Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Dave Bautista On Recent Weight Loss, Triple H, Iconic Theme Music, WWE Hall Of Fame, Evolution

Episode Date: September 10, 2024

Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) is an actor and retired professional wrestler. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Hollywood, CA to talk about his new movie "The Killer's Game", how he recruited WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre for a role in the film, slimming down to 240lbs, his early wrestling days as Leviathan and Deacon Batista, why he couldn't do a retirement tour like John Cena is planning for 2025, his friendship with Triple H, if he could have done more in the wrestling world, the botched ending to the 2005 Royal Rumble that saw Vince McMahon tear his quads, Mark Jindrak being in Evolution, his iconic theme music and more! Quote I'm thinking about: "Time is the only currency you spend without ever knowing your balance. Use it wisely" Complete this survey for your chance to win $500: https://bluewirepods.com/survey Sponsors: FACTOR MEALS: Get 50% off your first box and 20% off your next month at http://factormeals.com/Insight50 BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv MAREK HEALTH: Get a 10% discount on Marek Health's Optimization Package with code CVV: https://marekhealth.com/cvv BLUECHEW: Use the code CVV to get your first month of BlueChew for FREE at http://bluechew.com ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and experience financial freedom: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank which was designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/ PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at http://plunge.com For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oh, yeah, welcome back to another one here on Insight. I'm CVV, Chris Van Fleet. Thanks for being here with us. And thank you, as always, for helping to make Insight the number one wrestling podcast on the planet. If it's your first time here, hit a Batista bomb on that follow button on Spotify or Apple podcast to support the show. And so you don't miss out on any of the huge guests that we have coming up in.

And my goodness, we've got some. big ones coming up, including including someone who is not your boy toy. This has been a long time coming, but I'm happy to finally be able to say that we've got Dave

Batista on the show. I've interviewed him before, but they've always been just a few minutes long, you know, when he's promoting movies. For this one, he carved out enough time in his extremely busy schedule to do a full episode with us. His new movie, The Killer's

game comes out this Friday, September 13th. It's a ton of fun. It's also the movie debut of Drew McIntyre, who was a guest on the show last week. So you can go check that out when this episode's done if you haven't listened to it already. Dave has an incredible career. Of course, in WWE, he's a WWE Hall of Famer. We all know that. I did ask him like, wait, when are you actually going to be inducted into that? But what a career with everything he did. Leviathan to Deacon Batista. when he debuted with Devon to everything he did as Batista, WrestleMania matches and all of it. And he's really made a name for himself over the last decade or so in movies.

He told me during this interview that he wants to be in the conversation when award season comes around. And think about it. With the range that he has, this seems like a matter of when that's going to happen, not if. I mean, he can do it all. Comedy roles to dramatic roles to harrowing characters like he played in Knocked the Cabin. And beyond all of that, he's got an incredible story from being broke to now being one of the biggest stars in the world. I hope you enjoy this one.

Snap a screenshot and tag us. Let us know that you're listening. Let us know what really stood out for you here. He's at Dave Batista on social media. I'm at Chris Van Fleet and let's do it. Enjoy this conversation with Dave Batista.

Thank you for making the time to do this. Thanks for being patient, man. We've been trying to work this out for a while. I mean, you're a busy man, so I appreciate the time. Yeah, hell yeah.

What was the movie that first made you fall in love with acting? That made me fall in love with acting? Because I know when you got into it, you were just a wrestler. And then you did some acting, you're like, but I'm still just a wrestler. Yeah, well, I didn't.

You know, I did. I did an episode of Smallville. And, you know, I did it because I was a fan. I was a fanboy. I wanted to be on a Superman-related show. And just had no interest in acting. It was, I wouldn't say I did a film and it made me fall in love with acting. I did a film that made me want to be better at acting.

