[Mr. 305 Blaze]

Both of their rise to the top was pretty much identical in 2005 and Batista was pushed a littler higher/further then John Cena. Both of them was nearly unstoppable with Big Dave having the slight edge over John Cena as far as being protected that year. How come more of the mature audiences start to boo John Cena instead of Batista? I kind of never understood that. It seems as soon Cena stepped foot on RAW, he started to lose half of his crowd support while Batista kept getting praised on SD. What went wrong for Cena?

 

[DesolationRow]

Largely because for many of those very fans who began booing Cena, Batista was the "wronged" party. They were backing him and anointing him over on Raw, but by the summertime Vince and the company at large was illustrating that it would be Cena, not Batista, who would be positioned as the true #1 man in the company by having Cena traded to Raw. The resentment towards Cena was at its core about how Vince and WWE were pushing him as their new Hulk Hogan, Face of the Franchise, and in doing that it was Batista who was made #2.

I also think that Batista's main event angle that saw him reach the top was more organic in every way: the fans chose him, he finally turned on Triple H, and the whole thing just snowballed. Vince and the writers had to catch up with the fans, in a way that wasn't dissimilar from Steve Austin and Bret Hart being double-turned at Wrestlemania XIII. Batista was still enormously hot from that angle (which was just concluding then) in mid-2005 when Cena was traded to Raw.

That isn't taking anything away from Cena or his rise. He was, actually, more over than Batista a full year or more before Batista's ascension began. However, from the time period of around October 2004-October 2005, the fans were still rabidly into Batista, and Cena, while huge in his own right, was receiving a push whose moving parts you could actually see. Batista's virginal main event storyline was kind of magical.

 

[MaxHoyland]

Because Batista shagged all the Divas and deserves bare respect.

 

[BORT]

Cuz John Cena's was a Stupid Hip Hop ****** who became a Superman Wannabe Marine Coporate ass kisser where as Batista's was always a badass 6 foot 6 jacked up animal. That is why. Plus Batista didn't start to wear Crayola Marker colored clothes.

 

[Cowabunga]

Batista was in an excelletn feud with Triple H that helped getting him over for the rest of his career.

Unlike Cena, Batista didn't beat a ton of fan favorites such as Y2J, HBK, Angle and later Triple during his run and even if Batista won a match against a face once in awhile it seemed credible since Batista is a power wrestler like Lesnar and Goldberg so even if his ring work isn't perfect it looks natural for the fans for a big strong guy, let alone a guy whose nickname is "The Animal" beat his opponents with ease.

Batista was kind of chosen by the crowd while Cena was chosen by the WWe Management.

And most importantly, Batista didn't have an annoying character while Cena was lame and corny guy whose promos consisted of calling his opponents "gay" and Lita a "slut" not to mention he was shoved down the fans thorats even though the crowd booed the s*** out of him.

 

[The_Jiz]

Cena, right now might be WWE's cash grab but to write him off as a machine driven corporate product all his career isn't true.

Cena was chosen in 2003 by the WWE fans. He was getting cheers and splitting crowds against then fan faves like Angle Undertaker and Eddie.

Somewhere in 2005 he took a sharp turn for the worst.

 

[Cowabunga]

Oh, I forgot something:

Batista's character could be appealing to anyone while Cena's appealed to *******, kids and women. He didn't appeal to adult straight males

 

[Notorious]

Oh, I forgot something:

Batista's character could be appealing to anyone while Cena's appealed to *******, kids and women. He didn't appeal to adult straight males

How so when they were most of the people cheering him?

 

[Cowabunga]

How so when they were most of the people cheering him?

Maybe memory is playing tricks on you but during Cena's reign of terror everytime the crowd was divided it was adult males booing him and women and children cheerign for him. Yes, there were adult males cheering for him as well but most of his cheers came from women. Cena is kinda like the modern day version fo Shawn Michaels in that aspect.

 

[Notorious]

Maybe memory is playing tricks on you but during Cena's reign of terror everytime the crowd was divided it was adult males booing him and women and children cheerign for him. Yes, there were adult males cheering for him as well but most of his cheers came from women. Cena is kinda like the modern day version fo Shawn Michaels in that aspect.

