Batista he was a sponge
and he was hungry and he wanted it.
I saw enough that he was multiple.
- You know, still trying to find my way.
Definitely wasn't at that time,
I wasn't a future world champion.
- Everything you have, everything you are,
I gave you.
- You are starting to piss me off.
[cheers]
- The master versus the student.
- The student feels like it's time for you to step aside and
it's time for me to take over.
- You need me a whole lot more than I need you.
- The beast has been unleashed.
- It's a student-teacher rivalry on every level.
Every time Batista gets better,
Triple H has to be that much better,
which makes Batista even better.
- Batista went to hell and he survived.
- I quit.
- We're always excited to see our favorite superstars
make it in Hollywood, but everyone wanted
to see one more run in WWE.
- I want you at Wrestlemania.
Man, I couldn't write it any better.
This is a storybook ending.
- This rivalry has just escalated into a war.
- When two legends collide, their rivalry stays pinned
in our minds forever.
This is where we break down
the legendary stories behind the greatest
rivalries of all time
I'm Freddie Prince Jr. and this is WWE Rivals.
- You think any one of these people even knew your name
before you met me?
- We're going to talk about Triple H and Batista.
This story and their rivalry last a long time,
but the way it starts is one of the coolest rivalries ever.
- Triple H, he's as deadly as they come.
The "Cerebral Assassin".
- Triple H is very unique because not only
is he a superb in ring performer,
one of the very best ever, I think that he has
the best wrestling mind of anyone that I've ever met.
- I've got the talent and I've got the brains.
- His vision doesn't just extend to the ring,
it extends outward to the entire industry.
He sees things from miles away.
His foresight is pretty wild.
He's always looking for ways to elevate younger talent.
- Batista just loaded with muscle, and speed,
and power, about 6'6'', 313.
Look at the face on this dude, man.
- My first ever match with Batista was before
he got to WWE,
when he was with Ohio Valley Wrestling.
He still needs some polish.
He was kind of stiff as far as his movements,
but that's just because he was new.
By the time he got to WWE, he was put with D-Von Dudley
and was D-Von's enforcer-
- Oh no the collection box off the face.
- but of course, there was a limit to how high that would go.
- I hated everything about it.
I didn't like the suit, I didn't like the box.
- Uh-oh, this is not good.
Batista planting D-Von.
Batista is walking out on his partner.
- I was so tense, and so nervous,
and so afraid of messing up,
and I just put all this pressure on myself,
and I just wasn't progressing.
Definitely wasn't at that time, wasn't a future world champion.
It was, you know, still trying to find my way.
- He hadn't had a lot of pportunity to shine,
but he was a sponge, and he was hungry,
and he wanted it,
and I saw enough that he wasmoldable.
- Take a guy like Batista, who really is an unknown
quantity at this point.
- You know, I've heard he is very good talent.
Hopefully, he is.
He's going to get the opportunity here
to shine a little bit.
- Hunter was the first guy to see something special in me
and he started encouraging other people to see it.
- I haven't seen something like you come along
in this business in a long time.
- Flair and I had started to do a few things together.
- That's "Nature Boy" Ric Flair.
He has apparently aligned himself with Triple H.
- I came to the idea of like, "What if we did this group?"
What you see in this ring before you is the greatest
example of Evolution you'll ever see.
- The group was aptly named Evolution.
Triple H, presented Evolution as the past, present,
and future of WWE.
- Ric Flair, 16 times heavyweight champion
of the world, a living legend.
- Started with Ric Flair.
Of course, Randy Orton.
Amazing young talent at that time.
- Randy Orton is the coal that will be squeezed
into the next diamond.
Dave Batista, 6'5", 325 pounds.
- Randy and Dave is real automatic.
Randy, your second generation, Dave just loves the business.
- This kind of supergroup that's going to showcase
the past, present, and future of the industry.
- They were all different, yet they went together perfectly
- Evolution has arrived.