I did a film called Wrong Side of Town. And I did it, and I didn't think much of it. And I, you know, again, I was on top of my wrestling game. loved wrestling. I was obsessed with it. That's all I wanted to do. And I went and I did this film and I realized what a horrible actor I was. Like so bad, I was really embarrassed and I just wanted to prove to myself that I could be better. I mean, I left that set just feeling unfulfilled, man. And I just wanted to, I had the itch, man. I just wanted to get better. And so it was, yeah, wrong side of town. It kind of started my whole journey. It's pretty crazy to think that Deacon

Batista is now one of the biggest movie stars on the planet. That's weird hearing that. Because I don't think about myself like that at all. I feel like I'm really just, you know, I'm really starting to break into my own. My career is really starting to, like, took all these years to kind of, I feel like I'm just getting started. Like now I'm starting to get lead roles. Now I'm starting to build on my career. And they're not like massive lead roles.

Like I'm not doing massive, you know, studio, you know, $150, $200 million films. Like I'm not on the top. So I'm not like a big movie stuff. are, but I'm coming into my own. Do you want to be in that level? I do. I do want to be at that level. And there's a particular reason.

For one, I really want my company to be successful. But also, you know, I've kind of learned throughout my journey that the bigger star you are, the more you can get things done. It's just easier to get things done, man. People are, you know, they're, it's the nature of business. You know, if people see you as a commodity, they see that you can generate money. Same with wrestling. Yeah.

You know, if they see that you can generate revenue for the company, then they'll make you a star. Is one of the hardest things about your position now is saying no to stuff? No, no, it's not hard to say no. It's not hard to say no. It's not hard. I turn down stuff all the time and it's just, you know, and I turn down good stuff. It's just, you know, I need, I have pieces of a puzzle that I'm trying to put together. And that's kind of the way I've gone throughout my career.

I would like, I want to do this. I want to do this. And I hope all these pieces, pieces will lead to one big, beautiful, piece of art. So if we look at the puzzle right now, how complete is that puzzle? It's pretty complete. I've got little pieces of it. Like I, you know, I still want people to see me as someone who can carry, like, you know, maybe a smaller, independent, dramatic role and not rely on my physicality, you know, anymore. And there's, you know, I haven't really completely broken into the rom-com space. And I'd still like to conquer that, which is not, you know,

getting easier because I'm not getting younger. So, no, I don't know how much, you know, people want to see, you know, a guy in his mid-50s and a rom-com. I hope there's an audience for that, but I don't know. And so, and, you know, but, you know, that kind of, there's still a few pieces that I'm trying. And I haven't done, like, a massive, like, I'm hoping that Killers game turns into my Johnwick. You know, I feel like, could. Multiple films?

Yeah, yeah, because I love the world. I love the characters. I love that there's, you can go anywhere with this. It's a hyper world. We can go as far as our imagination can let us go. Yeah. Have you been slimming down in order to play these other roles? Yeah, absolutely.

I started trimming down for a particular reason. One, I started trimming down because I just got fat. I got fat. Your version of fat is not fat. No, I got really big for a role and it was uncomfortably big. And then I figured, knock at the cabin. I got really big. I was like around 315 pounds.

And I put it to weight on really fast. So not like 315 in WWA. No, definitely not. You know, when I was younger, I was carrying lots and lots of muscle. This I had to put on, like, you know, 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.

And the director asked me, he also said, you know, I don't want you to look like a power lifter. I just want you to look like a great big guy. And so now, looking back at it, man, I probably overdid it. I was probably a little too big. But at the time, I was just thinking, I got to get big. I got to get big. I got to get big.

And I put on an uncomfortable amount of weight, and it took me forever to shed it off. And then I noticed, like, the more I trimmed down, the better I felt. And I also noticed the more I trimmed down, the better I looked on camera. The better I look next to other actors, because typically next to, even at this weight, that's weird because people think, like, for me, people say, God, you're skinny. I've even saw, like, online, some people are worried about my health. and when I say it out loud to people, I'm 6'4, 240 pounds. Yeah.

You know, what sounds like, it's, it sounds like when you say that out loud, it sounds like I'm a big person. Sounds like you'd play in the NFL. But to me, but, you know, to me, because people have seen me so much, you know, so much bigger over the years. You know, they think I'm like enteric, but I'm still, I'm just a large human being. So at 6, 4, 240 pounds next to your typical actor, it looked like a gorilla. And it's distracting. So I'll probably lose like a few more pounds. But then that's, I mean, 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. And what are we talking? I don't know, maybe 2,500 calories a day. That's like enough for someone my size. For me, it's like nothing. I mean, it's just not eating much. And I'm not starving or anything, but I am like that I don't, like an intermittent fast.