Oh... I thought you were talking about in 04/early 05 before their huge pushes.

Duh the men are gonna boo him now since he's not catering to them.

When he was a rapper saying penis jokes and stuff of that nature do you really think that appeals to kids?

The male fans booed him because his character wasn't aimed towards them anymore while Batista's was aimed towards everyone. But only smarks boo Cena because casual male fans, women, & children haven't booed Cena since he was a heel.

 

[Cowabunga]

Oh... I thought you were talking about in 04/early 05 before their huge pushes.

Duh the men are gonna boo him now since he's not catering to them.

When he was a rapper saying penis jokes and stuff of that nature do you really think that appeals to kids?

The male fans booed him because his character wasn't aimed towards them anymore while Batista's was aimed towards everyone. But only smarks boo Cena because casual male fans, women, & children haven't booed Cena since he was a heel.

Yes I was reffering to his character after he won the WWE Title.

As for the smarks booing Cena, when he began feuding with Edge some of the IWC started defending him again, it actually sort of became "smarkish" to defend Cena then, I remember RoH and other Indies fans defending Cena.

 

[Notorious]

Yes I was reffering to his character after he won the WWE Title.

As for the smarks booing Cena, when he began feuding with Edge some of the IWC started defending him again, it actually sort of became "smarkish" to defend Cena then, I remember RoH and other Indies fans defending Cena.

When he lost the title to Edge after he cashed in on him, the night after on RAW was when I started hearing people booing him.

 

[Cowabunga]

When he lost the title to Edge after he cashed in on him, the night after on RAW was when I started hearing people booing him.

I actually meant his second feud with Edge, my bad. When he feuded for Edge the second time that year that's when he gained back alot of fans, Edge really did a great job as a heel. Of course things wnet back to normal after their feud ended and people were once again sick of him overcoming the odds against Umaga, Khali, etc.

 

[therock4life]

Cena was incredibly over as a face and of course he still is today. The thing is whatever way you spin it, Cena was always the bigger star of the two. Although Batista got his big break on Raw, it was pretty clear at some point Cena will be on the Raw show as well. This was basically because while Batista was a nobody, Cena in 04 was the highest merch seller for that year. His spinner belt as a US title champion was a big success. From a financial stand point, Cena had clearly made a statement even without the main championship belt.

Batista in late 04/ early 05 became a crowd favorite and therefore mainevented WrestleMania and become the number one star on Raw. But you can check the WWE merch sales then and it was clear who was the bigger financial success. So Cena moving to Raw and becoming their number one guy was just a matter of time.

Had Batista created a bigger impact financially, I am pretty sure Vince would have allowed him to be on his number one show as the face champion.

 

[HHH Mark]

Uh maybe Cena is dorky? And Batista is badass?

 

[Nexus One]

Both of their rise to the top was pretty much identical in 2005 and Batista was pushed a littler higher/further then John Cena. Both of them was nearly unstoppable with Big Dave having the slight edge over John Cena as far as being protected that year. How come more of the mature audiences start to boo John Cena instead of Batista? I kind of never understood that. It seems as soon Cena stepped foot on RAW, he started to lose half of his crowd support while Batista kept getting praised on SD. What went wrong for Cena?

Because Cena won more and was more protected..not to mentioned he kept going over Angle when fans didn't think he was gonna get that kind of elite protection. He also stopped doing the thing that got him over in the first place..insulting his opponents by rapping.

 

[jimboystar24]

I never understood that either. Cena and Batista got pushed hard around the same time but Cena was better at EVERYTHING compared to Cena. Mind you, I'm not a hardcore Cena fan either.

In ring skills: Cena and HBK had awesome matches. Cena pulled out a good match from Khali. Batista and HBK had one of the most boring matches I've ever seen on Raw. I can't think of any good Batista matches.

Mic skills: Cena all the way. No contest.

Company man: Cena all the way again. He gets exposure in outside media, which kind of goes back to the talking thing. Batista is not good on the mic even outside of wrestling.

Merchandising: I don't even know if I'd ever seen anyone wear a Batista shirt. Cena wins here too.

