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Will Batista stay or will Batista go? That appears to be the question that will dictate the next month of WWE booking.
Initially, it was reported that he would be going on hiatus shortly after last night's (May 4, 2014) Extreme Rules event in New Jersey, to do promotional work for Guardians of the Galaxy. The original plan, apparently, was to have him work through Payback on June 1 in Chicago but it was reported he wasn't up for doing so because it would mean doing another job in the main event to Daniel Bryan.
A man he already tapped to in the main event of WrestleMania.
Shortly after reports of all this came out, however, conflicting reports showed up stating the opposite, that Batista would likely be staying on and working through to Payback.
Now, it's once again unclear because hey, this is pro wrestling, and you just never really know.
According to the Wrestling Observer, Vince McMahon is still trying to book Batista vs. Bryan for the main event at Payback, this despite Batista taking the pinfall in Evolution's loss to The Shield last night. However, if he can't be persuaded to work the show, it's likely Bryan will once again be paired with Kane, only this time it will be a Buried Alive match.
Apparently, that's the reason Kane stood tall to end Extreme Rules last night after doing the job for Bryan, just in case they need to go back to the well one more time.
The creative direction they go on tonight's episode of Monday Night Raw in Albany, New York, should clear a lot of this up, so be sure to follow along with complete results and the live blog of that by clicking here.