Batista speaks on leaving, Daniel Bryan, creative, etc

[3Rivers]

http://www.cagesideseats.com/2014/8...ght-off-the-bat-problems-with-current-product

On leaving WWE:
It's weird, man, because it was hard for me to leave. It was really hard for me to leave this time. I had just come back but I was just starting to feel like I had hit my stride. People were just starting to become re-familiar (sic) with me. I think people were really starting to come around. When I got there I got so much grief for... I still don't know why.

On his return and disagreeing with WWE on how to use him:
No (it wasn't supposed to be a secret). They thought it would be better if they advertised it, not sure if they thought more people would tune in. That's why I actually made my comeback the week before in Dayton, Ohio. Ha ha ha, that's where you want to make your return. (Sarcastically) 'I want to make my big comeback in Dayton, Ohio'. They could have cared less, they cheered for like two minutes.

It was just bad right off the bat. They had me coming back... 'so, we want you to come out and do this thing with Hunter and Steph and Randy' and I was like, 'it's my first night back, you can't give me five minutes in the ring by myself, me and the fans'?

Yeah, and I told them from the beginning (bringing me back as a babyface) was not going to work. 'Oh, yeah, they miss you, they miss you, they love you'. I was like, 'no, that's going to last for like 30 seconds. They want to hate me and I'm good at that, you know, I'm good at being the guy they want to hate.' It was a struggle creatively, like right off the bat. It went on for a while and then they finally started working with me a little bit.

On if the Daniel Bryan situation affected him at all:
Maybe. I just didn't understand it, you know? 16 segments of Daniel Bryan is going to get old real fast. If all you want to see is Daniel Bryan, you're missing out on a lot of good stuff. When I came back, I really started paying very close attention to the show and I started realizing there's some talent there, man. There's some good guys there, but people get so focused on this or that and these random chants for no reason. They really lose sight of a lot of good entertainment, man, they're missing out.

On it being WWE's fault for not addressing the Bryan situation and handling it better:
Yeah, somewhat. They made a few bad mistakes. I'm not going to blame it completely on them but yeah, it's their fault (laughs).

On coming back to WWE:
I wanted to come back earlier, I really did. I never even wanted to leave, it was hard for me to leave because I really do, I love it so much. I was doing really well. I feel like I left on top. It wasn't an easy thing to do but I wanted to pursue certain things.

Anyway, I wanted to accomplish certain things and when I finally -- it took me longer than I thought it was going to, honestly but when I finally landed the role in 'Guardians' I felt like I had accomplished everything I wanted to do. When I got the role, that's where I saw you out for filming. I was out there talking to Hunter about coming back because I wanted to come back. That was it. So as soon as we wrapped, which was October, 'when am I coming back?' (They said) 'you're coming back in January'. (I said) 'cool'. Ready to go, you know.

It was so funny, I don't know if people realize it, I had been in the wrestling ring once in that past four years. Like, once, man. I went up to... I had a really bad achilles tendon, I was actually in a boot up til the day that I went back. So I did go to NXT for a day but I was even limited in what I could do. It was weird because I came back and wanted to be kind of jacked up when I went back so I put on all this weight. Then my achilles started bothering me, my tendons started to hurt so I was like 'no, this isn't going to work. I'm just too old for this.' This is where the age factor comes in. So I dropped it, but my achilles was still jacked up. Yeah, it was still bothering me (even when I came back and started working), it took a while to get it under control but I kept going to therapy on my days off.

On almost leaving earlier than he did and why he stuck around longer:

I was going to leave earlier because I was going to start doing press earlier but Marvel was really gracious because I wanted to stay, I wanted to do the Evolution thing. They were not going to continue it, they were going to do the Evolution thing as a one-off and I said 'well, if you're not going to continue with the Evolution thing, I'm not going to stay.' And they said, 'well, if we continue it will you stay?' And I said, 'sure'. So Marvel let me out of a few things and I stayed for an extra month but that was it. Then we had to start doing the press tour.

On the WrestleMania 30 match with Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan:

Yeah, it was. This is what I was bent out of shape about. I loved the match and we put him over in the best way. I mean, you couldn't... we threw out all the bells and whistles, everything up to the point of me tapping out. But the next night he came back and they didn't want him selling.