So I don't eat for, like I haven't eaten yet. It's like almost 1 o'clock. Wow. And then I typically don't eat like three, four hours before I go to bed. So it's just like a very few. That's a short window. The short window. Yeah.

The thing that I think is so great about you is when you say I'm going to see a Dave Batista film, that could mean anything. Like you don't have a specific type of movie. Right. So that's great on one hand. But this is like what makes me, you know, a little nervous about, you know, Killers game on the other hand. But you're a Swiss Army knife. Yeah. And I hope people see that, but they haven't.

So I haven't established myself in this type of role. So it's, you know, I wonder, I still have to guess. I hope that people want to see me in these types of roles, but I just don't know because I'm not established. They've seen me in one action film. I love Dave in that action film. He's got a new one coming out. I'm going to see it.

But they haven't really seen me in this type of film. So I'm, you know, I'm hoping that their curiosity are, they're just, you know, big enough fans where they just, they know that I'm going to put my on to this and they're being willing to go out and see it. But when we see your face on a poster like this for an action film, it's believable. You go, oh, yeah, of course. He's an action star.

I hope. But it's still, like, I, it's weird because I never, I always tell people, like, I'm not really sure where my audience is. Because I've been kind of all over the place with my career and a lot of, you know, a lot of the fans who are, you know, real hardcore fans when I was wrestling, they, you know, 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 gray hair and I have a bald head now. You know, I don't know if they still, you know, are invested in me. But again, it's always, maybe it's a little bit of my insecurity. I don't know. What does the Venn diagram look like of wrestling fans and Dave Batista movie watchers?

I'm sure it's pretty big. I hope. I just don't know. It's always, you know, yeah, I can never tell. I don't know. Do you have a lot of people that still come up to you now talking wrestling? Like, oh, man, I remember this match? Most of the people who come up. up to me and recognize me are from wrestling. Wow. Wrestling fans. Wow. And I think it's because, you know, and sometimes it takes them a second because I do look

so different from when I was wrestling. But I think it's because most of my bigger film roles, I've been in heavy, heavy makeup and they don't make the connection. You know, I mean, when you think about my Marvel, you know, obviously, Drax has been my biggest success on screen. Yeah. You know, most people have seen Moro films, Guardians of the Galaxy. films, the Avengers films.

But to make the connection when you see Daxon, do they see me? I don't know. I think hardcore fans or people are just really into it would know. But I don't think your average person would make the connection. Prize Picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over 5 million active users. It's the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Because unlike other apps, on prize picks, it's just you against the numbers. All you do is pick more or less on two to six players.

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Eligible items only, exclusions apply. You told me in an interview years ago, you'd rather go broke than wrestle again. And people were like, what do you mean rather go broke? Like, he doesn't know anything about that. Yeah. They don't realize your story. Yeah.

And where you were before you got dressed? It always surprises me, yeah. I always surprised me that people. So where were you for people who don't know? Well, before I got drugs, I was broke again. But I, you know, I think people, it's weird because I don't know how people thought that I was brought up. But I was, I mean, when I was a kid, we were, you know, a lot of times we didn't have food. You know, we, me, my mom and my sister slept in a basement of a house in D.C.

And we all shared one bed. I mean, I didn't grow up with money. I grew up with less than no money. I mean, I had a pretty rough childhood. And we were, I was broke until. I was well into my 30s. And this is what led me into wrestling. I was broke and had two kids and I was bouncing and I couldn't afford to buy my kids' Christmas

presents one year. And I had to borrow money to buy my kids' Christmas presents. And I was so humiliated that I said, I've got to make a change. I got to do something. I didn't have many choices because I had no education. It was high school dropout. And so I started, you know, I was an athletic person. I was enormous.

And I thought, you know, I'll give wrestling a shot. And I failed in my first attempt, and then I paid someone to teach me how to wrestle. Alpha of the Wild Samong, I rest his soul. It was so heartbreaking, and then he's passed away. And that was kind of good. That's where my journey started. But even after that, it was a long, long road. A lot of people didn't believe in me.

