Batista spoke with Pro Wrestling Sheet‘s Ryan Satin this week, and “The Animal” did not pull any punches. During the interview the multi-time former world champion and WrestleMania headliner discussed numerous aspects about his last two runs with the company, including his frustrations with the creative team during his run in 2014 that led up to his match at WrestleMania XXX against Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan.
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When asked about how the company’s creative process felt when he returned earlier this year, Batista said things have actually gotten worse.
“The creative process, I still don’t get,” he said. “It was a nightmare to me the last time I was there, which was 2014, and it seems like it’s become worse. I feel like they don’t have a clear vision, a long-term vision. Everything’s very week-to-week, and it doesn’t seem like they stick to a plan very much at all.”
He then echoed something that was pointed out to him by Chris Jericho in that he felt John Cena would be the company’s last true top star because of how it operates now.
“[Cena is] the last guy, he’s the last guy who’s going to be over like he is,” Batista said. “And it’s because the performers now, they’re limited. Their hands are tied. They can’t go to work like we used to. We used to go to war and beat the crap out of each other, and it earned a level of respect from people. It was like a different level of respect, it was a different level of getting over. We had more freedom, we could be more full of piss and vinegar, we could be more on the edge. And the guys, they’re just not given that freedom anymore. And that was one of my big issues with the company going more towards a PG rating.
“Obviously I can say I was wrong, that was the way they should’ve gone, because financially look what the company has turned into,” he continued. “But I liked where I was at with wrestling, I liked the art of professional wrestling, I liked the storytelling and I liked the violence.”
The subject of Jon Moxley’s (fka Dean Ambrose) recent interview on Talk is Jericho then popped up, and Batista said he agreed with the sentiment that somebody like “Rowdy” Roddy Piper would’ve been too handcuffed in the current WWE product to show off his true talent on the microphone.
“It’s a very frustrating place to be,” he said. “When you’re ready to go and you want it and you’re hungry and you just want to be there, you’re starving for it, but they can’t find a place for you. Or if they do find a place, they can’t stick with it long enough for it to mean anything.”
