While Batista loves WWE and has vowed to never wrestle for anyone else, The Animal has never shied away from being critical of their creative process. On last week’s Talk is Jericho podcast, Batista was interviewed by Chris Jericho, and asked about his ostensible final run with the company, and what it was like to work with WWE’s creative team. He was less than flattering, calling it “a nightmare.”
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“It was a nightmare. It wasn’t a nightmare like the last time, but it was difficult. Because for one, I thought I was going back way too soon. And because I thought, ‘If I go back, we tease this now, what the hell are we doing for the next five weeks?’ You know, because the last run I went out, I went back and they had no plan. And they didn’t know what to do with me, so every week they’re just sending me out there to cut these really horrible promos. They’re just awful, and I’m just regurgitating the same crap while people are going, you know, [chanting] ‘CM Punk!’ or ‘Daniel Bryan!'”
He went on to explain that WWE wanted him to do many more appearances than he ended up doing, but he pushed back because he didn’t want to water the program down.
Batista did have one nice thing to say, though: apparently, Vince McMahon came up with the “kiss my ass” promo the week before WrestleMania, which Batista loved. He also said they shared a nice moment backstage after his match. “I did talk to Vince and it wasn’t anything overly emotional, but it was, he was really happy. All along, he was really happy that I was back and he was very gracious.”
The whole interview is worth listening to, as they get more into Batista’s relationship with WWE, as well as his upcoming movie, Stuber.
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