Even when I was in developmental camp down OVW, there was people with the W, John Laurinitis, who wanted to fire me. But I just kept digging in and digging in and digging in and digging in until I finally got my real first opportunity with evolution. And I had access to Triple H and Rick Flair, I mean, two of the greatest professional wrestlers ever. And I wasn't going to blow my shot, man. So I just, I had blinders on it. I put everything else in the backburn and focused on my wrestling career. That OVW class of 2002 has talked about all the time.

It's legendary, right? Did that help you or hurt you? Like help you in the fact that you're learning and growing with Randy Orton and John Sina, Brock Lesnar and Shelton Benjamin, or does it hurt you that now you need to do that much more to be better than them? It didn't hurt me as far as they went. They only helped me. They only drove me.

Like when you are surrounded by greatness, it brings out the best in you. And these guys, to say they were competitive would be a massive understatement. I mean, it was a class full of studs, man. These guys were athletes. And so I was good there. I needed them. I, you know, thank God they were there. What hurt me was my character that I had in OVW because I really had,

and I always get grief about this because people think that I don't respect Jim Cornett, you know. And I really do. And the reason I do is because Jim Cornett 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, um, character, it stunted my growth in OVW because I had nothing but squash matches. That's what I did. Leviathan? Leviathan. I went out and two, three moves and my matches were over. I had Goldberg matches. And they didn't, I didn't, I didn't progress like the rest of the guys. I didn't progress like

Brock Lesnar or Randy Orton. You know, even those guys are incredible athletes. And, you know, obviously with Randy being a legacy, you know, I think he was born, 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, few times, and it was me screaming into the mic, but I just, I think my growth there was, it was a little bit stunted. And I went into the, um, WW completely unprepared. And it was like a whole new learning curve. And I, and I will say it over and over that Fit Finley in a day changed my life. You know, I went and that was kind of a last stitch effort, you know, John Lauer and I sent me down to work with Fit and Steve Regal, um, Dave Taylor. And Fit just took me aside and just

started talking to me. Like what, you know, what's wrong with you, dude? What's wrong? And Martin, 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 of my head, man. Did Devon see something in you when you were paired with him as Deacon? Uh, I think so. Yeah, I think so. I think, it's weird because, you know, DeVon was, he was just at a different point in his career. And I think, I don't know if he saw something to me, but I know for a fact that DeVon liked me. Like, we got along really well. And we, you know, and he tried to teach me as much as he could. I learned a lot from Devon.

But the light bulb really didn't go off until I got with fit. The light bulb went off. What's the story behind you getting an evolution? Because Mark Jindragg had that spot. No, he never had that spot. But they filmed something with him, right? That was after. So after I got injured.

So I was with OVW and I got injured. And I was out for a while. And they didn't want to keep waiting for me. They thought they should fill the spot. So they were testing out Mark Jindrack. and they did film some stuff with him. And they just decided it just didn't work as well. And so they wanted to wait for me to come back and be healthy.

Yeah, but yeah. Because I've heard that rumor and it was just not true. Well, there's the video. And like you see them four walking down the street. Yeah. And then you see what evolution. It was filmed way after we started evolution. Oh, wow.

Because then you see what evolution became. And it's like, oh, yeah. Like, how could it be anyone other than these four? Yeah. No, it was always meant to be us four. And also what a great theme song. Yeah. Oh, man.

That theme song is so good. Do you remember when you heard your theme song for the first time? Yeah, yeah, I remember. I didn't, I don't think, I liked it, but, you know, it changed a little bit through the first couple years. And I think when they really, when saliva got a hold of it and laid down the lyrics and everything, it was when it really, it just was, I loved it. That's when it pumped me up. Are there certain lyrics from that song that you really relate to?

When you walk alone? I do. You know, I'm somewhat of a loner, but also at the same time, like, you know, I have people I'm very close to that, you know, I love and I depend on, you know. I know that I can do things on my own, but I like having people there, you know, it's just that I have a very, I'm not a very outgoing person. I'm not a super trusting person. So my circle's very close, you know, but I love these people, which is why I think if you talk to people close to me, they'll tell you. that I'm very generous with them, that I'm very loving to them. I don't hold back. Like I wear my heart on my sleeve.