- Randy and I were very giddy about the idea of us
being paired with them.
- Hey, hey, hey, what's up man?
- What's up, guys?
- Until then, I didn't really have the cool factor,
and I wanted the cool factor,
and I knew that the pairing of all
four of us was going to be the cool factor.
- These guys are on top of the world now.
That's what it's all about in this business, Evolution.
- Evolution was set up for one reason,
it was to get over Randy and Batista.
- They made it pretty obvious, "Okay. Well,
if Triple H and Ric Flair, I think these guys are important
and they want to help them, then I want to pay attention
to what they're doing."
If they're linking up with them and they're taking them
in as their brothers and riding around in limousines
and going to the strip clubs with them,
then you know, you want to pay attention
and see what they're going to do.
- The four of them being together, it was just magical.
It was magical chemistry, and they all came off as stars.
- What a night for Evolution.
They're all champions, JR, all of Evolution.
- Evolution on top.
Woo hoo hoo.
[cheers]
- Yeah.
- Got to have that rat pack feel to it.
- We have all the gold, so we make all the rules.
- They had this energy, this air about them.
If they walked into a room, even if you didn't watch WWE,
you'd know, oh, those guys are important.
- One of the best things that happened for Dave
is being aligned with Triple H.
- You could tell that Triple H was mentoring him,
not only on what to do in the ring when the camera was on-
- Oh, Batista.
- but also how to act and howto carry himself
behind the scenes.
- There was a lot of times when Randy was doing
his own thing in Evolution because of his position,
because of how good he was that
Dave got to sit with me and Ric more.
Come here.
- If I hadn't had access to their brains,
I never would've made it to the level that I did.
I picked those guys brains.
[laughs]
- Go out there, know who you are.
If you don't know who you are going out that door you're going
to get lost if we ever get to the ring.
Look at you, Dave, what's causing all that?
- What's going on?
- Their biggest guns hit of all time.
- He'd make a mistake or whatever it was
and you'd tell him something, you'd give him some advice,
he'd apply it.
It was just there.
- Well, I can say personally, I would've killed to have an
opportunity like that to be with Triple H,
week in, week out, and even Ric.
Batista really had all the ingredients to become great.
- And Batista, oh, man.
- [laughs]
Look at Foley, he doesn't know
where he is at.
- Dave has come to be the muscle of the group, but it's so much
more than that, like a guy that was having great matches.
- And, oh, Batista blocked and the Spinebuster.
- And you know that we were carefully crafting as the guy
that no one could stop.
- This Batista is a powder keg.
- We started to plant just little things
in promos and stuff.
- You know, I've been thinking man--
- What now?
See that's your problem right there, you thinking,
I thought I smelled smoke.
- Funny.
- I'm just kidding.
Lighten up.
God, what's the matter with you?
- You were like, "Man, I really wish Batista
would turn on Triple H."
They did so many teasers I remember,
and really develop that story
and build that story did it to absolute perfection.
- The problem is you got a million-dollar body
and a 10-cent brain.
- They did a great job of building the moment when Batista
decides that it's time to step out of Hunter's shadow.
- You are starting to piss me off.
- Now, we finally get into it.
Batista is in the Royal Rumble.
That's my favorite match,
is the Royal Rumble.
[buzzer]
[Batista's music plays]
- Oh, my God.
Representing Evolution.
The animal, 6'5'', 318.
Oh My God.
- Oh my God.
That's 300 plus pounds into the Batista Bomb
- Whoa
- Snitsky out by Batista.
Batista Evolution's animal has won the Royal Rumble.
Batista will be in the main event at WrestleMania 21.
[crowd chanting Batista]
- Batista has won the Royal Rumble.
He is getting an opportunity at the WWE Championship
at Wrestlemania.
The question is, which champion is he facing?
- Will Batista be the next World Heavyweight Champion?
- At this time in WWE, there was a brand split.
