By Rick Gardner, PWTorch specialist

When considering WWE's most popular babyfaces, as opposed to wrestlers who are supposed to be babyfaces but are booed by the crowd (see Toronto last Monday night), Batista has remained a consistent favorite with WWE fans.

It should then be considered unfortunate that WWE, already with a thread-bare roster, has lost Batista to a major hamstring injury, throwing WrestleMania plans into disarray. Indeed, Batista should be commended for the way in which he has upped his game to become such an integral part of the WWE.

Batista's career has often been a paradox. While the reaction he gets from the fans at the arenas is phenomenal, in the beginning of his career, things fell apart once the bell rang. He competed in some of the best matches of his career against The Undertaker in 2007, but Batista has struggled against other wrestlers, particularly in feuds with The Great Khali and Big Show.

Batista had a very impressive 2008. Initially without a notable feud on Smackdown and involved in a meaningless "Brand Supremacy" match at WrestleMania, a move to Raw provided fresh opponents and scenarios. Batista responded by improving his performance, both in the ring and on the mic.

Batista's feud with Shawn Michaels is a perfect example of this. Batista's promos were excellent in all his confrontations with Michaels, and he was superb in the role of bitter Ric Flair protege. The feud produced strong matches at Backlash and One Night Stand. His involvement with Shawn Michaels ended abruptly, but Batista carried momentum into subsequent feuds.

Batista worked hard to keep up with C.M. Punk, producing a good match at The Great American Bash. He was even better in an exceptional Summerslam match against John Cena, which featured a Batista bomb counter to a Cena top-rope leap - one of the best finishes of the year.

October brought a lackluster Championship Scramble match at Unforgiven, which was a major disappointment aside from his Batista's superb facials in selling Chris Jericho's opportunistic title win. Batista would win the title from Chris Jericho at Cyber Sunday, but would only hang onto it for two weeks, dropping it back to Jericho in a strong cage match on Raw.

In the latter stages of the year, Batista has moved onto feuding with Randy Orton, with whom he has obvious chemistry. However, their match at Armageddon was slightly disappointing, and the fact that the match was not the main event felt anticlimactic.

2008 was one of the best years of Batista's career. It is unfortunate that he has become the victim of injury, as his performance over the last 12 months has certainly warranted a meaningful match at WrestleMania 25. However, the injury means that Batista can return next summer with a ready-made feud with Randy Orton.

Batista's injury is a massive blow to the WWE. That he will be so sorely missed is testament to the effort that he has put in to improve his work.

We suggest these recent related articles...

10/5 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Natalya vs. Paige, Owens vs. Cara, Stephanie McMahon, Sasha Banks, Xavier Woods

COLLECTIBLES COLUMN: The History of Foam Hands in Pro Wrestling

9/28 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Kane's Split Personality, Divas Revolution, Heyman & Big Show, Reigns vs. Wyatt