Batista Unleashed (10 page)

One thing that I always loved about Jim Cornette is the fact that he’s a huge buff of the history of wrestling. He would make us study. We read Lou Thesz’s book,
Hooker: An Authentic Wrestler’s Adventures Inside the Bizarre World of Professional Wrestling,
to get a feel for the industry, especially as it was during the eighties and early nineties. He gave us another book whose title I don’t recall, but which had a lot of information on older wrestlers, guys who had passed away. And we watched shoot interviews with Cowboy Bill Watts. Watts was an old-school wrestler and then wrestling promoter who had a tremendous store of information and stories about wrestling. By “shoot” I mean that his interviews weren’t in character; he was telling the viewers a lot about the inner workings of the business.

Jim Cornette really tried to school us on the traditions of sports entertainment. He was really big on making sure we knew our history. I always loved that about Cornette. Danny Davis was the trainer when we were down there. I always liked him, though he always seemed stressed when I was around. He was good to me, though. So was Nick Dinsmore—probably better known to fans as Eugene—who was teaching classes at the time.

I learned a lot at OVW about the responsibilities that come with being a wrestler. Some are pretty simple, like just being on time and doing your job. Simple, but important.

There’s a lot more to being a wrestler than just being out there in the ring. I really learned how to be responsible. I really grew up a lot as a person at OVW. Before then, all my jobs were at places where I could more or less do what I wanted. Everybody I worked with or for was always my friend. I could come and go as I pleased.

Jim Cornette.

At OVW, there was more responsibility on my shoulders. I don’t want to say it was a huge burden, but there were things I had to do, and I had to do them right. My part in the ring, showing up at appearances, taking time for the fans–these things and more were all part of my responsibilities as a wrestler. I realized this was my one and only shot, and I didn’t want to freakin’ blow it.

AN ALL-STAR CAST

We had an all-star cast down there. A lot of the guys who were in there around the time that I was moved up and became huge stars. I’m talking about guys like Shelton Benjamin, Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar, Rico Constantino, and John Cena. They were all wrestling at OVW during that time period.

Shelton and I were never superclose, but he’s one of those guys I’ve always liked from day one. He’s probably one of the most easygoing guys I’ve ever met in my life. I don’t want to say he’s floating through life, but he does seem to just blow in the wind. He’s a naturally gifted athlete. It’s freaky some of the things he can do.

And every once in a while, he’ll just break out into an impersonation of someone and it’ll be the funniest freakin’ thing. Just crack you up. On the microphone, though, he’s so dry. I don’t know why that happens.

I’d met Brock up in Minneapolis before either of us was in the business; we’d both trained together in the gym. He was still wrestling for the University of Minnesota, where he won the NCAA championship in 2000 as a heavyweight. Brock is one of the strongest guys I’ve ever met in my life. He’s just a freak of nature—strong and fast and agile. He’s unbelievable. His parents are like normal people, but he’s just an incredible freak of nature. It’s as if a meteorite brought him to earth.

I was disappointed when Brock left WWE. Besides having good technique and wrestling skills, Brock was awesome at psychology, at doing the things you have to do to sell a match. It was too bad—I always thought that if he and I had gotten together, we would have given the fans a great show. It would have been magic, a real battle of the giants.

Photo 17

Randy Orton and me during our OVW days.

Rico—Americco Tomhas Constantino—is an interesting guy. It would take me hours to get you to understand the way Rico is. He’s probably one of the most entertaining guys I’ve ever met. Toward the end of his career, he took a little bit of a surly turn, but back in OVW he was a big cheerleader, real positive and very happy. He was one of the guys who was so proud of being a wrestler. Every so often you’d catch him wearing his OVW belts out in public. He was just so proud of what he did. He’s a good guy, one of those people you can trust, which is rare in this business. He and I rode together for a while. He was always wired at the end of the night, so he would do the driving. I will always consider Rico a close friend and someone I can trust.

CENA

Cena is huge now. He just starred in the movie
The Marine
, so he’s known to audiences that don’t even follow wrestling. He’s a WWE Champion and is one of
Raw
’s biggest stars.

