Batista's Bombshell
By THE LILSBOYS
Published: January 21, 2005
HE'S wrestling's man of the moment - and this week we tracked down Batista for an exclusive interview.
The 36-year-old monster is in the middle of a heated storyline with Triple H, that many predict will see him leave this year's WrestleMania as world heavyweight champion.
The two are currently partners in Evolution, but as Batista says in our chat the WWE's fans and even his fellow wrestlers are desperate to see him hit the Batista Bomb on his mentor.
And the Raw star hinted that's exactly what may happen in the coming months.
Batista also revealed why watching Smackdown makes him sick, how he doesn't want to see his friend Goldberg back in the WWE and that he rates Triple H as the greatest wrestler of all time.
Every single wrestling fan is waiting for you to turn on Triple H - can you sense that anticipation?
Definitely, especially during the last few weeks.
Triple H is just such a smart character that everyone is crying out for someone to put him in his place.
And it's not just the fans, even the guys backstage have really bought into this storyline.
At heart we're all just wrestling fans and when we see something good we want to watch it and find out what happens next.
The last few weeks must have been amazing for you - how are you feeling entering the main event mix?
Oh man, it feels great. It's incredible the way people are responding. Our attendance and viewing figures are picking up thanks to this storyline.
It comes to down to a rivalry between two guys about who's the best, there's no cheesy sideline there.
We have great chemistry and, even though in the storyline I may be turning on him, I'm still learning tons from Triple H.
We do have to follow certain storylines and scripts on the show, but we also ad lib a lot.
It's more natural that way and the crowd respond to it much better.
I don't like sticking to a script and speaking words that a writer may have written that don't sound like they would necessarily come from you.
Are you looking forward to the Royal Rumble later this month?
Very much. The Royal Rumble has always been one of my favourite matches.
Last year I didn't get a chance to participate as me and Ric were tag team champions and we had to defend those titles.
So I'm really looking forward to being in the Rumble this year - if I qualify that is.
Conditioning is a big question if I come into the match early, as I definitely didn't grow up as an endurance athlete.
Hopefully I'll get a lucky draw and won't come out too early in the match, but if I do I'm going to have to suck it up and go with it.
If I'm in the Rumble, then I want to win the Rumble!
So does that mean you'd like to face Triple H at WrestleMania 21?
Man, you're really putting me on the spot here.
Let's just put it like this - I would hope to go against the best.
I'm at the point where I want to be the man.
credit: The Sun
Well guys, this guy has an attitude.
What do you make of all of this.
Full Version: Batista's Bombshell From January 2005
Hi Bubba here, I didn't know he was 36. (2005) Thanks for the interview.
He's too cocky for his own good! At that point in his career he had just barely made a name for himself and he talks like he's been in the business for years. Even now, what does he have to show from his career? He picked up a few big guys and made himself look big by beating up the little guys! C'mon...how can you be proud of that?
If he's 38 now, what did Batista do for a living before wrestling?
I mean, he's only been in it what, 5 years?
I mean, he's only been in it what, 5 years?
He use to be a bouncer before he became a Professional Wrestler.
and yes, he's been with the WWE for 5 years.
When he 1st came to the WWE, he was on the SD! Roster as manager for D-Von (who was then known as Reverend D-Von) as Deacon Batista.
and then, the night after the 2002 Survivor Series PPV, he made an impact on RAW when he took out Kane with the Batista Bomb and his very 1st match on a LIVE WWE PPV was against Kane.
and then, the night after the 2003 Royal Rumble PPV, he and Randy Orton aligned themselves with Triple H and Ric Flair when they attacked Scott Steiner and Evolution was born.
