Batista spoke with Chris Van Vliet to promote his new movie The Killer’s Game, which also stars current WWE star Drew McIntyre.
In the interview, the former WWE Champion discussed how some fans think he now looks too slim compared to his time in the professional wrestling world, his time in the legendary OVW class that also included Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar and John Cena, how he was able to get Drew McIntyre cast in The Killer’s Game, why he couldn’t undertaker a retirement tour like what John Cena is planning for 2005, what happened at the 2005 Royal Rumble and more. Some of the most interesting quotes are below:
Batista Speaks With Chris Van Vliet:
On slimming down:
“I got really big for a role, and it was uncomfortably big. Knock at the Cabin. I got really big. I was around 315 pounds and I put the weight on really fast. [Not like 315 in WWE?] No, definitely not. When I was younger I was carrying lots and lots of muscle, this I had to put on between films. I had a very short period of time to put this weight on. I packed it on with french fries and pancakes. That’s how I did it. The director asked me, he said I don’t want you to look like a powerlifter, I just want you to look like a great big guy. So now, looking back at it, I probably overdid it. I was probably a little too big. But at the time, I was just thinking, I gotta get big, I gotta get big, I gotta get big. I put on an uncomfortable amount of weight, and it took me forever to shed it off. And then I noticed, the more I trimmed down, the better I felt. I also noticed, the more I trimmed down, the better I looked on camera, the better I looked next to other actors, because typically, even at this weight, it’s weird, because people think for me, people say, God, you’re skinny. I’ve even saw online that some people are worried about my health, and when I say it out loud to people, I’m 6 foot 4 240 pounds. When you say that out loud, it sounds like I’m a big person. But to me, because people have seen me so much bigger over the years they think I’m anorexic, but I’m still a large human being. So at 6 foot 4 240 pounds, next to your typical actor, I look like a gorilla, and it’s distracting. So I’ll probably lose a few more pounds because I’m basically killing myself to be this trim. I mean, I’m training hard, not only training hard, but my calories are pretty restricted.”
On not being sure about his audience:
“It’s weird. I always tell people I’m not really sure where my audience is, because I’ve been kind of all over the place with my career. A lot of the fans who were real hardcore fans when I was wrestling, they love me because they love that character. And obviously, I’m not that character in person, and also because I’ve aged and I’m not jacked and I have grey hair and I have a bald head now, I don’t know if they still are invested in me. But again, maybe it’s a little bit of my insecurity.”
On if being in OVW was a help or a hindrance given the others in his class:
“It didn’t hurt me as far as they went, they only helped me. They only drove me. When you are surrounded by greatness, it brings out the best in you. These guys, to say they were competitive would be a massive understatement, it was a class full of studs. These guys were athletes, so I was good there, I needed them. Thank God they were there. What hurt me was my character that I had in OVW. I always get grief about this because people think that I don’t respect Jim Cornette. I really do. The reason I do is because Jim Cornette taught us so much about the history of wrestling. He taught us so much about the traditions of wrestling. But I won’t back down when I say that career, that character [Leviathan], it stunted my growth in OVW because I had nothing but squash matches. That’s what I did. I went out and in two or three moves, and my matches were over. I had Goldberg matches, and they didn’t. I didn’t progress like the rest of the guys. I didn’t progress like Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, those guys are incredible athletes. Obviously, with Randy being a legacy, I think he was born and bred into this business, but I was just stunted a little bit. I never got to speak on the mic. I spoke on the mic a few times and it was me screaming into the mic. But I think my growth there was a little bit stunted, I went into the WWE completely unprepared, and it was like a whole new learning curve. I remember, and I will say it over and over, that Fit Finlay in a day changed my life. I went and that was kind of a last-ditch effort. John Laurinaitis sent me down to work with Fit, Steve Regal and Dave Taylor. Fit just took me aside and just started talking to me like, what’s wrong with you? More than the physical stuff, he just got in my head a little bit and made me see things differently and a light bulb just went off in my head.”
On how Drew McIntyre became involved in the project:
“Really just pointing everybody towards Drew, because I was having a conversation with J.J. [Perry – Director], and he said, I need a great big guy who’s almost intimidating to you, a guy who would be kind of bigger than you and I also need him to be able to pull off a Scottish accent. He was like, Do you know anybody? I was like, Man, I got the perfect guy [laughs]. I immediately thought of Drew, and I loved Drew. I’ve always gotten along with Drew and I’ve known Drew probably since he was a teenager. I think it was like 18 or 19 when I met him. So I pointed him in this direction. I sent him a bunch of pictures, some reference stuff, and I was like, this is the guy, don’t even look any further. And he said, Oh, I love him. So immediately I hit up Drew and said, Hey, man, would you be interested? He said, absolutely. I said, check with Hunter, make sure you are cool. And thank God Hunter, because things have changed a lot. I think Hunter changed the company in a lot of great ways, but he’s very open-minded to letting people do stuff outside of the company because he really understands that the bigger star they become, the more attention it will bring back to WWE, which is a great thing. Where I think in the past, it was just kind of the opposite of everything. We wanted to keep everything contained, everything, everybody in-house, which is why I ended up leaving the company because I wasn’t afforded the opportunity to do stuff outside of the company. But now, the way things are now, and their structure, Hunter is like, yes, we want you to do this. This brings more eyes onto the WWE.”
