Evolution break up looking likely following Payback 2014, Batista WWE hiatus

Although there are conflicting rumors regarding when exactly Batista will be leaving WWE to go on a planned hiatus to do promotional work for Guardians of the Galaxy, the summer blockbuster film he stars in as Drax the Destroyer, the one thing we know is that he is, in fact, taking a break.

For how long is to be determined.

It's also unclear how exactly WWE will go about writing him off television. To that end, there's the small matter of the reunited Evolution and what the creative direction will be following this Sunday night's (June 1, 2014) Payback pay-per-view (PPV) at the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois. Batista, Randy Orton, and Triple H will work a No Holds Barred Elimination match against The Shield on that show.

And it seems likely that will be the last of Evolution ... at least for the immediate future.

Realistically, the group breaking up once Big Dave bails makes the most sense. It was rumored that the entire purpose of getting the band back together was both because Triple H wanted to bring the old crew back to work with The Shield, and because he wanted to put them over strong to catapult them as a hot babyface act once the decision was made not to break them up.

Mission accomplished.

Plus, continuing Evolution would mean bringing in new members and while names like Cody Rhodes and Dolph Ziggler have been brought up among fans salivating at the thought of better writing for those two characters, there doesn't appear to be any actual support for that idea within WWE.

The Shield has gone over Evolution at every turn, and the expectation is they will do so again this weekend in the "Windy City". There are myriad ways WWE could go about booking the fallout but as it stands now, it looks clear the brief reunion is ending sooner rather than later.

Sad?