However, Batista beat Triple H 3 times in 2005 which was his best year ever and won the World Heavyweight Championship @ Wrestlemania 21 and then 4 weeks later @ Backlash he beat Triple H again in Triple H/Batista II and then @ Vengeance which was Triple H/Batista III he def. The Game inside Hell in a Cell, and then on June 30, 2005 on Thursday Night SmackDown! on upn, just 3 weeks after John Cena got drafted to RAW and brought the WWE Heavyweight Title back to RAW, Batista got drafted to SD! and he took the World Heavyweight Championship with him.
and now, RAW has all of the traditional WWE Titles:
WWE Heavyweight Title
World Tag Team Titles
I-C Heavyweight Title
WWE Women's Title
and SD! has become more like WCW with their titles:
World Heavyweight Title
WWE Tag Team Titles
and 2 former WCW Titles:
U.S. Heavyweight Title
WWE Cruiserweight Title
and those are the facts.
and yes, he's been with the WWE for 5 years.
When he 1st came to the WWE, he was on the SD! Roster as manager for D-Von (who was then known as Reverend D-Von) as Deacon Batista.
and then, the night after the 2002 Survivor Series PPV, he made an impact on RAW when he took out Kane with the Batista Bomb and his very 1st match on a LIVE WWE PPV was against Kane.
and then, the night after the 2003 Royal Rumble PPV, he and Randy Orton aligned themselves with Triple H and Ric Flair when they attacked Scott Steiner and Evolution was born.
However, Batista beat Triple H 3 times in 2005 which was his best year ever and won the World Heavyweight Championship @ Wrestlemania 21 and then 4 weeks later @ Backlash he beat Triple H again in Triple H/Batista II and then @ Vengeance which was Triple H/Batista III he def. The Game inside Hell in a Cell, and then on June 30, 2005 on Thursday Night SmackDown! on upn, just 3 weeks after John Cena got drafted to RAW and brought the WWE Heavyweight Title back to RAW, Batista got drafted to SD! and he took the World Heavyweight Championship with him.
and now, RAW has all of the traditional WWE Titles:
WWE Heavyweight Title
World Tag Team Titles
I-C Heavyweight Title
WWE Women's Title
and SD! has become more like WCW with their titles:
World Heavyweight Title
WWE Tag Team Titles
and 2 former WCW Titles:
U.S. Heavyweight Title
WWE Cruiserweight Title
and those are the facts.
I'm not that much of a Batista fan but I really did enjoy those Trips\Batista matches.
Also hasn't almost every World Heavyweight Champion gone down with an injury since Batista brought that title to Smackdown?
Also hasn't almost every World Heavyweight Champion gone down with an injury since Batista brought that title to Smackdown?
Well I use to be a Batista fan when he turned on Triple H, but ever since he came back to SD! from an injury, I gave up on him, b/c of his attitude as well as his lack of wrestling.
and also, when Batista got drafted to SD!, I said when they drafted John Cena to RAW and brought back the traditional WWE Heavyweight Title to RAW I said, Batista is going to SD! and when that happend @ the end of June of 2005, I said to myself that night, Well @ least we don't have to worry about Triple H getting his hands on the World Heavyweight Championship.
and also, here's an article from wwe.com @ the time:
Curse of the Champions?
By Louie Dee
Written: July 18, 2007
Just more than two years ago, the World Heavyweight Championship came to SmackDown when then-champion Batista was selected in the 2005 Draft Lottery. As the richest prize in WWE, the World Heavyweight Championship instantly became the object of desire for the SmackDown Superstars.
But since becoming the (pun intended) gold standard on Friday nights, the title has seemingly become a curse to anyone who holds it.
Okay, so after reading that statement, you’re probably wondering the same thing everyone else is: How the hell can reaching the pinnacle of your profession actually be a BAD thing? Well, really, it’s not…if you’re a surgeon, that is.
Since Batista brought the gold to SmackDown, EVERYONE that has held it has been put on the sidelines within six months of their title reign. From The Animal on down to most recent ex-champion Edge, the infirmary has become SmackDown’s most popular post-championship destination.