You had Raw and you had SmackDown.
Each brand had its own champion.
On SmackDown there was the WWE Champion JBL.
On Raw, there was World Heavyweight Champion Triple H.
- He gets to choose between our wonderful panelists here,
JBL, or his partners/mentor.
- Why shouldn't he go to SmackDown and wrestle JBL
for the WWE Championship?
I mean hell-
That's a championship he could win.
- Ric and Hunter are just trying to like,
"Obviously, you're going to pick the Smackdown guy, right?
You're going to go after JBL
because you can't go after your mentor."
- Triple H was posturing and planning behind Batista's back.
- There's always going to come that time
where the student is always going to think
that he's- can beat the master.
At some point, it's inevitable.
- Sometimes Dave is not smart enough to know
what's good for him.
Dave being outside of the room and hearing the conversation,
I think I'm outsmarting him, but he's outsmarting me.
The more you did that stuff, the more it built.
- Tonight, we make history.
Dave Batista is going to sign one of these two contracts.
- Let's let them be begging for this guy to turn around
and punch me in the face,
before we let him turn around and punch me in the face.
- Really drew that out.
That big turn.
- I could tell that they were just waiting
for this to just pop off.
Hunter, I've done what I was going to do for a long time.
- Knowing where it's about to go and milking getting there
and taking your time and "Oh, here comes your time."
Not quite yet.
- I think that speaks to Batista's
ability to tell a story.
Look at the amount of time that goes by.
That day Batista is not saying anything.
Look at the fact that it's a simple gesture.
- Does the thumbs down and Flair's reaction is--
As Ric Flair is it can be and Hunter's reaction is paralysis
and shock and then Batista goes off.
- Batista,
- What's he doing?
Look out.
If you do this, there's no turning back.
No, no.
[cheers]
- God Almighty
- A Batista powerbomb through the table.
- Batista had learned from Triple H who is
"The Cerebral Assassin", what you do is you wait for your
opportunity when your opponent least expects it
and that's when you strike.
- No, no.
- God Almighty.
What a big powerbomb.
- It's a wonderful storyline played out and then when Batista
has the opportunity, he turns against
the two main guys and takes them when certainly
everybody thought that he was going to take me.
- I like it anytime I don't see it coming.
You know what I mean?
- This is one of the best moments in the history of WWE
as far as the reaction to one small thing goes.
- "Hunter, I'm staying right here on Raw.
[Crowd cheering]
At WrestleMania, I'm taking the World Championship-
-from you.
- Once he made that decision,
that moment in itself made Batista a bigger star.
Like, "Now it's my time."
- Just such a badass way to get us into an incredible
WrestleMania rivalry.
- JIt's like the song goes, "It's all about the game
and how you play it."
Well last week, The Game got played.
- The master versus the student.
- Suddenly, the boy thinks he has what it takes to be the man.
- The student feels like, okay "It's time for you to step aside
It's time for me to take over."
- I'm bigger, I'm better, and I'm smarter baby.
- I think there's a lot of people saw that absolutely
Dave's winning at Mania.
You ungrateful piece of crap.
But the promos on the way in were good enough to
make you think like, "Man, maybe not."
Everything you have, everything you are, I gave you.
I plucked you from obscurity and made you a star.
You were absolutely nothing when I found you.
In six days, I'm going to put you back where I found you.
- They physically looked awesome together.
And at that time, there weren't a lot of people who looked like
they could match up with Triple H.
- You are an --.
[crowd cheering]
- Oh, oh my.
- Oh, no.
Batista taking down The Game.
Who will leave wrestling WrestleMania 21
the World's Heavyweight Champion?
- Hunter, he would say to me.
"I want us to have a big fight feel."
I always remember going into that week.
We sat down, and we watched older videos.
- Listen to the ovation Jess for the Ultimate Warrior.
- Hogan and Ultimate Warrior is one that really
stands out to me.