On if Batista keeps in touch with Triple H:
“I don’t know if he likes my movies. He probably thinks I’m a sh*t actor [laughs]. But I’ve always clicked with Hunter. I get Hunter, and Hunter gets me, and I think we could go a year without talking to each other, and then when we pick up a conversation, it’s like we just talked to each other yesterday.”
On if Batista made it to the top of the wrestling world:
“No, I think if I had stayed longer, I might have. There’s a part of me that always thinks right guy right time. But I don’t know what I would have achieved if I had been like a John Cena or Randy Orton, been the 13, 14, 20-time World Champion, I don’t know. But I think what I did in the short period of time that I was actually there, my run between 2005 and 2010 I’m proud of. I can say that I’m proud of it. I’ve had the conversation with Hunter about going to the Hall of Fame and there was always a part of me that makes me feel like my career is not worthy of going into the Hall of Fame. Well he said this to me, and this makes sense. He said, you accomplished a lot in the short period of time you were there, I think it’s worthy. But if you don’t feel like it’s worthy, look at it this way, what you’ve accomplished outside of the company makes you a Hall of Fame WWE wrestler, and I would tend to agree with that. I think I’ve accomplished a lot, and I’ve never turned my back on my roots. I’ve always been very proud of it, been very open about being a WWE superstar, and I think I’m a good ambassador for the company. I think if on those merits, if they want to put me on the Hall of Fame, I’d be proud to accept that.”
On John Cena and the upcoming retirement tour:
“I get along with John. I respect John a lot, a lot more than people think I do for some reason. I think the internet and I think fans have built this rivalry between us, which there really isn’t, but this is how we’re different. I would never do this [retirement tour]. I wouldn’t, I couldn’t. It would feel disingenuine to me to go around and I just couldn’t. But where I see his point where he wants to go around and he wants to personally thank all the fans, but there’s just something in me where I just couldn’t do it. It would feel uncomfortable to me, like accolades feel uncomfortable to me. I could never be the type of babyface who was saying good stuff because I wanted to get the crowd to cheer for me. I couldn’t be that guy. So I love and respect what he’s doing with his whole tour to say thank you to the fans, but we’re just different that way. I couldn’t do it. I went out the way I wanted. I retired the way I wanted. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. I announced my retirement on Instagram and I knew I was going to do it. I just didn’t want to tell anybody I was going to do it because I didn’t want anybody to say, no, no, you got to come in, you got to give a speech, you know, the fans. I don’t know, just something about it would have felt false to me. I couldn’t do it.”
On the 2005 Royal Rumble:
“Well, the whole day I thought I was getting fired. The whole day was just a nightmare. [They didn’t tell you you were winning?] No, I knew I was winning. But what happened was, so I think we were in San Francisco the night before, and so I stayed there instead of driving to Bakersfield. I stayed there because my mom lives there, and I want to stay and I want to spend time with my mom. So I got up the next day, and I drove and I was really late to the show. I was really late to getting there, and I knew that I was supposed to go over that night and it was like a big deal and I was going to go to WrestleMania. Vince thought that I was being super disrespectful by showing up late, and he was pissed. I thought he was going to change his mind and it was going to change, like the whole storyline. So I got there, and he ringed me out as soon as I got there. But then we [had] the match, and it was botched, and I totally take the blame for it, because I went over. I knew what the finish was, and I just went over. I just went over and thank God we landed when we did kind of at the same time, it was a miracle. Then when I saw Vince coming down, I was like, I’m getting fired. Most of my career, until later in my career, throughout my career, especially in OVW, I thought any day now I’m getting fired. I’m getting fired. I was just so happy to be there.”
At what point do you realize he’s torn both quads?
“I think later on, I didn’t realize during the match, I didn’t know why he was sitting there. I had no idea what was going on, I was just worried about the match. Then they got him out of there. I think I found out later on. The funny thing was, so I can’t remember where we were at the next day. But it was the next day, and I got to the building and somebody immediately said, ‘Vince wants to see you in his office.’ I was saying, Ah, here it comes. So I went to his office, and my heart is beating, just in my head I’m packing my bags. I walk into his office, and he’s sitting, he’s got his crutches beside him, and he’s all bandaged up. He just starts laughing. He’s laughing at the top of his lungs, ha, ha. I was like, ‘You’re not gonna fire me?’ And he goes, ‘No, I loved it! It was real! It was so great, and it was real, and nobody knew what was gonna happen.’ He loved it. I think that Vince thrives on chaos. When you think about some guy, he’s a billionaire, he’s accomplished everything it could. He’s bought everything that he could ever buy. So what’s he got left, excitement! I think because that moment was so chaotic, I think it just excited him and it exhilarated him. So even though it was a total botch, I think he just had so much fun in that exhilarating, exciting moment that he kind of thrived on it and he forgave me.”
The Killer’s Game will be released on September 13th.
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Featured image: WWE