Think that idea is a little bogus? Sorry, but the following chronology doesn’t lie:
January 2006: Batista suffers a torn triceps during a match with Mark Henry at a WWE live event. As a result, The Animal surrenders the World Heavyweight Championship on January 10 in Philadelphia; Theodore Long holds a Battle Royal to determine a new champion while Batista undergoes surgery and is out of action for six months.
Summer 2006: After losing the gold at WrestleMania in April, Kurt Angle suffers a multitude of injuries throughout the summer, most seriously a torn groin muscle in August. Later that same month, Angle is released from WWE.
October 2006: Rey Mysterio, who won the gold from Angle, suffers a serious knee injury at the hands of Chavo Guerrero. Mysterio, only three months removed from being champion, is put on the shelf indefinitely; as of this article, he still has yet to return.
April 2007: King Booker, who defeated Mysterio for the gold but lost it to Batista at Survivor Series in late-November, is knocked out of action by then-champion Undertaker. Thanks to a Tombstone on the announce table, Booker suffers a sprained and strained neck. He was never seen on SmackDown again, as he was drafted to Raw on June 11, and has since returned to action on Monday nights.
Later that same month, Undertaker suffered a torn biceps just weeks after winning the gold. Edge swooped in, picked the bones and took the title while The Deadman took a trip to the disabled list; Edge, however, solidified the curse theory by relinquishing the gold due to injury on Tuesday night.
Quite a streak, isn’t it? Sure, you might say that being a champion is tough, and many WWE Superstars will admit that keeping a title is much harder than winning it. All true, but look no further than WWE Champion John Cena. He’s been WWE Champion for the majority of the time SmackDown has had the World Title on Friday nights; however, no matter what anyone has done to him over the last two years, he’s barely missed a match, let alone been put out of action for a significant period of time. Is this simply a coincidence, or evidence of a curse?
If you’re still thinking this is silly, I present to you the “John Madden Jinx” as evidence. Much like what holding the World Heavyweight Championship has done to SmackDown Superstars, gracing the cover of the EA Sports annual John Madden Football video game has ended up becoming a harbinger of bad things for the NFL players who have done it.
From Garrison Hearst in 1998 to Shaun Alexander in 2006, every athlete on the cover of the game has been injured or had an awful season the year they appeared. Just as brief examples, Hearst broke his ankle in the 1998 playoffs and was never the same again, QBs Michael Vick (2004) and Donovan McNabb (2006) suffered major leg injuries that cost them most of the season, and Barry Sanders (1999) actually retired abruptly before that season even began.
So can this curse be broken? Well, sure; after all, the Boston Red Sox finally “reversed the curse” in 2004 when they broke the almost century-old “Curse of the Bambino” and won the World Series. The Chicago White Sox ended a similar curse a year later. And even in sports-entertainment there’s hope; Batista again held the World Heavyweight Championship from last November to this April, and he’s still healthy. Of course, the disdain of the Chicago Cubs for Billy Sianis’ goat has kept them out of the World Series for 62 years, but maybe that’s just the exception these days.
So what does the future hold? Well, only time will tell whether The Great Khali will suffer the same fate as his predecessors. As he embarks on his first championship reign, many of our fans may be wondering how anyone can survive against the 7-foot-3, 420-pound Punjabi powerhouse.
But in the devil’s eyes, the real question might be this: Can The Great Khali survive his own situation?
and also, when Batista got drafted to SD!, I said when they drafted John Cena to RAW and brought back the traditional WWE Heavyweight Title to RAW I said, Batista is going to SD! and when that happend @ the end of June of 2005, I said to myself that night, Well @ least we don't have to worry about Triple H getting his hands on the World Heavyweight Championship.
and also, here's an article from wwe.com @ the time:
Curse of the Champions?
By Louie Dee
Written: July 18, 2007
Just more than two years ago, the World Heavyweight Championship came to SmackDown when then-champion Batista was selected in the 2005 Draft Lottery. As the richest prize in WWE, the World Heavyweight Championship instantly became the object of desire for the SmackDown Superstars.