General human being: Cena does Make-A-Wish and seems like a genuinely good person. Batista cheated on his wife, who had cancer, with Miss Botchamania Melina and threatened a 14 year old (I may be off by a year or two) with a pool cue.

 

[the modern myth]

Batista's face turn was kind of believable - the feud with Triple H was really well played out and interesting. John Cena's storylines in 2005 were crap and, stupidly, WWE was putting him against really respected and beloved guys like Kurt Angle.

 

[The Caped Crusader]

Largely because for many of those very fans who began booing Cena, Batista was the "wronged" party. They were backing him and anointing him over on Raw, but by the summertime Vince and the company at large was illustrating that it would be Cena, not Batista, who would be positioned as the true #1 man in the company by having Cena traded to Raw. The resentment towards Cena was at its core about how Vince and WWE were pushing him as their new Hulk Hogan, Face of the Franchise, and in doing that it was Batista who was made #2.

I also think that Batista's main event angle that saw him reach the top was more organic in every way: the fans chose him, he finally turned on Triple H, and the whole thing just snowballed. Vince and the writers had to catch up with the fans, in a way that wasn't dissimilar from Steve Austin and Bret Hart being double-turned at Wrestlemania XIII. Batista was still enormously hot from that angle (which was just concluding then) in mid-2005 when Cena was traded to Raw.

That isn't taking anything away from Cena or his rise. He was, actually, more over than Batista a full year or more before Batista's ascension began. However, from the time period of around October 2004-October 2005, the fans were still rabidly into Batista, and Cena, while huge in his own right, was receiving a push whose moving parts you could actually see. Batista's virginal main event storyline was kind of magical.

Pretty much this.

The fans chose Big Dave in 2004 and his push was, as stated by DR, organic. It felt natural and it was welcomed by the fans. It's why they remained behind him in a such a strong way. Cena's push felt very manufactured in comparison to his (in 2005), and I think the trade of Batista to Smackdown kind of made the Raw fans rebel because he wasn't the one they chose and it became obvious very quick what WWE was trying to do.

One has to remember Batista was pushed much stronger than Cena in 2005 and didn't receive a backlash. He steamrolled Chris Jericho, Benoit, Triple H, JBL and Eddie throughout his rise. He also was manhandling Big Show/Kane/Shawn in the SVR feud and essentialy dominating all the time.

In ring skills: Cena and HBK had awesome matches. Cena pulled out a good match from Khali. Batista and HBK had one of the most boring matches I've ever seen on Raw. I can't think of any good Batista matches.

I agree Cena is better in the ring than Cena but I can't fathom people who state they can't remember any good Batista matches.

He had one of the greatest Hell In A Cell matches of all time with Triple H, a good match with Eddie at No Mercy 05, a good match with JBL at Summerslam 05, he had around five great matches with Undertaker, he gave Khali his second best match in the Punjabi Prison, he had two (three if you want to count their match back in 03 I think) good PPV bouts with Shawn (I find it weird how you do not know of these yet know of their boring Lumberjack match from Raw), two great matches with Jericho, great matches with Edge, MVP and he's the only superstar who gave Kane a great match in a normal bout aside from Benoit in the last 6 years.

He may not be Eddie in the ring, but Batista has had more than his fair share of good/great matches.

Mic skills: Cena all the way. No contest.

Definitely.

Company man: Cena all the way again. He gets exposure in outside media, which kind of goes back to the talking thing. Batista is not good on the mic even outside of wrestling.

I also agree there. But I think you're downplaying Batista's significance here. He was WWE's biggest international superstar between 2005 - 2008. And he's done a lot of promoting for them in general, especially overseas.

Merchandising: I don't even know if I'd ever seen anyone wear a Batista shirt. Cena wins here too.

Cena kills everyone in merchandise.

General human being: Cena does Make-A-Wish and seems like a genuinely good person. Batista cheated on his wife, who had cancer, with Miss Botchamania Melina and threatened a 14 year old (I may be off by a year or two) with a pool cue.

You should probably know these were lies made up by the dirtsheets.

 

[TripleG]

Because Batista is about 10 times cooler than Cena. Look at the build up for Mania! Batista was so much cooler than that dork Cena who dresses like a 10 years old & got completely bitched out by Batista a couple of times. It really wasn't fair, lol.