Watching them come into the ring,
watching the crowd react.
- Champion against Champion.
Title for all title.
This is what it's all about.
This is what has brought 68,000 strong here to the Skydome
and they are ready.
- Watching them face off everything about it
felt like a big fight.
He really wanted that for us.
That's exactly what we got.
- Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, this is WrestleMania
- WWE fans had been waiting for months to finally see
a showdown between Batista and Triple H.
- The number one contender Batista,
the 10-time champion Triple H.
The Main Event is next.
- It was a very surreal moment to be walking down that ramp
at WrestleMania was special.
It was very special.
- I think Batista got to have butterflies in his stomach
the size of eagles, JR.
- Now, it's WrestleMania and the entire world is watching and
Your first WrestleMania match in a big spot,
there's a lot of pressure on you.
- It is an intimidating proposition.
You go, "Okay, I'm in there with Triple H.
so I'll be alright."
But, you want to step up to his level.
Either you're going to crack and crumble
and be left by the wayside
or you're going to step up and be remembered forever.
- There was something that was terrifying but at the same time
just extremely exciting.
- Visually, you have these two mountains of muscle weight.
Who doesn't want to see that?
Who doesn't want to see the clash of the titans?
- It was two gigantic guys stepping into the ring
looking at each other and knowing we're about
to rip each other's heads off.
[bell rings]
- Oh my gosh.
Look out.
- High back body drop.
- Maybe as highest I've ever seen Triple H launched
into the air on a backdrop.
- Dave was definitely the young strong bull.
But, young strong bull had to go against this
"The Cerebral Assassin".
- He took a guy named Dave Batista
and made him into the animal.
Now, unfortunately, he's going to have to destroy that animal.
- Look at that strength,
- Big double-edged spine buster.
- You know, I think he didn't feel like going back in
and watching video.
I don't think you'd really-- unless you were there,
you wouldn't really know how special the energy was.
- No, look out, oh.
- For the love of God, the power.
Triple H catapulted to the ring post.
- That's going to be the turning point in this match.
Oh, no.
Batista feels it.
- Oh, thumbs down.
- Oh, my God.
The thumbs down by Batista.
Oh, Batista Bomb.
[crowd shouts "One, two, three"]
[bell rings]
- Batista is the new Heavyweight Champion
of the world.
- The winner of this bout
and new World Heavyweight Champion, Batista.
- I legit broke down when that match was over, like broke down.
I think I cried for three days.
[chuckles]
- It's a passing of the torch in a way.
There weren't a whole people that beat Triple H back then.
I was in the crowd for that match.
It was a big crowning moment for him and the crowd was ready
to accept him as the champion.
- The beast has been unleashed.
- Dave wins and he wins big and it's a huge moment.
- Triple H put everything he had, the whole group, and
Batista walks out the champion.
- That's some of the magic is is that Triple H was willing to
give and to elevate Dave Batista.
- It was a dream come true.
At that time, still a very surreal.
I was floating on cloud a little bit.
I was holding the world title and going home with it.
I was like, "I can't believe this is happening.
This is crazy."
My bag's so heavy now.
[chuckles]
What?
It shouldn't be this heavy, what the hell is going on?
Oh, there's a world championship title in there.
You know?
- Batista becomes our champion and then Hunter's playing - Please welcome the animal known as Batista
the selfish bad guy so well.
- You are wrong if you think this is
the start of the Batista era.
You are wrong because Batista was great one night.
- WrestleMania sometimes it is-
- culminationand the conclusion of something,
but a lot of times it's actually
the beginning of something
and that's where it was there.
So what are you going to do to top what you did at
WrestleMania?
- Batista--
- Face first.
- Good gosh.
- No.
- Oh, my God, no
No.
- The better friends you are with an individual,
the more respect you have for each other.
The harder hit each other.
- No.
All of the Batista Bomb.
The three.
