5 Reasons Batista Was The Best Prospect To Come Out Of Evolution (& 5 Reasons It Was Randy Orton)

Evolution was a successful stable in its day, but the faction has only grown more historically important in hindsight. Ric Flair was already a legend heading into the group and Triple H was an established main event guy. The truest long term victory of the group, however, was the progress enjoyed by Randy Orton and Batista who went on to win world titles and main event WrestleManias.

But out of Batista and Randy Orton, which can ultimately be called the greater success story? This article considers five reasons why it might be The Viper, and five reasons why The Animal may be worthy of that recognition.

10 Batista Was The Best: A Consistent Top Guy

When Batista broke out from Evolution—effectively ending the stable—he found himself working his first WrestleMania singles match. That match saw him win the main event, taking the World Heavyweight Championship off of Triple H.

From that point forward, Batista was a consistent top guy when he was active in WWE, more often than not in a world title picture. This stands in contrast to Randy Orton who, for all his success, has spent significant time in the upper mid-card between stints on top.

9 Randy Orton Was The Best: Longevity

Batista’s star may have burned bright, but he was only a top star for WWE for about five years (followed by another half year stint in 2014 and other short runs). We can contrast that to Randy Orton who has been a featured star on the WWE landscape for over fifteen years straight.

It’s telling that Orton has not only remained a star for WWE for this long but also shows no obvious signs that he’s physically winding down. Indeed, Orton is famous for taking good care of his body to extend his career and stay healthy. Pair that with a proven ability to evolve his character work with the times, and he has a much larger boy of work to look at than The Animal.

8 Batista Was The Best: The First To Main Event A WrestleMania

Randy Orton may have left the Evolution faction for a featured singles run ahead of Batista, but it’s telling what happened to each man. Orton promptly lost his first world title, unsuccessfully chased Triple H for months, and then had to be rebuilt for over a year before feeling like a legitimate main event threat again.

By contrast, Batista won a Royal Rumble, won a WrestleMania main event, and spent the next half-year reigning as a world champion straight out of Evolution. That Batista got to the last match of ‘Mania first was very telling about his ability to connect to the crowd and establish himself quite efficiently as a Hall of Fame headliner level talent.

7 Randy Orton Was The Best: More World Title Reigns

Titles are an interesting way in which to gauge a performer’s success in professional wrestling. On one hand, especially in the last twenty-five years, one might dismiss even a world title as a storyline prop used to further angles more so than to recognize the best in the business. On the other hand, winning a world title does represent something about the degree to which WWE trusts a talent to draw viewers and represent the company.

Randy Orton has won a remarkable thirteen world titles, in contrast to Batista’s count of six. These tallies certainly relate to the length of each man’s WWE tenure. It’s nonetheless difficult not to recognize that Orton has had a larger footprint on WWE history –particularly at the top of the card—than Batista.

6 Batista Was The Best: The Undertaker Rivalry

As an indication of each man’s success, both Randy Orton and Batista had extended on-screen rivalries with The Undertaker. The Dead Man feud, in many ways, helped Orton shore up his footing as a top-level talent after his tepid babyface run coming out of Evolution. However, by the end of it, the general consensus was that the feud had more than run its course, and hardly anyone was eager to revisit it.

Batista similarly leveled up opposite The Undertaker, but the reception was different. Time and again, the two delivered excellent matches together, particularly undermining the conventional logic that big man vs. big man matches could only be but so good. The two shone in a WrestleMania 23 classic that stole the show, in addition to Batista getting an important win over The Phenom inside Hell in a Cell.

5 Randy Orton Was The Best: The RKO

Randy Orton didn’t invent the cutter, but few performers have used the move to greater effect than Randy Orton. His RKO has been one of the most over finishers in wrestling for nearly two decades and become the stuff of memes and popular culture.

While the Batista Bomb is no less physically impressive than the RKO, Orton’s signature move is undoubtedly more iconic on the WWE landscape and beyond. We can expect that, even after he hangs up his boots as a full-time worker, Orton will continue to deliver RKOs for as long as his body can pull off the move.

4 Batista Was The Best: Transcending WWE

Randy Orton is a successful and longstanding enough top WWE Superstar to have some name recognition outside of the wrestling community. Nonetheless, his crossover appeal cannot compare to that of Dave Bautista—not only a celebrated wrestler but a movie star.

The jury is still out on Batista’s long term prospects as an actor. At the very least, though, his work in the Marvel Universe as Drax has given him a place of silver screen immortality and helped him reach fans well beyond the scope of pro wrestling.

3 Randy Orton Was The Best: Leading Legacy

Years after the original Evolution faction dissolved, Randy Orton started Legacy. The stable didn’t reach Evolution’s heights or historical significance but nonetheless had overlap in Orton taking on the veteran’s role and spending time as world champion while leading younger stars.

On its face, one could say Legacy was underwhelming for Orton’s main proteges, Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase Jr. never advancing past mid-card roles in WWE. However, Rhodes would go on to be a founding executive for AEW, and consistently cites his respect for Orton in interviews. While we can’t credit Orton for AEW’s success, there is reason to suspect that his veteran mentorship behind the scenes may have been more impactful than what we saw on screen.

2 Batista Was The Best: Avoiding Controversy

It’s all but inevitable that some level of controversy will follow anyone who reaches the top levels of WWE stardom. Batista wasn’t totally immune to such issues, most notably including a behind the scenes scuffle with Booker T. Just the same, his controversies pale in comparison to Randy Orton’s.

Orton got a bad reputation for his behavior behind the scenes, including purportedly going so far as to defecate in a female talent’s bag (later interviews suggested that he had badly vandalized, but not actually put excrement on anyone’s gear). Orton also faced criticism when he was reportedly up for a lead role in a Marine movie, on account of having faced a bad conduct discharge from the US Marine Corps in real life.

1 Randy Orton Was The Best: Still Ongoing

Batista has, by all indications, already written the last chapter of his WWE career. He announced his retirement after WrestleMania 35 and will go into the Hall of Fame over WrestleMania 36 weekend. While he still may resurface to partake in angles—particularly in a non-wrestling role—there’s little reason to doubt his retirement was for real.

By contrast, Randy Orton—over a decade younger than Batista—is still performing full time for WWE at a high level. He may well transition into a part-time role in the years ahead, but one way or another, it’s not unrealistic to imagine him winning more world titles or main-eventing another WrestleMania. So, even if Batista and Orton’s WWE legacies are comparable at this stage, there is still plenty of time for The Viper to further distinguish himself.

Next: 5 Reasons Why The NWO Deserves HOF Induction (& 5 Why Batista Does)