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In a couple of weeks, on Sunday, April 7th, at WrestleMania 35, Batista will make his return to a WWE ring after nearly five years away from the company.
Fourteen years after main-eventing WrestleMania 21 against Triple H, the two former Evolution team-mates will meet once again at the showcase of the immortals in what many are expecting to be The Animal's final outing for the company.
Despite going on to become a major star in Hollywood, Batista was one of the hottest stars in the WWE during the mid to late 2000s, and the future Drax the Destroyer wrestled in a total of six WrestleMania matches throughout his illustrious career, four of which saw him competing for championship gold.
With Batista set to lace up his boots once again and make one last appearance on the grandest stage of them all, let's take a look back at all of his previous WrestleMania encounters and rank them from worst to best.
#6 Batista Vs Umaga - WrestleMania XXIV
There's every chance that like me, you struggle to remember this match even taking place.
The first time encounter between these two men took place at WrestleMania XXIV and was booked as a brand supremacy match, with Batista representing SmackDown and Umaga representing Raw.
Despite the company's efforts to build this as an important encounter, fans were clearly not interested in the bout, and the lack of any real stakes made the whole thing feel incredibly inconsequential.
After seven fairly long and uneventful minutes and some uninspiring back and forth action, Batista eventually won the match with the Batista Bomb, but this is the only one of his WrestleMania matches that can really be described as bad.
#5 Evolution Vs The Rock and Sock Connection
Batista's only non-singles appearances on the Grandest Stage of Them All came back at WrestleMania XX, when he teamed up with his Evolution team-mates, Randy Orton and Ric Flair, to take on the team of The Rock and Mick Foley in a handicap match.
At this stage, Randy Orton was clearly being pushed as the brighter young star in the Evolution set-up, and a lot of this match's action focused on his ongoing feud with Mick Foley at the time.
That being said, it's still a fun encounter and it's always nice to see The Rock and Mick Foley sharing a ring.
#4 Batista Vs Triple H - WrestleMania 21
WrestleMania 21 was the night when WWE finally decided to pull the trigger on the two hottest stars of the Ruthless Aggression Era - John Cena and Batista.
With Cena having already done his duty and beat JBL earlier in the night for the WWE Championship, Batista stepped up in the main event to take on, and ultimately dethrone, his former Evolution team-mate Triple H to win the World Heavyweight Championship.
The match may not be the finest of Batista's career, but it was a solid main-event encounter that suffered slightly from what was an incredible lower and mid-card coming before it.
#3 Batista Vs John Cena - WrestleMania XXVI
Batista's final WrestleMania match before leaving the WWE as a full-time star was a clash with his fellow star of The Ruthless Aggression Era, John Cena.
Five years after their crowning moments at WrestleMania 21, the two men put on a solid encounter which had a big fight feel and featured some nice action.
While neither of the two stars is renowned for their technical acumen between the ropes, there is no denying that the two men have unrivaled charisma and they did an excellent job of building a solid atmosphere for this encounter.
The two men exchanged finishers in what was an exciting finishing sequence before Cena eventually forced Batista to tap-out to the STF to win the WWE Championship.
#2 Batista Vs Daniel Bryan Vs Randy Orton - WrestleMania XXX
The end of WrestleMania 30 is one of the most iconic moments in the history of the event, but while fans will remember the legendary performance of Daniel Bryan from that night in New Orleans, it is also worth remembering that both Batista and Randy Orton put in excellent performances here as well.
Both Batista and Orton were considered an afterthought here, but the two men were the perfect antagonists for Bryan to overcome to finally get his hands on the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
After a long absence from the ring, this was easily the highlights of Batista's controversial run in early 2014.
#1 Batista Vs The Undertaker - WrestleMania 23
The Undertaker's streak of matches between WrestleMania 23 and WrestleMania 30 is the stuff of wrestling legend, and his match against Batista at Mania 23 was the one that helped set the wheels in motion for that run.
With many writing this off as just another big man match for The Undertaker at Mania, the two men surprised everyone, with Batista putting on one of the best performances of his entire career in what was a physical and hard-hitting encounter.
Of course, Taker went on to pick up the victory in the match, but this was a fine encounter of just what The Animal was capable of between the ropes when given the right opponent.
Are you excited about the feud between Triple H and Batista? Sound off in the comments below!