[bell rings]
Batista's done it.
- What's so fun about the Triple H-Batista rivalry is
it's a student-teacher rivalry on every level.
Every time Batista gets better,
Triple H has to be that much better.
- No.
- No, a sledgehammer.
- Which makes Batista even better.
- They brought the physicality during that period.
They brought the intensity even in the interviews.
- The final step is Hell in a Cell.
- It's going to get nasty, it's going to get ugly
in this environment.
- It was one thing for Batista get the win at WrestleMania,
but then for him to win again, and now inside Hell in a Cell.
- Look.
Oh, man.
- A bloody, nasty battle.
- No, no, no.
- No.
Oh, my God almighty.
- Look out.
- Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
- Oh.
- That Cell in a Cell match, I remember that was one of my
favorite matches of that year.
- He's going to hit him-- oh.
[crowd shouts "One, two, three"]
[bell rings]
- Batista went to hell and he survived.
- What an amazing display of courage by both men.
- It wasn't just one time, it was time and time and time again
that Batista was able to defeat Triple H.
- That's 3 and 0 for Batista over The Game.
- And it's putting him at a higher level in cementing
his legacy more and more.
- That's how you build people and you pay it forward.
Batista came out stronger and it takes guys like Triple H
to be able to pass on that knowledge and that equity
and go, "Hey, I'm fine losing because we're going
to have a great match and we're going to tell a great story
and everybody's going to win because the audience
is going to be entertained."
- Ladies and gentlemen, there you see the World's Champion.
- It's hard not to take so much pride in seeing that come,
especially for somebody that you liked so much
and that you think so much of
and then you know has worked so hard to get there.
I wanted to help someone that was going to take it and
run with it and be aggressive and try to be everything
that they could be.
The biggest star in the business and Dave had that.
- He made me a star single-handedly.
He put me over and put me over and put me over.
I mean, he made me who I was.
- This is Evolution, baby.
- After he was able to get three victories against
Triple H in a row, he was a Main Event guy.
- You now have Batista headlining WrestleManias and
Triple H still at the top of the card.
- The Game is looking to compete here tonight and
become a 12-time WWE Champion.
- But they're not crossing paths.
- By all accounts, being the guy on top of the WWE
is a physically, emotionally, and mentally tasking job.
- Get out of my face.
- By 2010, there were a lot of rumors that Batista
was kind of done with it.
- Cena going for the Attitude Adjustment.
- In 2010, coming off an absolutely grueling match
against John Cena,
Batista comes out to the ring.
and you assume he's going to be a typical bad guy
and just complain and whine, but instead, he hits us with
something very different.
- I quit.
- I quit, and he does.
There's no way and then it was.
And then like other greats in this business,
he gets the call from Hollywood.
- The whole business of filmmaking is my obsession.
I love everything about it.
I've done a few acting bits when I was with WWE.
Bit parts in this or that.
Your blood must make you strong.
I should taste it.
I just left there with this the uneasy feeling
that I was just mortified at how bad of an actor I was
and I wanted to get better.
That's when I started looking for opportunities
within the company and there just weren't any for me,
and so I wanted to do stuff outside the company and I did.
- His people that completely literal.
Metaphors are going to go over his head.
- Nothing goes over my head.
My reflexes are too fast, I would catch it.
After Guardians of the Galaxy was released,
I became a working actor.
- Action.
- Hey, everybody.
Kumail Nanjiani here with my good friend Dave Batista.
- Dave worked his ass off to make it in Hollywood
and he makes it and he makes it huge.
As big as you can make it in Hollywood.
- Everyone was so thrilled to see Batista get
one awesome role after another, but everyone also wanted
to see one more run in WWE.
- He started talking about, down the line, down the line,
and said, "I want to do one more,
I want to do one more big run. I want to do it with you."
- I knew it was the way I wanted to end my career,
I've always known.
