Backstage Heat on Batista Already?
The general feeling is that Batista buried the entire locker room with that one tweet. The report goes on to suggest that Batista's return had already ruffled a few feathers, simply due to him walking into a WrestleMania main event. His tweet simply exaggerated those feelings by some. [Cont…]
In case you missed the tweets sent out by Big Dave, check it out by pressing that handy "continued" link above. The one that really drew the ire of the WWE locker room – according to reports – was Batista calling the current landscape "C-level stars in a B-level era".
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Seems to me that if these reports are true, there are some people backstage that need to wake up and look around. Of course, my perspective is incredibly limited here, what with not being a WWE Superstar and all. But let's assume there's a group of wrestlers backstage that are pissed off that Batista is "walking into a WrestleMania main event." Let's be real here for a second: if you are going to hate on Batista, you have to hate on The Rock, Brock Lesnar, Chris Jericho, and any of these other part-time guys that come back and get big PPV checks. And even though Rock's most recent matches weren't that great, here's four reasons why even that is moronic…
1) These are the guys helping to put food on your dinner tables. When was the last time CM Punk or John Cena brought up a Raw rating or a PPV buyrate? Even DirecTV came out recently and said they were considering dropping WWE once the Network took off, since the buyrates have been down, and WWE doesn't seem to value their PPV deals going forward. All Cena, Punk, Orton, Bryan and the standard crew have been able to do FOR YEARS was keep their head above water. I love these guys. All of them. Even Alberto del Rio. But if you think for a second WrestleMania 29 would have broken records without the part-time stars, you are delusional as hell.
2) WWE is a business. Furthermore, it's a make-believe business. If you're a company and you're not playing all your cards to make the most money possible for a major event, you're a really crappy business. Rock is ratings. Brock is ratings. Will Batista be ratings? Not sure. He's exciting for wrestling fans, but he doesn't bring in much in the way of mainstream exposure. Fans will tune in though. It's a good business move.
3) Batista apparently signed a two-year deal that would see him work close to full-time, when he's not promoting Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" late into 2014. So anybody mad that this guy is just coming back for a "Lesnar deal" doesn't have a single leg to stand on.
4) Alberto del Rio is absolutely the last person on WWE's radar that should be upset by Batista. The only reason he's even involved with this is that WWE wanted to give Big Dave somebody to toss out of the Rumble match. He's nothing in this scenario. He has never added to a PPV buyrate, and likely never will. I love Alberto del Rio the wrestler, but let's be real here for a second and look at who WWE management is going to side with, if the two come to blows.
I'm personally on the side of this argument that says Batista just took a work too far. He's been vocal in the past about hating the modern WWE product and roster. It's no secret he really does consider this a "B-level era" and within it, "C-level stars". Del Rio was probably just doing what he was told to do, and neither guy was mature enough to stick to the cue cards and leave their personal opinions out of it. But it won't matter. Batista is signed. This is happening. Get over it, or as they used to say, "get the F out".
