shocking surprise entrant in the Rumble was completely killed. Instead, any interest in him had been sucked out because the way they'd announced his return made it so obvious he was going to win and go to [=WrestleMania=]. Everyone knew Batista was going to win the Rumble. Everyone knew it. They telegraphed it from the moment his return was advertised. Spoilers were all over the internet. In fact, his Royal Rumble win was so transparently obvious and so widely known ahead of time that people started believing that it was a decoy and the WWE were going to pull a fake out on it. Batista probably would have been much better received if they'd tried to keep all word of his return as quiet as possible ahead of the Royal Rumble.
53	** It's also worth noting that Batista himself saw all of this coming when they told him of their plans for him to begin with. He would comment in unscripted interviews following his departure later in the year that he told them this would grossly backfire because of fans' anxiousness to see Bryan on top and because he is, ''in his own words'', "the worst babyface in the history of wrestling." When the man who your plan will put in place as your champion tells you himself that said plan is a bad idea, maybe that's a cue that you should adjust it to work if not pull the plug altogether. In fact, during his interview with Chris Van Vliet which was equal parts wrestling talk and promotion for ''Film/{{Spectre}}'', Dave openly called out the company's controlling nature and creatively stifling environment as why his return sucked, stating that promises were made that weren't fulfilled and singling out the heel vs. babyface thing ''as the main issue among them''.
54	* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: {{Kayfabe}}[=-=]wise, in his 2008 feud with Shawn Michaels. We were supposed to want Dave to avenge Ric Flair's WWE-career-ending defeat back at ''[=WrestleMania=] XXIV''. You know, the same storyline that had consisted of (1) Ric being the one wanting HBK to go all out, (2) HBK being conflicted and reluctant throughout the whole thing, and (3) there being nothing but bittersweet respect between them afterward. In contrast, Dave ignored all of that, deriding HBK for his (supposed) ego in not just taking a dive, and complaining that he (Dave) wouldn't get to tour with his idol anymore. Therefore, Dave came across more as a {{Wangst}}y DesignatedHero with InsaneTrollLogic than a sympathetic figurative example of YouKilledMyFather. And it certainly didn't help that he, upon winning this feud, mockingly invoked IronicEcho of HBK's own ApologeticAttacker words to Flair when beating him -- thus indirectly disrespecting Flair far more than (Dave believed) HBK ever had.
55	* XPacHeat: He's gotten this ''really'' '''really''' bad since his return in January 2014. The main problem is that the fans nor the man himself really buy his status as a {{Face}} (especially with his [[{{Heel}} kind of dickish behavior upon his return]]), yet [[ExecutiveMeddling WWE keeps stubbornly pushing him as one]], likely due to capitalize on his appearance in ''Guardians of the Galaxy''. He's been stuck in a boring feud with Wrestling/AlbertoDelRio that hasn't gone anywhere, fans think he is getting an unfair push to [=WrestleMania=] over crowd favorite [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] (who's been screwed so many times even Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin would raise an eyebrow), it's blatantly obvious that he is not even ''close'' to being in ring shape (just watch his "spear" on Roman Reigns in the Royal Rumble), and now [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking fans are calling him "Bootista."]] It's to the point that the WWE had to go through with a FaceHeelTurn less than a week after Elimination Chamber & alter their plans for [=WrestleMania=] by adding the stipulation that if Daniel Bryan defeats Triple H earlier in the night, he will be added to the match for the WWE World Heavyweight title. Suffice it to say, so far the Batista returns experiment has been a… disappointment. This actually gets acknowledged in-kayfabe during the buildup to Wrestlemania 30 when Randy Orton points out to Batista that his inability to get over with the fans led to them [[RealLifeWritesThePlot essentially rioting and pushing for Bryan to get inserted into the title match.]]
56	--> '''Orton''': [[BlatantLies I mean no disrespect whatsoever]], but when you left, nobody cared; when you came back, people cared even less. If you would have just lived up to all your hype, we wouldn't be in this situation right now!

Context YMMV / Batista