The idea of this coming full circle,
as melodramatic as that may sound,
Hunter started it for me
and I'd like him to end it for me.
- When SmackDown 1000 came around,
he was really engaged in,
"Hey, do you think that's a possibility?"
- In 2018, it's the 1000th episode of SmackDown
and we're going to get Evolution back together.
- This whole thing started at SmackDown 1000.
- I know, but this is easier.
- Yes.
- You got full head of hair too.
- Oh, shake.
- Yes, I just came straight from the set
and they put some powder on my head.
[laughs]
- Bring some shoe polish.
Evolution music, we'll get in the ring.
We're all light up in there, we do whatever.
Why stop short?
- It was Hunter, he said, "They've seen Randy,
they've seen Rick, they've seen me."
- Then Dave's going to talk.
- They haven't seen you talk to Hunter about it and he said,
"What do you want to do?"
I said, "Well, I want to tease our match.
This is what I want to do."
They said, "That's great.
I love it.
Let's do it."
[Evolution's music plays]
- Standing ovation in DC for one of the greatest
factions of all time.
- To reunite Evolution, we've got such a history together.
We've got so much history together.
Evolution, do you realize how special this is?
Randy Orton.
Ric Flair.
- The crowd loves it, everybody's cheering,
all of the faces are in there.
It looks great, but we get a little bit of tension
between Hunter and Batista.
- There's nothing that this man hasn't done in this business,
except beat me.
[Crowd cheering]
- They start teasing a match between Triple H and Batista,
which would be iconic.
- People reacted huge and I knew that people
were still hot for it.
Hunter knew it as well.
- When we came back, Dave was like,
"Oh my God, how good was that?" You know?
It was talking about that night of,
"Let's see if we can make this work."
- Hopefully, it will lead to something bigger and better.
I'd like to give the fans more.
I miss it here.
I missed that energy.
I missed that immediate feedback.
Let's see where it goes.
- Good job, man.
Alright man, I love you, see ya man.
- Hang tight, bro.
- Yes, I will.
- I think you always feel like they're going to come back.
9 times out of 10, they come back because
Triple H was his mentor.
I think he helped create Batista.
- When you think back of all the guidance
Triple H gave to Batista.
- There's something inside of I want to say
almost every wrestler, things coming full circle
is an obsession for us, I'd say.
You always want somebody you have a lot of history with,
for a professional level, but I think also
just on a personal note.
It's just nice to be able to go out with someone you have
a very strong bond with, and for Dave, that was Hunter.
- It's the perfect Swan Song.
I couldn't write it any better.
This is a storybook ending.
- You've got this amazing moment on SmackDown
where after all these years, Batista and Triple H
have this tension.
What is going to happen?
When you see a match this big teased, you can only assume that
WrestleMania is where it's going to happen,
but of course, you have Crown Jewel,
the pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia
a few weeks later where things don't quite go
as planned for Triple H.
- Four icons about to do battle in a tag-team match
for the very first time at the sold-out
King Saud Stadium at WWE Crown Jewel.
And Triple H, oh my God, up over the top.
Hunter hit hard.
- I got injured right in the beginning of the match and just,
"Oh my God."
In my head it's all I could think about was,
"Oh, I got to let Dave know, geez,
I don't know that I'm going to make Mania."
- At Crown Jewel, Triple H tears his pec
and all of a sudden that match is completely in question.
- Crown Jewel, with Shawn and I against Undertaker and Kane.
I went over the top, broke backwards.
- And Triple H, Oh, my God, up over the top.
Hunter hit hard.
- As my arm went up over my head,
I just felt my pec just come off
and I felt it shoot across my chest.
I knew what I did as soon as I did it.
- Yes.
Dr. Dugas will do the surgery.
He's one of the best in the world.
- This is a super high-energy injury.
We're going to pretty quickly get into his hematoma.
Thank you, and thank you.
The procedure took about 30 to 40 minutes.
