Batista Unleashed (28 page)

You could hear it on the mike, too. I was pretty much memorizing things, using words I wouldn’t use. They came across like I was reading a script. Badly.

Then as I went further along, especially with the help of Ric and Hunter, I learned how to figure out the story and kind of feed off the crowd. At that point, it started to become more of an art.

When I became champion the first time, I was still learning about that art, still getting a feel for the crowd. Winning the championship belt back, I was able to use my understanding of the story much better. The story of a guy who loses his title to an injury—that’s a story anyone can relate to. If they lose their spot at work or on a baseball team or whatever, they know a little bit of what it feels like. Part of my art as a wrestler was to use my story to connect with their story. That’s what made people cheer for me, why they wanted me to win, why I was the babyface.

You’re creating a piece of art while you’re in the ring. I don’t know that I’ve created a masterpiece yet, but I’m definitely working on it.

That’s the cool thing about this business. You create something new every day, and you learn by it. Even Vince McMahon says he still learns to this day.

YOUR TIME IS MY TIME

One of the things I’ve learned only recently is that you don’t really want to rush your crowd. Especially if you’re in a heated angle with somebody. You want to let things simmer and build gradually. It has to do with the story you’re telling. It has to have a satisfying shape.

Some wrestlers are excited when they see that the crowd is already standing on their feet as soon as they get in the ring. For me, I’d rather build a match and bring them to their feet at the end. You know, once you start with them already up, where do you go from there? How do you build that?

That’s another thing I learned, actually. The way you build that is you slow it back down and start all over. And again, it has to do with listening to the crowd, letting them tell you where you should go.

But I guess the thing that I keep learning, over and over again, is something that Hunter told me:
everything doesn’t have to be an elaborate spot.
It doesn’t have to be a car wreck. The more realistic you make it, the better the chance you have of sucking the crowd in.

Being realistic means a lot of times being “small.” Wrestlers will punch each other twenty times in the face instead of drawing back and giving that one big punch that takes the guy down realistically. When he falls and sells it, that’s a real score with the crowd. In real life, you punch somebody in the face—you know, get a good solid shot on them—they’re probably going to drop to the ground. So in a match, that simple shot can have more impact than twenty hard smashes to the face.

SUMO

As a big guy, I’ve always liked sumo. I could sit for hours and watch sumo. It’s just one of those things. The rituals that they have are very cool. The technical aspects are very interesting.

When we were in Japan, I got to see and meet some sumo wrestlers. I’m a big fan of Akebono, and he came to one of our shows and put on a match with Big Show at
WrestleMania 21.
Just to give you a little taste of how good Akebono is, he was the first non-Japanese wrestler to reach the highest rank in sumo, Yokozuna. He held that rank for roughly eight years, which is an eternity in sumo. At six eight and 517 pounds, he had incredible strength and could dominate a match in minutes if not seconds.

The slap on my thighs that I do as part of my entrance is actually a rip-off of sumo, a kind of a tribute to the art form.

While I’m thinking about it, the machine-gun thing I do with my hands, as if I’m firing a pair of H&K MP5Ns as the pyro goes off, came from a suggestion from Shane McMahon.

I’m still kind of uncomfortable speaking in front of people. I don’t know if I went out and was kind of the goofball I am, I don’t know how people would take that—my character is kind of serious. But I get through it.

When my mother originally told some of our family friends that I was going to be a pro wrestler, they were all pretty surprised.

“But he doesn’t talk!” they all said. “He’ll be great and everything, but doesn’t he actually have to speak?”

I guess I have a reputation for being pretty quiet in the family, especially compared to everyone else. As a matter of fact, a lot of our friends and even my mom were surprised when they first started seeing me on the show, because compared to at home, I talk a ton on TV.

They used to write all this stuff for me. They’d give me five paragraphs and I’d condense it into two sentences. So they pretty much gave up on writing things for me and just gave me bullet points to make. I just go out and make my point. I try to speak from the heart. I think people can connect with that. They know I’m just saying what I feel. I’m never going to be like The Rock. Like Hogan. I’m never going to be Mr. Excitement. That’s just not me. I’m more mild-mannered, more soft-spoken. I just kind of try and be myself, make my point, and get the hell out of there.

WORKING OUT

My look has always been my strong point. I’m the first to tell people that it was how I got my job. I don’t try to fool people and say I worked really hard as a wrestler and paid my dues on the indies. I got my job because I was built like a brick shit house. They took a look at me and said, Well, let’s give it a try.

So it’s pretty critical that I keep that look, even as I get older. Luckily for me, staying in shape has been an easy part of my wrestling career. I’ve really centered my life around working out. I don’t even think about it. It’s something that’s in my everyday daily routine.

And I love working out. I do it every day in some way, shape, or form. It hasn’t been a chore for me.

It can be hard while you’re on the road. You have to make the time, you have to somehow forget how tired you are, and you have to find the gym.

That’s one thing I’ve always loved about Kane. He’s an encyclopedia of gyms. If you’re ever in a town and you need to know where the gym is, you just ask Kane. Not only does he know where it is, he’s probably been there already. He can give you a rundown of all the machines and programs they’ve got, what’s nearby, whatever you need.