It wasn't his fault, Daniel's an incredible worker, he knows what he's doing, he totally gets it. But they didn't want him to come back selling, which drove me nuts, man, because we beat the hell out of the guy. The guy is getting pulled off on a stretcher, he gets off the stretcher, comes back and wins but is somehow mysteriously is all healed up the next night. But they didn't want him selling and even at the end of the night we ended up giving him a bunch of finishes but he was right back up.

That kind of stuff irks me to no end, man. It's crap to me. It's garbage. That's not what we know, man.

On WWE booking on the fly and not sticking to a script like a movie would:

It's hard to live with, man, because that's kind of where the art's being lost, the subtlety. People may not get it right off the bat but subconcsiously I think they do. I hope that (people understand). To me, I feel like the younger audience doesn't. They just don't know any better. They don't know any better to appreciate what it could be. (Things) have changed so much.

On the rumor he refused to put Daniel Bryan over:

It's like, what else can I do, man? I was still getting grief from a lot of fans. There was even some rumor got started that I wouldn't put Daniel Bryan over over the next PPV and they were pissed at me about that. 'Who do you think you are?' And I was like, 'I just tapped out to the guy at WrestleMania, are you kidding me?!?'

On the grief he got from fans:

Oh, just like the -- I was actually talking to my girl about this -- just like the most disrespectful personal cheap shots you could imagine. Mostly over the net stuff, social media stuff. I initially started a Twitter so I could interact with people, I enjoyed it. Then it's like, I had to take a step back and I don't even get to do that anymore because there's just so much negativity on there. I just don't want to deal with it, man.​

 

[GoddamnyamanProf]

On if the Daniel Bryan situation affected him at all:
Maybe. I just didn't understand it, you know? 16 segments of Daniel Bryan is going to get old real fast. If all you want to see is Daniel Bryan, you're missing out on a lot of good stuff. When I came back, I really started paying very close attention to the show and I started realizing there's some talent there, man. There's some good guys there, but people get so focused on this or that and these random chants for no reason. They really lose sight of a lot of good entertainment, man, they're missing out.

A part-timer upset that a full-time guy is getting so much shine.

Thats a new one lol

 

[The Rainmaker]

Some dudes are saying that if Draxtista comes back now after the Guardians movie, he can be a babyface. But I have my doubts. Even if he comes out with Chavo Guerrero disguised as a giant Rocket Racc00n, he still will get boos.

 

[R=G]

He's wrong about one thing. The show really sucked. That's why there was a million Daniel Bryan chants...He was the absolute best and they knew it. Didn't matter if Batista was coming back or Punk was quitting. ..they knew that dude carried that show on all levels....everything they threw at him, he made it work. Wyatt feuds, Michaels turning on him with creative hoping fans would choose the legend over him as a deterrent yet Michaels gets booed out at 3 different encounters, teaming him with Punk to push Big Show instead...Batista wasn't there for that Austin-like struggle that Bryan had to deal with for 6 months previous.

 

[September]

So is he not coming back? Thought he was on for 2 years. We need more iconic moments like

 

[Tuneday]

There was no point of having Deacon Gawdtista job to this charisma vacuum.

 

[Norrin Radd]

DC Dave's locked into GotG and all the sequels, he doesn't need that 'come back' money.

That said, I think he will anyways because he loves wrestling that much.

 

[TNC]

I can understand him being disappointed, but honestly the WWE audience is almost completely jaded. We've seen so many half pushes and abrupt stops to pushes like Kofi, Jeff Hardy, CM Punk, Dolph and even DBry before the YES chants that we saw the writing on the wall of what WWE wanted to do. DBry loses to the Authority and gets put on the undercard for Batista to be the returning hero and him and Randy Main Event WM in a singles match. Fans didn't want that and forced the point home until the WWE made it happen.

I truly believe WWE wouldn't have done WM30 the way it was done had the fans not voiced themselves so strongly.

 

[TrueEpic08]

I just love that Batista, after having half a year to think about it, STILL doesn't fundamentally understand why he got killed so badly by the audience. It's actually kind of hilarious.