We'll start the strengthening process somewhere
after the six to eight-week point if everything looks good.
I would expect him to be back in the ring somewhere
between the three and four-month point.
We tied it down about 45 degrees.
- Mania's around the corner, so we'll see.
It gives me something to shoot for.
You get back to work and you're on day one
of the road to recovery.
d I was like, "Keep working on it in your mind
like it might happen and I'm going to try to do
everything possible to be there.
I'm 49 now, I'm not 30.
Injuries, they take longer."
Dave kept saying, "If it doesn't happen this year,
I'm done, man."
- I know it's just because my time is running out.
I'm getting farther and farther removed from being in the ring.
This is my priority.
WrestleMania is my focus and my priority.
WWE is my focus and my priority.
- It just became a race against the clock.
- 3, 2, 1, time.
- I called Dave and said,
"I think I'm going to be able to do this."
- They probably know that Hunter and I are great friends.
They know that I really owe him a lot.
They know how I feel about him, how I look at him
and his career, and what I owe him,
but at the same time, they're blind for this rivalry
because they're suspending their disbelief.
They want to see this.
We're going to do this on my terms
and you're going to give me what I want.
- I'm not going to give you a damn thing, Dave.
- Batista wanting one more match and he wants it against Hunter.
- Give me what I want.
You know what I want, you just don't want
to give it to me because you're not in control.
I'm in control.
Now, Hunter, give me what I want.
Give me what I want.
- Which is one of the greatest lines Batista's
ever cut in a movie, in the ring, on the ramp,
in a backstage segment anywhere.
- I want you at WrestleMania.
Give it to me.
- "Give me what I want.
Give me what I want."
That one lives forever.
I still use that meme sometimes when I'm texting.
- Give it to me.
Give me what I want.
- Man, it was as simple as it got because he repeated it,
he screamed it, he was adamant.
- You want me in WrestleMania?
- Give me what I want.
- You're on.
[crowd cheering]
- Thank you.
When I was leaving the arena that night,
the last thing I gave Hunter a big hug and
he said, "Get in shape [beep]"
[laughing]
so I knew that meant "Get ready for WrestleMania."
I think for the better part of nine years,
I've been out of the ring.
There's a certain durability.
There's a certain conditioning that comes
with professional wrestling and it's not something
that you can get unless you have ring time.
I've got a month, I can do it.
It's one of those things when you train for something,
you usually don't feel great while you're training.
That's it.
Tell them I'm not going to Mania.
That's all a part of getting in shape.
This requires 100% of my attention and my focus
- There you go.
There you go.
Nice.
- What pisses me off when people say, "You look good for 50."
[bleep] you.
I just look good, period.
- He wanted it so bad and he just wanted to go
out in the right way.
He wanted to be able to do that match
with his head held high and say, "And now I'm done.
I wanted to go out on my terms, I did.
I had a blast doing it and I'm done."
I'm kind of just in a dream state right now.
It's weird because everything's blurry.
It's one of those things I'm like,
"I can't believe I'm here. I'm here.
Today's the day it's actually happening."
- I feel like it's the only craft where artists
can pay back those who made them,
where one artist says, "You helped build me.
You helped make me."
Without Triple H, I don't know if Batista's
even in Guardians of the Galaxy.
- The wonderful thing about WWE
is you can do movies all day long,
but you still have the allure of performing in front of
100,000 people at WrestleMania, and if you're going to do that,
you're going to want to do it with the best possible opponent
and in his case, that was Triple H.
- Okay, cool.
- This whole match was a thank you.
- It was a thank you and it was also Dave
wanting to put a button on his career,
like, "Hey, I want that final stamp,"
and who better to do it with than Triple H?
- Hunter, he knows how much I feel like I owe him.
He knows how much I respect him.
It's weird because sometimes we have our moments
where it's just like it was us
10, 15 years ago driving down the road.
Ya know, we're just buds.