I love someone, I tell them. You know, but people are close. And I also, you know, people are close to me. I hold to a very high standard. I expect a lot out of them, you know, and sometimes they may, you know, I might seem like pressure on them or like I'm, I don't know, too demanding.

But it's just because I love them, I see something in them. I am on my way to the top. Nobody's going to stop me, and they need to pick it up and come with me. You know, they need to strap on their boots and say, man, we're going to do this all together. We're all going to grow together. It's crazy that you don't think you're already at the top. No, I'm not at the top.

I know for a fact I'm not at the top. I just, I guess I'm on a mission. But isn't there that whole thing that then you'll get to the top and then you still will think there's another mountain to climb? No, I don't think there's, I don't think it's that. I don't think it's, you know, if you get to the top and there's, you know, you get complacent or maybe you see another amount. I think this is the way I've done my career. When I am doing something I love, I put everything into it. But it always leads to something else.

It leads to another avenue. So even if you feel like you may be at the top of one thing, I guarantee you it's going to lead you to something else. So now where I'm at is, like, I was just an actor and I wanted to be an actor and I wanted to be the best actor. I could be. And I still want to be that. Yeah. I still have a chip on my shoulder to prove that. Like, I'm not in award-winning conversations.

Like, I want to be. I don't care about the awards. The awards, you know, it doesn't matter. Like, you know, say, acclades don't matter to me. But I want to hear people say, talk about me in that light. Like, I want to be in those conversations. You know, I don't need a trophy. You know, it doesn't mean as much to me as being in the conversation, say, you know, like, Dave's that good.

Dave's approves themselves that good. Dave can step on stage with this person, that person, all the best in the world. You want to be in those conversations. but like I wanted to do that. And that led me into, now I want to be a part of the process. I want to be a part of, I don't want to be somebody's,

I want to be somebody's bitch. I'm like, I don't want to be an actor, you know, go to your trailer and wait until we're ready for you. Okay, come when you're ready. All right, go to your trailer now.

I don't want to be that guy. Like, I want to be involved in the process. I want to be involved in the creative process. I want to have some say-show on my characters and story arcs, the whole thing. So that led me into producing. Now,

same, because I was always acting to pay the bills and wanted to produce, but because I was always so busy acting, I couldn't contribute as much as a producer because I was done there, and I was letting people down. I was disappointing. So the solution to that, start my own production company,

hire people that can pick up the slack for me when I'm not available. So now I want my company to be successful, and I have people depending on me. So now it's a whole different ballgame when you start employing people and employing people who are really counting on you when you're providing livelihood for people, and it's a whole different type of pressure. What does your process look like when you get a script?

When you're becoming that character. Where does it start? And it depends on whether I'm, you know, like, I'm not afraid to take a role. It's a smaller role. How about Joe here? So that was the whole process. Because this was a long, this script had been along around a long time. And it had come to me twice before we finally got it and said, we're going to make this.

but when it came to me the first time it wasn't really I don't think it was comedic at all it wasn't really kind of a rom-com type film it was more of a straightforward action film but I got it and I thought there was something there so typically if there's a script like this where I like the character

I like the premise I think it needs some love this is where it comes in you know handy to be a producer on the film now you can start to give notes and now you can start to contribute to it creatively and so that's what it was it was just this whole process And then it came to the process of getting the story right to where I felt like,

this is going to be a fun movie. And then it came time to casting. And so when it came time, like I never, since the first time I got this script, never ever saw anyone else but Sophia Batello playing mezy. And when it came, each time it came back to me, I was like, let's start talking about Sophia. Last time it came back to me when we're finally going to make this. So we're in pre-production.

We got the budget. We're ready to go. All right, let's talk about Sophia. Sophia is not available. We're going to have to wait then because I can't see anybody. So it became one of those games where they were bringing me other actresses. I kept saying, no, no. Well, Sophia's dates aren't working.

