Original WWE Payback Plans for Daniel Bryan, Batista Turns Down Match, Why He's Leaving

[Dale]

As noted, Batista isn't booked for any WWE shows after tomorrow's Extreme Rules pay-per-view. His last night for the time being is scheduled to be the pay-per-view or RAW on Monday night.

We knew that Batista would be taking some time off to promote Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy but nobody expected it to come this quick. Word is that WWE wanted to do Batista vs. Daniel Bryan for the WWE World Heavyweight Title at June's Payback pay-per-view but Batista turned it down. Batista felt that him losing to someone smaller than him, after he tapped out to him at WrestleMania XXX and right before he's going to appear in a big summer blockbuster movie, wouldn't be a good fit for him and would not be a good way for fans to remember him until he returns again.

The plan was for Batista to work through Payback and then take some time off but since he turned it down, he's finishing up early because it was said that WWE has nothing else for him. No word yet on what this means for Evolution. Batista is still expected back for SummerSlam.

If this is true then I can sort of understand his reasons behind it however I've read that Batista is a Bryan 'fan' so i'm also kinda skeptical about it.

Surely him losing to Bryan is a good way for the fans to remember him going on a break, that way he can come back as a strong heel and take the title off of Bryan?

 

[Chris]

BS report. Batista tapped out to him, he wouldn't give a fuck about losing to him at Payback.

 

[Defiant]

The parts about not jobbing to Bryan and creative having nothing for him sound like hot bullshit to me.

 

[Deezy]

Prowrestling.net is the source material

 

[ThatGuyFromNukemHigh]

LMFAO, even Marvel is concerned about Guardians of the Galaxy pulling in good numbers, just to get comic book fans themselves interested they added Venom to the team, and gave away 2 free comics based on the Guardians in an attempt to promote the movie better. Blockbuster my ass.

Hell, even Dave knows it. That would explain why he wanted to return all of a sudden after putting the current roster down so often.

 

[Deezy]

Ugh......comic books ain't the same as movies.

Casual movie goers ain't the same as comic book nerds, they don't read comics, and will just see a Marvel logo and go "Hey, I liked their movies" and take it from there, first week will be fine, slowly trailing off in North America few weeks later, and do respectable numbers in the rest of the world....Blockbuster is suggestive, it doesn't have to be Avatar, it just has to make money.

Also, let's all lol @ people thinking an ensemble movie is indicative of Dave Bautista's drawing power, like Expendables was all on Dolph Lundgren.

 

[ThatGuyFromNukemHigh]

The fact is that the names Marvel has used in the past are names that have all had some name recognition. Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and Hulk were names that are known even outside of the readers. Guardians of the Galaxy is barely known within the community, was recently rebooted in comics to attempt to build some knowledge, and has been plagued with shit marketing ploys that have so far failed to increase its readership, and just yesterday gave away 2 issues for Free Comic Book Day trying again to increase awareness, the WWE Universe is a great platform to also try and increase awareness.

Marvel is unsure of this decision, and is throwing shit at every wall they can find in an attempt to make this movie as big as they possibly can. They even have Troma hyping it to their fans.

 

[Deezy]

What are you even arguing about? Using unfamiliar characters was a bad move? SHOCKING!!!

All I know is, my friends and I saw a trailer with a racoon, Batista in blue and a tree and saw the Marvel logo and said "huh, that's weird...should check that out".

 

[ThatGuyFromNukemHigh]

That to even consider this movie as a blockbuster is ridiculous. Marvel will be lucky if this movie pulls in Incredible Hulk numbers(which they considered a failure)

 

[Deezy]

The term "blockbuster" is suggestive these days. International markets will always give studios that bump to call it a "blockbuster".

Also Prowrestling.net is hardly good source material....and we all said this report looks like some bullshit efed type newz story.

 

[Cena's Jeans Shorts]

"Blockbuster" is such a relative term and a reflection of whoever wrote the article. It can't really be seen as much of anything until they look at final figures for how much they made in theaters, merchandising, video on demand, etc. I'm sure the term was chosen due to it being a high profile movie though. It's a Marvel movie with a decent budget.

And yeah, Guardians of the Galaxy isn't like the Avengers or X-Men in the comics world. But that doesn't necessarily mean much. You really can't predict success of movie franchises based on their comic book runs. And hell, of all characters, Iron Man really paved the way for an Avengers movie to happen. Iron Man of all characters. Historically a significant character, but historically isn't known for huge sales.