Now back when he was at OVW, he was the whitest white kid I had ever met. Somehow he turned himself into a streetwise, thuggish kid. I don’t know where that came from. But it worked.

John’s impressive on so many levels, it’s ridiculous. He’s probably one of the smartest guys I ever met. He’s got a freaky memory. And he can rap freestyle like crazy. It’s just incredible. If you gave him a word, gave him a subject, he could just go rhyming on it, rapping off the top of his head, forever. It’s amazing. I’ve listened to him rap for ten, twenty minutes. Just freestyle rapping about a sign he saw, the trees, whatever. It was pretty entertaining, just amazing.

At first, it didn’t have anything to do with his wrestling. It was just a talent he had. Then I think Shane McMahon got wind of it and asked him to do it. From there I think they worked it into his character for him.

Physically, of course, Cena’s a specimen. He’s a damn freak. He was like that, even down at OVW. He’s always been superimpressive.

A STRUGGLE FOR MY WIFE

We didn’t really travel in OVW. We’d go do shows in high schools and other spots an hour or an hour and a half away from Louisville, but it wasn’t a real taste of life on the road. We always slept in our own beds every night. Which was definitely a good thing for me, family-wise.

I think my wife, Angie, was starting to struggle a little bit with me being in wrestling. From the first day we got together, she was crazy insecure. I don’t think there was a time in our marriage when she didn’t think that I was cheating on her. The circumstances that we started under probably had something to do with that. But at least at OVW I was able to come home every night, and we spent a lot of time together.

Photo 18

Celebrating Keilani’s birthday.

For me, I was having a hard time being away from my kids. I was trying to keep in touch with them, mostly through the phone. Their mom worked for United Airlines at the time, and she had them fly out to see me when she could. I always appreciated that.

Financially, we still struggled a little bit, because I wasn’t making much money. But the truth is, things were pretty good. I was home every night, in love with my wife, and she was in love with me. We were together.

I thought it was hard at the time, ’cause it seemed like it was hard going to wrestle every day, then trying to work out, doing a few shows a week. But God, what I would give now to have those easy days back.

BUSTED

The WWE would call us up every once in a while to do dark matches for one of their shows. A dark match is a wrestling contest that is held before the television show itself begins; the fans in the arena see it, but it never goes on the air. Those dark shows gave WWE a chance to see how we were coming along and to judge the audience reaction to us, that sort of thing.

We did this one match in Chicago, I think, where I tagged with Mr. Perfect against Shelton Benjamin and I think Randy Orton. We couldn’t find Mr. Perfect before the match. I was a nervous wreck. He showed up literally as we were ready to walk out.

Like I said, I was an emotional wreck. I’m saying, “What are we doing? What are we going to do out there? What are we doing?”

I was used to having everything told to me: do this, this, this, and this. But Mr. Perfect—Curt Hennig—was from the old school.

“Ah, we’ll just call it out there,” he said, meaning that once we were in the ring, we’d decide the moves that would be made.

I just about freaked out. But of course that was the way we had to do it.

So we were in the ring. I was with Shelton Benjamin and I had no clue what the hell I was doing. But I had to make the call. So I had Shelton give me something really stupid, like an elbow. Which I bumped for, going down on my back. He covered me. So I’m down on the mat, he’s covering me, and I’m trying to come up with something to tell him what we’re going to do when we get up.

Before I could think of
anything,
I got counted out.

He beat me because of an elbow?

Oh, fuck.

Fuck!

I was freaking out. Mr. Perfect’s freaking out. The fans were freaking out. They started booing. And booing. I actually think we did a restart. It didn’t matter. I just wanted to die right there.

After the match, I got my stuff, I found my wife.

Photo 19

My first magazine article.

“We gotta get outta here,” I told her. “Let’s go.”

I felt so embarrassed. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I just wanted to leave.

But that would have been too easy.

Angie had been there for a while and was a little tipsy.

Drunk
may be a better word.