Can we change this? So we started changing a bunch of things around and we finally, we just made it work. And I think the payoff is in the film because Sophie and I were just, we just, we make sense. It's just we have just really, really good organic chemistry. So it just makes sense. But Sarah, I know that's a long answer to your question. And that's how it's. But so just and going back to a small story,

It's just a role. So if it's just a role and I'm not offered an opportunity to produce or it's just a smaller film, I know it's not going to make any money and it's not going to make me any money. If the role is great and it will further my career and my reputation as an actor, I'm all over it, which is, you know, which I've done recently. I have a film that's going to be screened at Toronto Film Festival where I took just for the role. I actually paid to me in this movie because they couldn't afford my team and I don't go anywhere without my team.

So I paid out of pocket for my team. Wow. This episode is brought to you by Timeline. Timeline is a Swiss-based life science company, and they're a global leader in urolithin-A research. So what's urolithin-A? It's a powerful postbiotic that's nearly impossible to get from your diet alone.

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towards drew because i was having a conversation with j j and he said i need a great big guy a a big guy who's like almost intimidating to you, a guy who would be kind of dwarf you, would be bigger than you and say, you know, and I also need him to be able to pull off a Scottish action. He was like, do you know anybody?

I was like, man, I got the perfect guy. And I immediately, I mean, I immediately thought of Drew. And I love Drew. I've always gotten along with Drew,

and I've known Drew probably since he was a teenager. I think it was like 19, 18, 19 when I met him. Man. And so I just, you know, I pointed him in this direction.

I sent him a bunch of pictures from reference stuff. And I was like, this is a guy. Like, don't even look any further. And he said, oh, I love him. I love him. So immediately I hit up Drew and say, hey, man, would you be interested in?

He said, absolutely. I said, check with Hunter and make sure you're cool. And thank God. Like, Hunter, because things have changed a lot. Hunter's, I think Hunter's 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 will bring back to WW, which is a great thing.

Where I think in the past, it was just kind of the opposite. said everything, want 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 structures, Hunter was like, yes, you know, we want you to do this. This brings more eyes on the WBE. Do you keep in touch with Triple H? Yeah. Yeah. He's a big Dave Petitista movie fan. I don't know if he likes my movies. I'm probably think he does. He probably thinks I'm a shit actor. But I just, I've always clicked with Hunter, I get Hunter and 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. If you don't think you've made it to the top in what you're doing right now in film, do you feel like you made it to the top in wrestling? No, I think if I had stayed longer, I might have. You know, there's a part of me that always thinks you, you know, right guy, right time. But I, you know, I don't know what I would have achieved if I would have been like a John Siener 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,

you know, kind of my run between 2005 and 2010, I'm proud of. I can say that I'm proud of it. You know, I've had the conversation with Hunter about, you know, going to the Hall of Fame. And I was always a part of me that makes me feel like my career is not worthy of going into the Hall of Fame. Wow. And then he, well, he said this to me. And this makes sense.

And he said, you know, with what you accomplish, you know, he said, you accomplished a lot in the short period of time you were there. I think it's worthy. He said, 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, WWW 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, been very, open about being a, you know, W.W. Superstar. And I think so, I think I'm a good ambassador for the company. And I think if, you know, on those merits, if they want to put me on the Hall of Fame, I'd be proud to accept. You, when you retired, you retired. That was it. That's it.

You know? Done. That's it. You've done. Yeah. John Sina announced a year and a half in advance he's going to retire. Right. He's going to go on this retirement tour.

Exactly. So, you know, I really, 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, like, we're different. Like, I would never do this. I wouldn't, I couldn't. I wouldn't feel it would feel disingenuine to me to go around.

And I just, I 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 to me where I just, I couldn't do it. It would feel uncomfortable to me. Like, accolades feel uncomfortable to me. Like, I could never be the type of baby face who was saying good stuff because I wanted to get the crowd to cheer for me. Like, I couldn't be that guy. And I just, so I, you know, I love and respect to what he's doing with his whole tour to say, you know, thank you to the fans.

But we're just different that way. Like, I couldn't, 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, you know, and I knew I was. 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.

And I don't know. It's just something about it to what it felt false to me. And I just couldn't do it. Speaking of Sina, let's take it back to the Royal Rumble when the botched finish, right? You're standing there in the ring. Yeah. What's going through your mind when Vince runs into the ring and you don't know what's happened at the time, but he can't stand out? Yeah, well, the whole day I thought I was getting fired. The whole day was, it 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 Bakersfield. But I was in, 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. and Vince thought that I was being super disrespectful by showing up late and he was pissed and I thought he was going to change his mind and was going to change like the whole storyline and so I got there and he reamed me out as soon as I got there but then we you know the match and it was botched and I totally take blame for it because I went over we knew 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 you know at the same time it was a miracle and then when I saw Vince coming down I was like, getting fired.

