Batista The Next Big Thing

By RONALD JORDAN Media General News Service
Published: Feb 3, 2005

Move over Randy Orton. Sayonara Brock, uh, what was that guy’s last name? Batista is definitely the ”next best thing” in professional wrestling, and most likely the next heavyweight champion in World Wrestling Entertainment.

The fans know it. Triple H knows it. And finally, those guys in the back who write the scripts and create the storylines for WWE shows know it.

And unless Vince McMahon gets a wild hair and decides to reach into his bottomless bag of tricks to produce another one of his timely swerves, we should all see it come true in a few short weeks at Wrestlemania.

A possible swerve came this past Monday night on RAW, one night after Batista won the right to challenge the WWE heavyweight champion at Wrestlemania by winning the Royal Rumble battle royal match. Smackdown! general manager Theodore R. Long suggested that instead of taking on the RAW champion at Wrestlemania, Batista should challenge Smackdown! champion John Bradshaw Layfield.

Obviously, the introduction of such an option was designed to throw off fans who have already figured out that Wrestlemania will be headlined by a Triple H vs. Batista main event. But the move also goes one step further in revealing how central Batista’s character has suddenly become in developing storylines.

That’s not such good news for ”The Legend Killer” Randy Orton, who just months ago had seemingly taken WWE and its fans by storm as the obvious heir to the thrown once occupied by The Rock. Unfortunately, the company made a bad move by pushing the young Orton into the spotlight to fast and giving him the WWE world title before he rightfully deserved it. While Orton, who was champion only about a month, has still been prominently used in the mix through feuding with former Evolution teammates Triple H, Batista and Ric Flair, the spotlight has turned almost full throttle to Batista.

Orton has been included in a series of three-way matches with Triple H and Batista that will take place in various venues over the next few weeks leading up to Wrestlemania. Speculation is that these matches are solely to keep the fans guessing about the competitors at Wrestlemania, while at the same time give Batista as much of a workout as possible leading up to the big show.

02.03.05 source: http://sports.tbo.com/sports/MGBUNZHBR4E.html

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