Werstling

After trying out in the WCW power plant, you were told you would never make it as a professional wrestler, yet here you are as one of the very best. How did you respond to this initial feedback?

[ Batista ] Initially, I was crushed because I was closing on 30 years old and had spent my life bouncing and bodybuilding. Finally, I decided to give up bodybuilding. I didn't have the build for it; I was competing against guys that were the same weight as me but ten inches shorter. Basically I was crushed, I had two kids and I figured that this was my last chance to get into pro wrestling.

Batista
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I Was Furious That Someone Told Me I Couldn't
Do Something; That I Didn't Have The Heart.

It took a couple of days to take that pain of being rejected and turn it into pure anger. I was furious that someone told me I could not do something; that I didn't have the heart. A sawed off midget tells me that... no way.

At the time I didn't have the conditioning because I was 350 lbs; but I definitely had the heart. So I basically went back to the drawing board, dropped some weight and went to a private wrestling school. The rest as they say is history.