He's not like this guy who's heading this massive company.
He's just my boy.
- This is what we're going to witness next.
The latest chapter in this rivalry.
It is Batista versus Triple H.
- My storybook ending would be us just tearing the house down.
- The latest chapter in this rivalry.
It is Batista versus Triple H.
- You have Triple H who is coming off of major surgery.
You have Batista who's returning after not being
in the ring for years.
- Batista of course all fired up.
He understands what is on his plate.
- Batista.
- Does Batista feel any added pressure seeing
as how he he came back to WWE from the Hollywood world
and demanded this matchup.
- Triple H, in many ways, the mentor for Batista.
One of the reasons Batista reached the the heights
he did in his career.
Triple H - Batista match underway no holds barred.
Batista wanted this.
He asked for this.
He drove Triple H to this point.
Oh my god.
- God, you're kidding me.
- Rico and it's already getting ugly.
- Triple H driven on top of the table.
Batista takes out The Game.
- I kept going back to, "We need to create some moments.
Things that are so different.
It's the stuff that sticks with you."
- Batista he's helpless.
He's pinned under the chair.
- That's a sick smile.
- It's a nice nose ring.
It's this 50-year-old muscle head with a nose ring.
But, it's one of the things that kept staring me in the face
that I was like, "What would my character do?"
My character would rip his nose ring out.
- Oh.
- No.
--Oh, no, no, no.
Oh my god.
- Don't do that.
- Oh my god.
- Oh my goodness.
He got it.
- I think it's hilarious just because he's,
"You look like an idiot with this thing.
I type of like you Hollywood --."
- Triple H is maiming Batista's face.
You're going to be able to be
Guardians of the Galaxy after this?
- I can't believe Batista is still moving forward.
- Batista Bomb.
- Oh my god, are you kidding me?
This could be it.
It could be over.
Almost had him near fall.
- Oh with a sledgehammer, launching himself off the steps.
Triple H with a Pedigree
- That's it.
[crowd counts "one, two, three"]
[bell ringing]
- The game vanquishes the animal.
- We gave them the match we wanted to give them,
we went to war.
I think it was a good storybook ending.
It was with the guy wanted to end with.
The crowd was hot.
They loved that.
I could tell, and I could feel that they appreciated it.
And that's what I wanted, man,
That's closure.
You know, that's respect factor that I needed to close my career
- He got to go out in his terms with Hunter,
such a close friend, the one that brought them up
to the superstar level.
- It was just awesome to be out there with him.
Your head flashes back through all of it,
through the career, through meeting each other,
to Evolution, to everything that we did and went through.
Then his success on his own and then he becomes his movie-
It's just all of it.
Now, he's wrapping up this chapter of his life here
in front of the world.
It was awesome.
- It's been a hell of a career.
I'm very proud of it.
I feel like I can retire in peace.
- You know most of the rivalries we've discussed here
have been two people at the height of their game,
either elevating one another or challenging one another.
This is one of the few where it's one person
who's made making another.
I just think it's a beautiful story
even beyond the rivalry itself.
- Triple H and Batista is one of the true modern-day rivalries
that really mattered.
There's a real story.
The tutelage of Triple H to the emerging Batista.
- 6'5'', 325 pounds.
- It's the story of the teacher and the student and the mentor
who becomes jealous of his creation.
That's really timeless.
- Batista and The Game will meet in the
Main Event of WrestleMania.
- It ended up being a rivalry that bled over into years
and years of WWE programming.
- My God this is a showdown.
- When you look at rivalry withstood the test of time
is Batista was made.
- That's 3-0 for Batista over The Game.
- It's feather in Triple H's cap and history should remember
that he made this individual.
- I can do a whole thing talking about how much I love Hunter
and how much I owe Hunter.
- This is Evolution, baby.
- He made my career.
- People are going to remember Evolution,
and they're going to remember
the fights that Batista and Triple H had.