Batista (2005) vs. Bryan (2013/14)

Bryan hands down. Batista has never received such a reaction.

In fact I would even say that Batista wasn't even as over as Cena and Rey back in the day.

Daniel Bryan for sure. Batista was great in hindsight, but at the time fans didn’t like the forced push, same with Cena except it was worse in his case.

Bryan has gotten some of the best crowd reactions in the history of the company.

Bryan in that time was getting the biggest reactions I'd seen in a hella long time I'd go out on a limb and say no one has received a reaction comparable since Austin. Quite the image seeing nearly every single person in the arena doing the "yes" chant on their feet hands going hell for leather.

I’d automatically choose anything from 2005 over 2013/14.

You could say the authority were the most hated group as well which helped Bryan’s pops.

They did 100%, that's why having evil boss characters is great for getting faces over.

Without The Authority Bryan's rise to the top would've have been as huge as it was. 

Batista got over organically in 2004, and earned every right. And he rapidly improved in the ring from 2005 moving forward. I think he was great face. I think Cena/Orton/Edge/Batista being the pillars of the 2nd half of the RA worked very well. Of course you had HHH,HBK, Taker, etc also in the late years of the RA. Batista was loved my kids, women fans, and grow men. And had more appeal then Cena to older male demographics. As was distinct. Daniel Bryan became more of pop culture icon imo. With a lot of his chants and fame going into the social media. Both men's rises were organic and beautifully executed. Even if Bryans was a total mistake, while I think Batista's rise was just year or two come early. Both men deserve mad credit. And were able to benefit at situations at hand. I also really don't like 2013/2014. The only enjoyment I got out of this time period was Daniel Bryan, Orton and Cena as individuals put on some of their best work, I loved Miz And Mizdow (total gold), Goldust and Cody Rhodes, The Usos work and The Shield. Seeing Ryback push get rebooted, Ziggler on and off again push, and just among other things made me hate this era. However as I said they're was a lot of great acts and good bits of performances and matches. I think 2013-2014 if done right could of been some of the best years the company ever had. They're was tons of entertaining serious and comedic storylines. 2005 was not  the greatest year in WWE history. But, we have the RA get freshened up. Guys like Edge, Orton, Cena, Batista were gonna dictate the pace for the the next 5 years. And I feel like lots of the mic and story work was much better. And I just hated seeing the World Title get spit on in 2011-2013, and how you would see like Orton Vs. Cesaro/Sheamus Vs. Cesaro/ Ziggler Vs. Kofi like on Raw followed up by SmackDown and then like another 3 weeks later it felt repetitive.

The only two things that make this even a close conversation is the god awful feuds Batista had with Khali and "King" Booker. God they drew those out forever and only a few decent matches came from them.

But when he turned on HHH, and even facing Orton early on after he started to become established, yeah I think he was a bigger star than Bryan. Neither had very long careers in WWE though.

I think Bryan beat him on more epic reactions and moments for memorability but idk about better matches. Depends on if you want more story telling or actual in ring ability. I'd give it to them both on that category. They've each had some great ones, Bryan definitely takes the cake in the Indies.

It says something about HHH that both of their biggest moments came from rivalries with him.

During that 2005 era, Orton and Batista's face runs were only big because of the turn on Triple H. Batista only came into his own on Smackdown, and orton never receives the same pops he got as a face than when he was feuding with Triple H.