20 years of Batista... your overall thoughts?

Positive. He was as green as chili verde when he began, but He improved allot. He was a great star babyface in the era of Cena. Batista really kept up, and was probably the last true face to challenge Cena as the face of the company. Obviously Reigns, but Reigns was forced whereas Dave didn’t need it.

When he turned on Rey it worked like a charm. Yes he overacted it a bit, but he was still super entertaining and created a whole new era for himself with the Heeltista run. When he returned it really didn’t work, but that was NOT his fault. They tried to force it to capitalize on his film success, but the audience had changed, and they saw right through it. He probably shouldn’t have returned, but still had some memorable moments with Evolution and Bluetista. The final Wrestlemania match with Hunter I really could’ve done without, but at least we got a great Elite figure out of it - arguably better than the bland E30 and the accurate but very plain Bluetista figure.

All in all I’d put him ahead of Lesnar in that Lesnar really didn’t change anything other than his trousers and just replaced 3/4 of his move set with German suplexes. He didn’t reinvent himself until 2021 or 2022 (whenever he debuted the ponytail and beard and started being a fun-loving cowboy; and he’s still basically the same.

I’d put him ahead of Orton in terms of character since Orton has basically been the same character with different haircuts and slightly different verbiage between Face and Heel since roughly 2007, but behind Orton in terms of consistency. Gun to my head I’d probably put him at number two in terms of Ruthless Aggression Era superstars (behind Cena of course).

So even though nobody asked, for me RA era superstars go:
1. Cena
2. Batista
3. Angle (even though he’s the greatest of all time for my money. Only behind because he’s a significantly better heel than babyface, and WWE was still a face territory at the time)
4. Brock
5. Orton

Edit: referencing the last part and before anyone rebuts - Edge could’ve easily been number 4, and may have been, but Brock is a once in a lifetime talent. As for anyone else who could be argued, they’re probably 6-10.