Batista Interview With Huffington Post UK; Talks Shield, Drax, Rookie Days

Batista recently sat down for an interview with Huffington Post UK to promote Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Below are some highlights:

The make-up you wore [for Drax] was so intricate – how long did you spend in the chair and how did you pass the time?!

Oh – with all kinds of stuff. I got really close to my make-up team! It was a team of five people – and it took them about four hours to put it all on every day. We had a routine and we’d just talk for hours, listening to music and if you can imagine hanging out with your friends for that amount of time, it just kind of flies by. It wasn’t a big deal, it was just hanging out in the morning and doing our usual routine. It wasn’t so much the hours of sitting in the chair but rather the consecutive days when it became a little hard. I don’t remember ever being unhappy about it though.

Moving to wrestling, what’s the best rib [practical joke] that’s been played on you?

I’m not the biggest ribber, so this is not so much of a rib but as you know, I made my WWE debut alongside Devon. I was a rookie and – I learned this the hard way – sometimes you should just keep your mouth shut. I made a bet with him when we were somewhere in New Mexico, because Devon was notoriously late, I told him that if he beat me to the show that I’d run around the building naked. Even though I hadn’t really meant it, he picked up on it and ran with it. So he ended up winning the bet, of course, and I was going to keep to my word and run around the building naked. One of the WWE producers vetoed the idea but I was the rookie and obligated to suck it up. So I was at his mercy and the trade for the naked run was that I had to do 25 individual push-ups whenever and wherever he told me to. After each push up I had to scream out “I’m Devon’s b***h”. I did them – I think he let me out of about five of them because he eventually just felt so bad. But I did them in random places – it was on planes, it was in restaurants…..

It’s not so long since you visited WWE’s developmental territory, NXT – who should we be looking out for?

Well I didn’t get to see all the talent at NXT but they’ve certainly got some down there. Some big boys down there too! The person I’d really like to see come up and I hope she changes things around for the women’s division which has gotten so fluff, is Ashley Fleihr or Miss Charlotte as she’s known there. I really hope that she does well. I watched her in a match with Nattie Neidhart recently and it was a really good match. I think that was mostly down to Nattie because Ashley is still learning, she’s still super green but I’m hopeful that she’s got a big part of her dad (Ric Flair) in her and that she can change things around because she’s very athletic. That division used to have girls who could go and now it’s rubbish. Think of Lita, you know, that’s when the women’s division was respectable.

Sting has just appeared on a WWE panel at a comic convention. Will we see him wrestling in the WWE soon?

I don’t know – you know, they’ve been talking about that for years. I’ve never even met him. But I hope so. I think he’s got a place there. But they need to do it soon because the audience is changing so much that if they wait any longer, the audience is going to be a bunch of kids and when he comes out they’re going to chant CM Punk!

What are your thoughts on Jeff Jarrett’s new GFW promotion – is it good for business?

Any competition is good for business, the problem is they’re just not going to be any competition. They’ll never beat the production of the WWE. It’s a huge production, they’re just so good at what they do and they’re on top of the world for a reason. It’s a first class production and I don’t see anybody being a threat. WCW was the closest thing and I think it’s a shame they went under because I think competition is a good thing but that promotion or any other promotion is just not competition.

What did you think of the Undertaker’s Wrestlemania streak being broken?

It sucked! Honestly, I thought it sucked. I haven’t really talked much about it but I think it was a bad decision, a horrible decision. I don’t have any say in the matter but to me, watching as a fan, it made me sick. Brock Lesnar beating him didn’t seem to work and it really wasn’t good that Brock left the day after. I just don’t see how that made sense at all. I don’t think anyone wanted to see the streak broken and it just didn’t make sense to me.

When you left WWE, the Shield broke up – what did you think about that and their individual efforts?

It’s similar to my take on the Undertaker. I guess there comes a point where you have to send them their separate ways but – and it’s just my opinion – I don’t think they were ready. I don’t think they’re ready to fly solo. I realise where they’re going and that WWE will push Roman Reigns straight to the top. However for me, Dean Ambrose is by far the most talented in that group and I think eventually if they just give him the spotlight then he’s going to shine. As soon as he touches a mic everyone else can just sit down as he’s magic on it. So It remains to be seen, I think they’re all talented but to me Dean was the star of that group. I think Roman looks like the star of that group but I don’t think he’s nearly as talented as Dean.

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