Working his way through the WWE's Ohio Valley Wrestling training program, Dave Bautista, known to WWE fans as "Batista", has quickly risen through the ranks of World Wrestling Entertainment.

After a brief run as Deacon Batista and on to the power man of Evolution, Batista broke away from the group to defeat its leader Triple H in the main event of Wrestlemania 21 in April to capture the World Heavyweight Championship - a title he holds to this day.

Batista recently suffered at torn latissimus dorsi (back muscle) and opted for rehab over surgery and is also reeling from the real life loss of friend Eddie Guerrero.

Dave Batista recently joined NZPWI Editor Dion McCracken for this interview in Auckland while on a promotional tour for March 2006's WWE SmackDown Road to Wrestlemania 22 Tour.

Entire interview (45Kbps)
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Dion McCracken: OK, well first thing, welcome to New Zealand, it’s a pleasure to have you down here.

Batista: Thank you, thanks for having me.

The first thing I have to ask you is, how’s the back injury?

Well, still injured. Hahaha. You know, it’s a torn muscle. I opted not to have surgery on it because I didn’t want to be out for three or four months. So it’s something I’m working through, you know, but we deal with injuries all the time.

What’s the long-term prognosis? Do you need to take time off eventually?

Hopefully not. It’s one of those things where, it’s a very uncommon injury, it usually happens in baseball pitchers, it’s from an over-extension, but like I said, I’ve opted not to have surgery, I’ll just work through it and rehab it, so I don’t plan on taking any time off.

How did you get interested in body-building, were you a big kid?

I was tall. I was always very tall and I was muscular, but I was very thin. You know, when I was young I just sprouted up, and didn’t fill out very much, so I started lifting weights to fill out, and I just took to it, I just started growing and growing and got bigger and bigger, it was something that came very natural to me.

It seemed to work didn’t it?

Yeah.

How difficult is it to stay in peak condition while you are on the road?

It’s a little rough sometimes. And usually because it’s hard to find healthy food on the road. You know, when you’re travelling through airports and you’re on the road constantly, sometimes fast food is all you can get, McDonalds or this and that, and you kind of make do, and try to choose healthier choices off the menu, things like that, but mostly it’s really, it’s just hard to eat healthy when you’re travelling so much.

Take us back to WrestleMania 21. You nailed Triple H with a Batista Bomb, get the pin, get the title; what’s the first thing that goes through your mind?

Um… God. Yeah. You know, I still don’t have a clear recollection of that match. I didn’t sleep the whole week before, just all the anxiety and tension, and really I was just flooded with emotion, there wasn’t actually a thought, you know, it was just a flood of emotions, it was very overwhelming, it was a dream come true. It still feels like a dream, it doesn’t feel real.

Can it get any bigger than that for you?

You know, I still have higher goals. I don’t think it can get any bigger than that though.

You talk about the anxiety leading up to that week; which is more exciting, finding out you’re going to be the guy who wins the Rumble and the title, or getting your hand raised?

Getting your hand raised. Hahaha… because you know, I mean up until then it’s all a vision, and you hope everything will work out, like the Royal Rumble match with John Cena and I, things were a little off. That wasn’t the outcome that was supposed to happen. So it was crazy, but you never know if things are going to come off exactly how you planned them to, so just getting through it, and when you get your hand raised, that was good, that was very entertaining, and you’re happy with it, and it’s just an incredible feeling.

How did you find the transition from being the enforcer of Evolution into the World Champ and the guy that has to carry the brand?

It was really just, more responsibility was put on my shoulders. Which I welcomed, but it wasn’t a major transition. I really just felt like there was more responsibility handed to me. I was really prepared well, and I was groomed for that position by Ric Flair and Triple H. So, it wasn’t a major transition.

The majority of fans probably don’t realise how hectic your schedule is; can you take us through an average week for the champion?

Well… hahaha… this week would have been, we did our television show, and I was on the plane the next morning headed towards Chicago, then on another plane headed to Bangkok, Thailand, spent a couple of days there. Went to Sydney, then came straight here. Tomorrow we go to Wellington, then I’ll go home. Then I’ll do a press conference, next day I’ll do a television show, go home for a couple of days and then I’ll do it again.

And you love it.

I love it.

Which role do you prefer, playing the fan favourite or the bad guy?

Um… hahaha… I like being a fan favourite. It allows me to do more things, other things that I wouldn’t be able to do if I was the bad guy, so to speak… you don’t go out and do charity work, you know, people don’t want the bad guy coming in to meet their kids and see them. Kids are going to be scared.

But personally, I loved being the bad guy. You know, I thought it was more fun. More fun being the bad guy.

You talk about being groomed by Ric Flair; how important is it to have a guy like that around, still active in the roster for the guys coming up?

Oh, it’s very important, he’s a leader in so many ways.

You know, Ric’s taught me more about life than wrestling. Just, how to deal with life on the road, how to deal with life, being away from your family, and he really taught me how to have fun doing this, you know you make the best out of it. You know, you’re not at home, you’re on the road, but you get to meet people, and just make the best out of it.

But his leadership, in the locker room, you couldn’t put a price on that. And he’s awesome, he’s a hell of an athlete. He’s still going strong, fifty-something and still going strong. And the things that he can teach, not the headlocks and the arm drags, the moves… he teaches you how to interact with the crowd, listen to the crowd and what the crowd wants. Wrestling its an art to him. And that’s what he tries to teach most guys, some guys don’t get it. But he handed that over to me, I think I got the concept and was able to roll with it.