He makes some decent points throughout the interview and says all of these things about the essence of wrestling, but just flat out can't understand why the audience wanted Daniel Bryan so badly. It's actually kind of hilarious.

Good interview overall, though.

 

[R=G]

Bryan vs Batista was a easily fan made feud post mania.

 

[23Barrettcity]

I just love that Batista, after having half a year to think about it, STILL doesn't fundamentally understand why he got killed so badly by the audience. It's actually kind of hilarious.

He makes some decent points throughout the interview and says all of these things about the essence of wrestling, but just flat out can't understand why the audience wanted Daniel Bryan so badly. It's actually kind of hilarious.

Good interview overall, though.

No he understands and blames creative his issue is More with them . Wait did you listen to the interview on Chris jerichos podcast that this is taken from ? He makes a good point though the show can't be all Daniel Bryan or cm punk or john cena .

 

[Just like bruddas]

poor dave


They should have kept him as a secret and unleashed him at the right time on some HHH corporate task force type shyt.

 

[Busby]

He's wrong about one thing. The show really sucked. That's why there was a million Daniel Bryan chants...He was the absolute best and they knew it. Didn't matter if Batista was coming back or Punk was quitting. ..they knew that dude carried that show on all levels....everything they threw at him, he made it work. Wyatt feuds, Michaels turning on him with creative hoping fans would choose the legend over him as a deterrent yet Michaels gets booed out at 3 different encounters, teaming him with Punk to push Big Show instead...Batista wasn't there for that Austin-like struggle that Bryan had to deal with for 6 months previous.

Exactly..

I can understand why he was so confused with the fans cheering for Bryan like that cuz he wasn't around for those months leading to his return cuz he was filming.

He also admitted that the company put themselves in that position with how they were booking Bryan.

It's still crazy to think that E were doing EVERYTHING in their power to NOT do what the fans wanted them to do. And it still that they were REALLY thinking that Batista vs. Orton was gonna be the money match.

 

[R=G]

No he understands and blames creative his issue is More with them . Wait did you listen to the interview on Chris jerichos podcast that this is taken from ? He makes a good point though the show can't be all Daniel Bryan or cm punk or john cena .

Of course..but creative created the whole debacle. They went against the grain on Bryan and told u he was second rate while Blandy and Cena are the acknowledged best. The WWE underestimated how over Bryan was. Cena? He's been a bad move for a long time and create excuses and even heel on fans, as the Rock/Cena special, exemplified.

 

[HipHopStan]

Exactly..

I can understand why he was so confused with the fans cheering for Bryan like that cuz he wasn't around for those months leading to his return cuz he was filming.

He also admitted that the company put themselves in that position with how they were booking Bryan.

It's still crazy to think that E were doing EVERYTHING in their power to NOT do what the fans wanted them to do. And it still that they were REALLY thinking that Batista vs. Orton was gonna be the money match.

I don't really know what WWE's fascination was with this main event. They were going to do it at Mania 21, but the crowd clearly was not getting behind Orton, so they were going to try for it again at Mania 22, but Batista got injured, and Orton was literally being forced upon the audience (they even went as far as to disrespect Eddie Guerrero to try and get him some heel heat). Then, they tried to get it over again this year and once again, the crowd was not buying it due to Randy's constant change of character (one minute he's the Viper, the next minute he's the Apex Predator, the next he's a kiss ass suck up, and then when HHH basically says "You needed our help every time to keep that belt, Orton doesn't deny it) and a Batista return that nobody was really asking for. I guess WWE just really wanted to showcase two of their home made talents and be like "LOOK! THE WRESTLERS WE MOLDED ARE IN THE MAIN EVENT ON THE GRANDEST STAGE OF THEM ALL "

It's comical.

I really wonder what would've happened if that match had happened at Mania XXX. Would Batista had just held it for a month and then dropped it back to Orton and left. WTF?!? Who was supposed to be carrying through out the summer and be the eventual sacrifice to Brock? A lot of "Whats ifs'" but somehow the best (or some would say the second best) scenario happened.