Batista Deserves a Better Sendoff Than VS Triple H at WrestleMania 35

via WWE.com

Anyone who saw the 1000th episode of SmackDown a couple weeks back probably saw what was arguably the biggest highlight of the night: the Evolution reunion. What made the segment so memorable was that it seemed to tease one last match between Batista and Triple H.

If this is the case, the likely destination would have to be at WrestleMania 35 in 2019, and it would also most likely be Batista’s retirement match. After all, Batista has gone on record before saying that he wants to retire with one last storyline against Triple H.

It would appear that this SmackDown 1000 promo would seem to kickstart that storyline. The storyline in question – by the way – would seem to be Triple H’s desire to do what he never did: beat Batista.

In storyline, it would make sense. Triple H bringing Batista into Evolution helped kick off The Animal’s first big push, and The Game passing the torch to Big Dave at WrestleMania 21 helped Batista become the star he is today. It would be appropriate for The King of Kings to close out the story book that he helped open.

Amazingly enough, it also checks out that Triple H never defeated Batista. They haven’t faced off one-on-one since their feud ended in 2005, and every time they stood across the ring from each other, The Beast from Washington DC would be the guy getting his hand raised every time.

Story wise, we understand why there may be some intrigue there on both WWE’s and Batista’s behalf, but personally, we think Batista deserves better than just another match against Triple H at Mania.

Don’t get us wrong. Who are we to tell Batista who he should wrestle and what he should do with the end of his career? As much as we love fantasy booking, the point of this article isn’t to debate if Batista should use his last match to put over a young talent, or to point out who Batista should be wrestling for his retirement match instead (although, if anyone was wondering, we’d really love to see one last match against Rey Mysterio).

The point of this article is merely to break down why another Triple H vs Batista match isn’t connecting with us as well as WWE or Batista would like it to.

There’s a reason why we never got anymore Batista vs Triple H matches outside of their 2005 feud. Well, two reasons if we have to point out they spent most of their careers on different brands, but the bigger reason was that WWE got the most they could out of that feud.

The point of that feud was to elevate Batista’s star power to the very top of the company, and maintaining an undefeated streak against a multi-time World Champion did the trick. Batista came out of that feud looking like an unstoppable monster, and he looked like a million bucks.

Revisiting the feud now 13 years later feels like a vanity play, especially if it’s merely so that Triple H can get his win back after all of this time. If Triple H needing to rectify his losses against Batista – and the fact that the latter will likely retire after their last Mania encounter – is the driving force behind this storyline, it would mean that Triple H has to win. A win that he doesn’t need to begin with. Not after all this time, and not when Trips is nearing the end of his career himself.

If Triple H loses at this upcoming Mania to a retiring Batista, it renders this rebooted feud virtually pointless. If he wins, then not only does he receive a win he doesn’t need, but Batista walks away from the ring with a little less luster than he had before.

Plus, it’s hard for us to imagine either party bringing something new to the table in the ring that they didn’t do against each other during their 05 feud. We feel like the match might just be a retread of old waters.

Traditionally, Batista probably should lose his last match regardless of who he faces. It’s an honorable way for a warrior to symbolically fall on their sword on their way out the door. However, call us overly sentimental, but we would love to see Batista walk away from the ring triumphantly after all he did for the company as their top star alongside John Cena.

A Batista retirement win is probably the most unlikely thing to happen for his last hurrah, but it’s something we think he deserves.

Regardless of what we think, at the end of the day, the decision will always rest with Big Dave as far as what he wants to do for one last match. If he wants to have one last match and storyline against Triple H, then hey, more power to him.

We would disagree, but again, it’s not our decision. It’s Batista’s, and not only do we hope he enjoys his last hurrah in the big squared circle, but we’ll be more than happy to watch it all go down either from the attendance or from the comfort of our homes on the WWE Network.