The wrestling world of course is still mourning the loss of Eddie Guerrero; how are things going in SmackDown?

Um… I think a lot of guys are still heartbroken, myself included.

It’s… [pauses] it’s still very fresh. It’s still very hard.

The tribute shows to Eddie Guerrero, they were fantastic though weren’t they?

Yeah they were.

A real tribute to Eddie.

Yeah.

What is it about the industry that makes you so passionate about it?

You know, I really believe in our product. And I just think it’s such good entertainment, you know there’s something in it for everyone. Like, Ric looks at it as an art form, and I really believe that it is, you know, to control a crowd, to make them happy one second and mad at you the next second, and they’re screaming, yelling and cheering, that’s really, it’s really hard to do. You know, and there’s only a few guys in the world who can do it very well.

But there’s also something about walking through that curtain, and the adrenaline rush of ten, twenty, thirty, forty thousand people, screaming, yelling, chanting, I mean that’s a natural high that you couldn’t find anywhere else.

I always describe us as being the closest thing an athlete can get to being a rock star. And we really are, we’re rock stars without the music, hahaha.

© 2005 World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah? What makes you mark out?

Ric Flair makes me mark out. Triple H makes me mark out. You know, the Rock, Stone Cold, Undertaker, those guys make me mark out. They’re amazing. They’re amazing entertainers. John Cena makes me mark out.

Do you still get backstage and get butterflies being around some of the guys?

Absolutely, all the time. Every once in a while I’ll be sitting there talking to Ric, and it’ll pop into my head, just of nowhere – “I can’t believe I’m sitting here talking to Ric Flair.” You know, he’s a good friend of mine, but I’ll just turn back into a kid – “That’s Ric Flair. I’m talking to Ric Flair.” Yeah, it’s amazing.

What kind of person does it take to make it in the business?

Well, it takes all different types of people, but to make it into our company and to do well in our company, gotta have this [points to heart] gotta have this first. And you’ve got to have a very strong desire and determination to want to be a professional wrestler. It’s just, it’s not for everyone.

Then, you’ve got to be tough. Because we go year-round – and you know, we don’t have an off-season, we go year round, and we’re travelling constantly, just the wear and tear alone… the travel alone I think would kill… hahahah… the average person. And that’s a lot of mental toughness as well.

But you know, it takes all different types of people.

Who are your heroes, professionally and personally?

Well, my all-time greatest hero is Lou Gehrig. He was an American baseball player. He’s absolutely my idol.

As far as wrestling goes, the guys I look up to most would be Triple H and Ric Flair.

Has anyone had the balls to rib you on the road?

Oh sure. I’m not above that. I paid my dues just like everybody else when I was an rookie, and I had guys who’d been around a long time, veterans we call them, giving me crap, even though I could have handed their ass to them easily, just like that [snaps fingers] you know, and put a stop to it, but I’m not above ribbing. I’m just like everyone else in the locker room.

What do your daughters think about the Batista they see on television?

Oh they’re not impressed. Hahaha… I always tell them, I try to convince them I’m a cool dad, I say, “Hey I’m a cool dad” but they don’t buy it. I’m just their dad, I guess all kids kind of see their dads the same, they don’t see, if you have a different job or this and that, I’m just their dad.

How did you get into this, into collecting tin lunchboxes?

I actually started the collection, I wanted to… my wife started a new job, it was her first office job she’d ever had, and I wanted to get her something really cool. And her favourite movie was E.T. So I went online, and I found this original E.T. lunchbox, it was brand new, I bought it for her, and she loved it so much but she didn’t want to take it to work with her because she was afraid she was going to scratch it up, so I went and bought another one, I said “Here you go, you’ve got one to save and one to use,” and this was when I was actually home injured, and I had a lot of free time, so I started online collecting… I had one, two, then I had ten, then I had twenty, then I had thirty, then I got fifty… I think I’ve got about sixty or seventy.

What can you see yourself doing after you leave the industry?

I’ll never leave.

Yeah?

No. The cool thing about this business is, once you’ve made it in, there’s always a job for you. In some way, shape or form, if you’re good at what you do. You know, if you know this business inside and out. So I think there will always be a job in some way, shape or form for me in this business, which is, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love this business, I believe in it, I have a passion for it, and I would like to pass along what I’ve learned to others too.

With that in mind, what do you hope your legacy will be?

Um… God. It would be really bold of me to say that I would leave any type of legacy. You know, I’m sure I won’t be one of the greatest World Champions ever… so yeah, I don’t know if I’ll leave a legacy, but I hope that people will think well of me, and were entertained by me, and I hope that if they bought a ticket to come see Batista that they knew that I gave them everything I had, and they were very entertained.

Thanks for talking to us today Dave, but before we go, I organised a wee gift for you. Courtesy of our friends at Adidas. It’s the largest All Black jersey in creation, a triple XL.

Cool, very cool. I heard the All Blacks are kicking butt.

[Dave’s face lights up as he receives the jersey]

Oh, absolutely.

Thank you so much, that’s beautiful.

Beating the Australians and the English, quite recently, and quite often. But there you go, there’s your own All Black jersey.

Thank you very much man, I appreciate that.

[Turns to WWE Staff]

Sweet.