I’ve learned to become very antisocial when I go to the gym. It’s not because I’m a prick or anything. It’s because if one person comes up and starts talking to me, that opens the door for everybody else to come up to start talking to me. Ordinarily I wouldn’t mind, except that when I’m on the road, I’m usually very time restricted. I may have only forty-five minutes or less to work out. I have to do my thing and go. I really don’t have time to socialize at the gym; I’m basically there to do my job. So a lot of times, I’ll be very standoffish. I slap on my headphones and try purposely not to make eye contact with anybody. It’s just something I’ve learned that I’ve had to do to be able to go places and get through my workout without being in there for three hours.

I know some people take it the wrong way and think I’m a dick. But it’s something I’ve had to learn to do.

TAG TEAMS

A lot of the big matches I’ve had in my career, and certainly while I’ve been champion, were singles matches, but I still love working in tag teams. Working tags always seems to be more fun. I don’t know why.

They are definitely easier physically, because you are able to tag in and out. You can catch your breath and rest out of the spotlight a little bit. But they’re harder in a lot of other ways. There’s a lot going on, especially if they’re six-man tags or even eight-man tags, which we did a lot of when I was in Evolution. Then you have so many people going in there that it can easily get confusing. You have to focus on creating your story, making your part of the match come alive.

I’ve had some great tag team partners over the years. I talked earlier about Ric Flair and how flattered I am to have my name linked with his in wrestling history. I like the things that connect me to other people, to other great wrestlers.

One of the great wrestlers I tagged with was Rey Mysterio. Working with Rey was so much fun. Sometimes I would get lost in the corner just watching him, just being amazed at the things he was able to do. He’s so incredibly talented. He’s an amazing athlete. He really is. I turned into a fan sitting there in the corner.

Rey’s a legend in the cruiserweight division, and helped make the cruiserweight contests one of the most popular segments of the WCW programming during the Monday Night Wars back when both WCW and our company were competing in the late nineties. He came over to us in 2002. His athletic ability is phenomenal. He’s had so many great matches, but I think a lot of fans will remember his work with Eddie Guerrero for years and years.

His career has been amazing. But as a person, as a husband, as a father, that’s where his greatness lies. If you saw him with his kids, you’d know he’s just an incredible man.

Rey and I worked with MNM for a long time. MNM was a tag team of Joey Mercury and Johnny Nitro, with Melina as their manager.

We had so much fun with those guys. For one, Nitro and Mercury are very talented. But Melina really made it fun.

Her character is such a raging bitch. The arena just loved to see her embarrassed or humiliated. We’d always end the matches with her hanging over the ropes and her ass hanging out there. She’d always wear these little skirts and tiny thongs, her little butt hanging out.

We’d do a spot where Rey would set the three of them up for a 6-1-9, one of his signature moves. The 6-1-9 is Rey’s version of a Tiger feint, where he jumps through the ropes and uses the momentum to swing back into the ring. You see it in Japan and Mexico a lot. You have to be pretty athletic to do it, but of course Rey’s got the juice to pull it off. The name, 6-1-9, is a reference to the area code of San Diego, where Rey was born.

He would hit Melina last. She’d end up hanging over the ropes, and we’d leave her there for a little while so we and the rest of the arena could get a good eyeful of her ass. Then usually we’d end the match with me rolling Nitro and Mercury out of the ring, leaving Melina there. I’d ask her for a little kiss.

She’d give me a slap. Then she’d turn around and Rey would grab her, spin her, and dip her. Of course, she’s taller than he is, so that was always good for a laugh. He’d bend her over for the big dip and give her the big kiss and she’d fall on her ass and oversell it.

A WARM-UP

The night Rey and I won the Tag Team Championship from MNM, there was supposed to be a locker-room scene where Melina came in and tried to seduce me before the match, hoping to get me to call the match off. The way it was originally written, I was supposed to say, “Fuck you. Go away,” and turn her down.

Our head writer, Michael Hayes, came up to me before the show and said, “Let me ask you a question. If a hot girl came into your locker room and offered you some, would you really turn her down?”

“Well, I don’t know,” I said, thinking about it. “Probably not.”

“Would your character turn it down?”

“
Hell no!
”

“Well, you might want to mention that.”

So I went to Stephanie McMahon, who’s in charge of creative for the company.

“Look, it’s kind of cheesy,” I told her. “What kind of puss would I be if a hot girl came into my locker room and offered me some and I sent her away? That’s not cool. I think the guys in the audience want to see me, you know, hit it.”

So she went and talked to Vince, and they changed the whole thing for me. Instead of turning Melina down, I got some in the locker room.

Of course, then Melina came out and said, “We have a deal, right?”

“No, we don’t have a deal,” I told her, “but that was a hell of a warm-up. Thanks, I’m going to go and kill those guys.”

Which I did.

STORY LINES

Sometimes we don’t know what the hell we’re doing until we show up the day of the show, because things are constantly changing. Ideas pop into somebody’s head. Guys get injured. It’s like a constant machine that’s always going.