Batista was a recent guest on Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia, and spoke about how he was positioned as a heel for his WrestleMania 35 match with Triple H. Batista says he has some things he does as a heel, but had a hard time maintaining character due to being in his hometown and thought it might not work as intended. Batista then explained how he got sentimental after cutting his final promo on RAW and joked that a few young fans got him to break character on his way out:
“I wasn’t completely sold on some of the stuff, but Vince, I talked to him about D.C. in particular, I said ‘don’t send me into my hometown the week before WrestleMania because I’m going to gather all kinds of support.’
So I come back, I’m a heel and he’s a babyface—Hunter a babyface, bizarro world—going into D.C., I could go and poop in the middle of the ring, and they’re going to clap for me. That’s my hometown! That was the thing, and I came out and did my promo—Vince called me and he wanted me to come to D.C., and I said I don’t think so—he goes ‘this is what I want you to do, and when he told me the four word promo, I laughed my ass off and said I’ll be there! When I came out and they started to cheer, I just knew that there’s certain things I try to do when I’m a heel, like I don’t get myself fired up because the more fired up I get, the more fired up they get. I try to keep the energy way down. When I come out and people are sticking their hands up, I don’t touch them; I ignore them and blow them off. I go and do my thing and I’m all about business.
I did that, but when I came back [from cutting the promo], I’m like ‘this is my hometown, I’m never going to be here again.’ There were a couple of little kids with their hands out and I just couldn’t reach [like I know I’m not supposed to as a heel]—I totally just gave in. I started slapping hands; it was the last few seconds and I was just praying that the cameras were going to be turned off. I turned around and I was praying they were going to say it was clear, but I totally gave in. I walked through the curtain and I just said ‘I am so sorry’ and Hunter’s standing there like ‘…you’re not a babyface.’ I was like ‘I’m sorry dude, it’s my hometown, I couldn’t help it! It was killing me! There were little kids with their hands out…’ I just totally caved.”
Batista also went on to share a story about the first time he’d ever been in the same venue, and said he got kicked out after he was there looking for a job.
“The first time I was in that building trying to get a job with WWE they kicked me out. I think Jim Cornette was running talent relations and we knew that they were in town, so I had gone backstage and had just been wandering around asking if Jim Cornette was here. Finally I’m standing around for awhile and a security guy comes up and is like ‘are you with someone?’ And I said, ‘no, I’m looking for Jim Cornette’ and he says ‘you’re going to have to leave.’
The funny thing is, the promoter who was there at the time, his name was Doug Sharpsburg. It was a couple of years after that, maybe longer, but I was there for a house show and I saw Doug, and I said ‘do you remember me?’ He said no, and I reminded him that he’s the one that had me kicked out of the building. He felt so awful, he felt mortified. He remembered me, but I guess he just thought I was some guy that was full of shit, but I was really looking for a job. He remembered, and we actually became very close after that. If I ever needed tickets after that—here’s front row—because he felt so guilty after that.”
Related: Batista On His Final WWE Run, What A Hall Of Fame Induction Would Mean To Him
Listen to “Dave Bautista – The Need For Closure and Showing Vulnerability” on Spreaker.
