Tonight they booked a Flair vs Batista match, and RAW is coming from Raleigh, NC.

 

Why are they booking the guy they want to be the top face against a guy who'll get the pop of the night even if he kills a puppy in the ring?

...the same reason why Batista and HHH will have a physical confrontation before Wrestlemania XXI. They're TRYING to fuck it up.

 

Apparently they don't want Batista to be really successful. The build to this point has been pretty good. The ending to the Rumble could've been better. I also think that after Batista took out H? on Raw a couple of weeks ago, he could've just signed the Raw contract and walked away. Instead he talked a little bit too much and posed for like five minutes.

 

Now tonight, he's going to probably get boo'ed by a lot of people. I guess we'll see though. Hopefully the show won't end with Triple H getting the upper hand physically. I'm pretty sure that someone else here pointed it out before, but Hunter needs to keep trying to avoid physical contact with Batista until Wrestlemania. It makes the payoff greater.

Raw should end with Hunter backing off again from Batista, but it'll probably end with Hunter beating Batista up in some fashion, maybe even laying him out.

They have to do something different tonight. They always do the Flair match. They can't possibly be this repetitive and uncreative.

They can't possibly be this repetitive and uncreative.

Think about that one for a second, and who we are talking about here.

I know it probably won't happen but I hope Ric turns face or neutral (not with H but not a face) tonight and then becomes a guest referee at WM for H v Batista match. Flair wouldn't be on either man's good list, which, in my opinion, would make the match all the more unpredictable

Flair being a guest referee would take attention away from the match itself. The focus has to be on Hunter and Batista, and not on any guest referee.

No, that would make the match suck. Why? Well, because Flair would predictably end up going back with Triple H or some other shitty ending like that. It needs to be one-on-one with not tangibles.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if tonight's match-up changes into Triple H & Ric Flair Vs. Batista and Randy Orton...which will NOT make me happy.

I'd bet that Raw ends with Batista bloody and beaten and HHH standing over him with his arms raised. If that happens they will have kissed about at least 20,000 buys away for WM.

 

Is it really that hard to book this feud? They are already in the process of doing so. They are taking Batista, who's basically good at looking cool in a suit and making him talk and wrestle. He's not really good at either of those things and as such they are starting to expose his weaknesses.

 

I really hope they don't fuck this up. WWE really can't afford to at this point. They've let the fans down so often over the last 4 years that they really need to come through this time.

If they fuck it up, they've only themselves to blame, and it will be yet another example of WWE pissing away money just because they're hell bent on forcing a set style down people's throats.

*puts on tinfoil conspiracy hat*

 

Could HHH be behind this, making Batista look pre-emptively weak by having him face a guy who's undoubtedly be the fan favorite in order to justify yet another "he's not over, give me the belt back" ploy a month after WM?

I'd like them have Orton (since he's been the shit-stirrer so far with HHH and Batista) corner Flair alone and point out to him how HHH let Batista destroy him last week, and booked FLAIR into a match with Batista instead of facing him one-on-one like a man. He could say that this is just another example of HHH using someone to his advantage, and that HHH is just riding Flair's cottails, yadda yadda. That's PERFECT justification for Flair turning face. The fans WANT to cheer him, and besides, he's been tagging with and "managing" Batista for about two years now, so Flair could say that he knows Batista and, to HHH's chagrin, HHH.

 

Of course, they fucked that up already by having Flair thinking HHH's setup of Batista was "genius" and everything. Of course, they could cover that up by either Flair saying he was just stringing HHH along or, even better, set up HHH the night that Batista turned by telling Batista to avoid HHH the whole night and hide behind the door while HHH spilled his guts.

 

The WORST thing they could do is have HHH Pedigree Batista at the end so.......

 

EDIT: To go along with the fact that they are in Raleigh, Orton could say something like "You know where we are right? North Carolina, your HOME. HHH wants to embarass you in front your own home fans, people who have been cheering you ever since you started in this business, just so he can keep bragging about how he is the best out there. Are you going to let him do that?"

If they use your scenario then it will look like Flair is the smart one and Batista is stupid. Seeing as though they've made Flair look like a total moron for the last few years then it would make Batista look really, really stupid. Turning Flair face and having him be Batista's mouthpiece is not the worst idea, but they'd have to do it in a way that makes Batista look good.

 

Maybe have Batista bump into Flair in the locker room and mention that HHH doesn't show him any respect and thinks so lowly of him that he wont even let Flair in on his master plans. Basically telling Flair that he could be with a loser who treats him like shit or a winner who respects him.

Turning Flair face in NC by having him say he was stringing along HHH the whole time would not only pop the crowd huge it would also help redeem the embarrassing status of Flair's career at this point since he's basically been Stevie Richards to HHH's Raven.

 

Hell, they could even score bonus points with the continuity freaks by pointing out Flair and Batista were former tag team champions.

Rock/Brock is one of the most successful non-WM PPVs they've done in the post-monopoly era, and I credit that to the low-key build. They took the focus out of the ring, unless they were just playing mind games or having a staredown, and instead showed training footage and great music videos of both of them. In actuality, the film crew and production staff deserve more credit for building up that match than the writers do. HHH/Batista should be largely the same build, as Batista can only beat Flair up so many times and HHH doesn't need to make him "sympathetic" going into the big event at all.