It's not like Blade was one of Marvel's biggest sellers by any means, but it had a good run and probably helped foment studios' interest in comic book characters for movies. Look at the Men in Black comics. Who bought that shit? The movies were big though.

For that matter, what comic book even sells well these days? None of them really have huge numbers anymore.

It's really about whether they have fun stories, interesting characters, something that can used for a fun summer movie that people will want to see.

 

[ThatGuyFromNukemHigh]

A Marvel movie that is being overshadowed by 3 other Marvel movies this year, and will be in direct competition with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The below list is the top 15 selling issues of March 2014. Marvel typically cancels a book if it falls below 25,000 readers. Although Batman has the #1 spot, Spider-Man has the best sales with nearly 200,000 issues sold in a single month(and I will bet April shows a heavy rise in sales for Spider-Man, I personally watched 1 person spend over $400 on variant covers for the issue). The safe bets here would be Sandman, Daredevil(but hes getting a Netflix show), Silver Surfer, or Harley Quinn, as chances are you can guarantee at least that audience, and with the exception of Sandman(who I would bet most people will instantly think of the villain from Spider-Man 3, not the fabled sleepy guy) are other well known characters outside of readership.

1Batman29$4.99DC116,926
2Superman Unchained6$3.99DC94,147
3Forever Evil6$3.99DC92,036
4Sandman Overture2$3.99DC89,711
5Superior Spider-Man29$3.99Marvel76,568
6Daredevil1$3.99Marvel76,006
7Superior Spider-Man30$3.99Marvel75,431
8Silver Surfer1$3.99Marvel64,919
9Walking Dead124$2.99Image64,659
10Uncanny X-Men19.NOW$3.99Marvel64,514
11Walking Dead123$2.99Image64,460
12All New X-Men24$3.99Marvel63,739
13Uncanny Avengers18.NOW$3.99Marvel63,516
14Harley Quinn4$2.99DC63,120
15Superior Spider-Man Annual2$4.99Marvel59,278

 

[Rated R Superstar]

I'm not very familiar with the comics myself, but when I saw the trailer, I got interested. I'm actually pretty excited to see Dave in this type of movie as I think this is where his acting could possibly shine.

 

[The Cork]

I agree with Big Dave, I would rather be in movies earning dat big money than lose fake fights to a dwarf.

 

[Deezy]

There are many WWE talents that are currently upset over money and pay. No more details are available yet.

This appears to be part of what’s going on with Batista. It’s said that Batista’s problem is not with Daniel Bryan. Batista isn’t happy with how things he was told would happen when he came in have been changed. It was said that the money isn’t that great and when you have money like he does, it makes it easier to leave, as we saw with CM Punk. Batista was scheduled to take time off in June any way and he had decided to just leave a few weeks early.

We noted before that WWE officials spent Sunday trying to talk him into working with Bryan at Payback. We noted early Sunday via PWInsider that backstage at Extreme Rules, Batista was giving the impression that he might stick around through Payback.

The last word on his status for Payback came just a few hours before his match Sunday night and word is that “it wasn’t looking good.”

(Source: F4Wonline.com)

It was reported that that the plan for WWE’s Payback event next month was Batista vs. Daniel Bryan for the WWE World Heavyweight Title but Batista turned down and is leaving to take time off about a month early.

Coming out of Extreme Rules, nothing is settled regarding the Payback main event, even though Batista got pinned in the Evolution vs. The Shield match. WWE officials are not happy at all with Batista changing their plans for Payback.

Vince McMahon reportedly still wants Batista vs. Bryan as the main event for Payback.

Even though Extreme Rules is Batista’s last advertised appearance for this current run, he will be in Albany for tonight’s RAW and could be booked in a segment for his exit with The Shield.

With Batista’s WWE status for Payback up in the air and WWE officials, including Vince McMahon, reportedly trying to convince him to stay and work the match against Daniel Bryan next month.

The plan coming out of Extreme Rules is if they can’t convince Batista to work with Bryan at Payback, then they will do Kane vs. Bryan in a Buried Alive Match.

Kane sitting up at the end of the Extreme Rules match with Bryan was done because WWE felt they needed that as a last scene in case they had to go with Kane vs. Bryan for Payback.

(Source: F4Wonline.com)

Berry Dave time.

First of all, it doesn't make sense for Batista to take the fall if he was ever slated for a title match, because why have the next contender look weak?

What does a Buried Alive match mean? Bye Bye Kane?