WWE has this "Greatest Moment" up on its site now, featuring Batista turning on Evolution and more specifically Triple H, setting up their match at WrestleMania 21.
What made this feud so memorable can be broken down into two separate points.
1. The build to Batista's turn was waaaaaay too long.
2. Batista was made to look like the biggest idiot in the history of time during the build.
I'm all for the slow build and letting a big money feud marinate but this was way overdone. They first teased dissension in the ranks around Survivor Series 2004 (Nov. 14) and the skit featuring Batista turning on Evolution didn't happen until Feb. 21.
That doesn't seem like that long, right?
Except the way they decided to go about portraying Batista made it seem like forever. Triple H doing things like suggesting "The Animal" not enter the Royal Rumble was one thing. Obvious, yes, but not too terribly see-through. Of course Batista did enter the Rumble and went on to win in one of the worst botched finishes in Rumble history.
Then "The Game" concocted a plot to run Batista over in a limo that looked kind of like the one John Bradshaw Layfield rode around in with the hope that Batista would turn his ire towards JBL and challenge him at WrestleMania for the WWE championship instead of challenging Triple H for the world heavyweight title.
And how did Batista find out about these nefarious activities? By eavesdropping on an unaware Triple H and Ric Flair in a backstage locker room. If the written word isn't translating how poorly executed this was, and how much it made Batista look like a doofus, then I apologize.
The problem was that fans could see each storyline twist from a mile away and Batista was inevitably always the last one to come around. He survived the ridiculous angle nonetheless, as the actual moment he turned, obvious as it may have been, was done rather brilliantly and gave birth to his thumbs up, thumbs down gimmick that worked wonders for his career.
Video of his long overdue babyface turn after the jump.