Batista Cut Off-Air Promo on Raw to Obtain a Positive Reaction

During the Feb. 3 edition of “Monday Night Raw,” Batista was featured in just one segment. The segment had Alberto Del Rio interrupt “The Animal” before he even spoke, possibly setting up a match at Elimination Chamber. During the segment, Batista and Del Rio came to blows, with Del Rio narrowly missing a “Batista Bomb.” While Del Rio’s quick entrance may very well have been to keep the WWE Universe present in Omaha, Nebraska from booing Batista, WWE took even more measures to avoid this, according to F4WOnline. 

The website is reporting that prior to Batista’s appearance, WWE had Batista cut a local promo that was shown on the titantron to the fans in attendance. Batista’s promo was shown to the fans while “Monday Night Raw” was at commercial. “The Animal” talked about his love of baseball and the College World Series, which takes place in Omaha.

F4WOnline states that this was done to prevent Batista from getting booed, like he was at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view and the previous week’s edition of “Monday Night Raw. Additionally, WWE wanted the crowd to get behind Batista, unlike the Dayton, Ohio crowd, which did not give Batista a thunderous pop during his return to WWE on the Jan. 20 episode of “Monday Night Raw.