Batista Reveals How WWE And Its Fans ‘Hurt His Feelings’ Over The Years

Dave Bautista is now a certified hot property, starring in box office vehicles like box office smash Guardians of the Galaxy, and some scrub spy franchise you’ve probably never heard of. While the former WWE Superstar may have powerbombed his way into America’s heart, ‘The Animal’ revealed to MLW Radio’s Writers Room podcast how WWE and its fans hurt his heart:

I’ve got to be a strong heel, so when I put somebody over, it actually means something. I think a lot of people missed that point. I don’t know how they missed it, but what really bothers me about that run as well is while people were so busying chanting ‘CM Punk’ or ‘you suck’ or ‘Bootista’ or Bluetista’, they actually missed a lot of really good wrestling. Like, Dolph and I had some kick-ass matches we threw together at the last second and everybody missed it, man… They missed out on a lot of good wrestling, man, a lot of good, old fashioned storytelling. It really hurt my feelings that people just missed out on that. It was just a shame.

That wasn’t the first time Batista was saddened by the way he left WWE. Back in 2010, his departure was met with near indifference, leaving him with more hurt feelings:

I gave them almost a year’s notice and I did whatever they asked me to do and I busted my ass and til the day I left, they didn’t think I was leaving and on the night that I left, I think a few people said ‘goodbye’ to me and said ‘thank you’, but it was like a very few. And then I walked out. No ‘see you later, Dave’, ‘thanks for everything’, ‘keep in touch’. It was sad, man. It really put things in perspective on where I stood with them. I left there with a broken back. Not a lot of people realize that or appreciate that, but in my last match with Cena, I broke my back.

This was, of course, after WWE made it clear that they weren’t interested in his film career, and didn’t think Guardians of the Galaxy would be A Thing. Man, I guess Batista’s not the only one with regrets.

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