For most of his wrestling career, Dave Bautista was beloved by WWE fans, especially throughout his iconic run in the mid 2000s, but following his return to the company in 2014 after filming Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy,” viewers turned on “The Animal” Batista despite it not necessarily being his fault.
Heading into the 2014 Royal Rumble, no other wrestler on planet earth was hotter than Daniel Bryan, and when Batista announced that he would be competing at the event that year, fans feared that their hopes of seeing Bryan win were in jeopardy. Randy Orton was the WWE World Heavyweight Champion at the time, and fans anticipated that WWE would be interested in having both Evolution members fight each other at WrestleMania 30. So how did WWE handle the audience’s craving to see Bryan emerge victorious in the Rumble while still wanting Batista to win? They chose to simply not put Bryan in the match, causing fans to completely reject any other result that would be presented to them.
After 29 entrants had entered the ring, fans were praying that Bryan would slot in at #30, but when Rey Mysterio’s music hit, the crowd in attendance filled the CONSOL Energy Arena with thunderous boos until the end of the match. After Batista won the Royal Rumble, WWE was forced to turn him heel due to how much fans despised that he was going to be in the main event of WrestleMania 30 instead of Bryan.
WWE would end up rectifying their mistake by inserting Bryan into the match between Batista and Orton and booking him to win the title, but having the Hollywood star win the 2014 Royal Rumble negatively impacted his second run in the promotion until he returned to acting later that year.