But since becoming the (pun intended) gold standard on Friday nights, the title has seemingly become a curse to anyone who holds it.
Okay, so after reading that statement, you’re probably wondering the same thing everyone else is: How the hell can reaching the pinnacle of your profession actually be a BAD thing? Well, really, it’s not…if you’re a surgeon, that is.
Since Batista brought the gold to SmackDown, EVERYONE that has held it has been put on the sidelines within six months of their title reign. From The Animal on down to most recent ex-champion Edge, the infirmary has become SmackDown’s most popular post-championship destination.
Think that idea is a little bogus? Sorry, but the following chronology doesn’t lie:
January 2006: Batista suffers a torn triceps during a match with Mark Henry at a WWE live event. As a result, The Animal surrenders the World Heavyweight Championship on January 10 in Philadelphia; Theodore Long holds a Battle Royal to determine a new champion while Batista undergoes surgery and is out of action for six months.
Summer 2006: After losing the gold at WrestleMania in April, Kurt Angle suffers a multitude of injuries throughout the summer, most seriously a torn groin muscle in August. Later that same month, Angle is released from WWE.
October 2006: Rey Mysterio, who won the gold from Angle, suffers a serious knee injury at the hands of Chavo Guerrero. Mysterio, only three months removed from being champion, is put on the shelf indefinitely; as of this article, he still has yet to return.
April 2007: King Booker, who defeated Mysterio for the gold but lost it to Batista at Survivor Series in late-November, is knocked out of action by then-champion Undertaker. Thanks to a Tombstone on the announce table, Booker suffers a sprained and strained neck. He was never seen on SmackDown again, as he was drafted to Raw on June 11, and has since returned to action on Monday nights.
Later that same month, Undertaker suffered a torn biceps just weeks after winning the gold. Edge swooped in, picked the bones and took the title while The Deadman took a trip to the disabled list; Edge, however, solidified the curse theory by relinquishing the gold due to injury on Tuesday night.
Quite a streak, isn’t it? Sure, you might say that being a champion is tough, and many WWE Superstars will admit that keeping a title is much harder than winning it. All true, but look no further than WWE Champion John Cena. He’s been WWE Champion for the majority of the time SmackDown has had the World Title on Friday nights; however, no matter what anyone has done to him over the last two years, he’s barely missed a match, let alone been put out of action for a significant period of time. Is this simply a coincidence, or evidence of a curse?
If you’re still thinking this is silly, I present to you the “John Madden Jinx” as evidence. Much like what holding the World Heavyweight Championship has done to SmackDown Superstars, gracing the cover of the EA Sports annual John Madden Football video game has ended up becoming a harbinger of bad things for the NFL players who have done it.
From Garrison Hearst in 1998 to Shaun Alexander in 2006, every athlete on the cover of the game has been injured or had an awful season the year they appeared. Just as brief examples, Hearst broke his ankle in the 1998 playoffs and was never the same again, QBs Michael Vick (2004) and Donovan McNabb (2006) suffered major leg injuries that cost them most of the season, and Barry Sanders (1999) actually retired abruptly before that season even began.
So can this curse be broken? Well, sure; after all, the Boston Red Sox finally “reversed the curse” in 2004 when they broke the almost century-old “Curse of the Bambino” and won the World Series. The Chicago White Sox ended a similar curse a year later. And even in sports-entertainment there’s hope; Batista again held the World Heavyweight Championship from last November to this April, and he’s still healthy. Of course, the disdain of the Chicago Cubs for Billy Sianis’ goat has kept them out of the World Series for 62 years, but maybe that’s just the exception these days.
So what does the future hold? Well, only time will tell whether The Great Khali will suffer the same fate as his predecessors. As he embarks on his first championship reign, many of our fans may be wondering how anyone can survive against the 7-foot-3, 420-pound Punjabi powerhouse.
But in the devil’s eyes, the real question might be this: Can The Great Khali survive his own situation?
That Curse of the Champions article was awesome "Thanks TNA"!!!
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