Most of my career, until like later in my career, I, 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, like, 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, and I was just worried about the match. And then they got him out of there.

I think I found out later on. And the funny thing was, so I think I can't remember where we were at like the next day. But it was the next day. And I got to the building and somebody immediately said, Vince wants to see in his office. And I was saying, ah, here it comes. So I went, went to his office and my heart is beating. I'm like just in my head packing my bags. And I walk into his office and he's sitting and he's got his crutches beside him.

He's all banded stuff. And he walks in and he just starts laughing. And he's laughing at the top of his lungs, ha, ha, ha, ha. And I was like, you're not going to fire me? And he goes, no, I loved it. It was real. It was so great. And it was real.

And nobody who knows was going to happen. But he loved it. I think that Vince thrives on chaos. I think he needs, you know, when you think about some guy who's, you know, he's a billionaire, he's accomplished everything. he's bought everything that he could ever buy. He says everything. So once he got left, excitement.

And I think because that moment was so chaotic, I think he had just excited him, it exhilarated him. And so even though it was a total bunch, I think he just had so much fun in that exhilarating, exciting moment that he kind of thrived on it and he forgave me. I could talk to you all day. I'm getting the wrap over here. Thank you for just being the kind person you.

No, I appreciate you. I appreciate you. I'm going to ask you the question I ask at the end of every interview because gratitude is such a big part of my life. I wake up every day. I say how loud three things I'm grateful for? My wife and I do it before we go to bed every night. What are three things, Dave, that you're grateful for right now?

Three things I'm grateful for? I'm grateful, obviously, for my health. I'm grateful that my mom. My mother raised me the way she did, and I'm grateful for dogs. Dogs are my happiness. Dogs are my happy place, are my joy in life. Dogs are my therapy. Dogs are everything.

If you can't appreciate the simplicity, the curiosity, the curiosity, the innocence, and joy that dogs bring to the world, and you're just a despicable human being. How many got you got? I have four. Amazing. Yeah. You're the best, Dave. Yeah, thanks.

There we go. Dave Batista, a huge thank you to him for making the time to do this in his very busy schedule. This was in between a lot of other interviews he was doing for the Killers game. I love at the end there. How much he loves dogs. What a sweetheart of a man. That part was great.

This interview is also up on my YouTube channel. And I feel like there's a few things that you might pick up on if you watch the video of this. instead of just listening to it. So if you have some time today or this week, it might be worth a look. And I'm assuming you're already subscribed to the YouTube channel. So it's likely popped up in your notifications or on your homepage. But if not, just a little reminder that it is there, along with, of course, every other interview that we ever do on the show here. The Killers game is in theaters this Friday, September 13th. And I know there's been a lot of talk about Dave looking like small or like he's lean he's very lean like he looks great and like he pointed out in this

interview he's six four and 240 pounds if i was describing to you that i had a buddy who was six four and two forty you wouldn't be like oh man wow that guy sounds skinny you'd be like oh that's a that's a beast that is a beast of a human being and that is what dave batista is he's he's beyond a beast he's an animal He is the manamal Baptista. I should have asked him about that. I can't think about John Chena or Baptista. I can't think about John Sina or Batista without thinking of the names that Santino called him. Snap a screenshot, tag us online.

Let us know that you listen to this one. He's at Dave Batista. I'm at Chris Van Fleet. Sean Spears shared this quote on his Instagram story this weekend. I loved this so much. I took a screenshot and I wanted to share with you here. Time is the only currency you spend without ever knowing your balance.

Use it wisely. Be great. Be grateful. We will see you on the next one. For some more insight, we've got Stephen Amel joining us on Thursday. Heels, debuts on Netflix. On September 15th, we've got a great chat about everything

that Stephen Amel has done inside and outside of wrestling, all of it. So we will see you on Thursday for that one. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why? Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today.

No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Ticket banjov, but get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef?

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