During the second installment of his recent appearance on Talk is Jericho, Batista recounted his first foray into the world of professional wrestling.
“Originally, I got into it to make some money,” he explained. “I didn’t know much about the pros. I was a fan in the early ’80s, I was a fan in the Attitude Era but I didn’t know anything about it—I wasn’t a hardcore fan… So I got in it because I was broke and closing in on 30. I had two kids and I was still bouncing for $100 a night.”
Batista said his first attempt at landing a wrestling gig went very badly.
“I went and had this awful tryout with WCW and they ran me out the door and told me to never come back,” he laughed. “I went down to the Power Plant…they were having open tryouts; you know, you just show up and pay $300, which at that time was a lot of money for me.”
He recalled his encounter with longtime Power Plant trainer DeWayne Bruce, a.k.a “Sarge,” in which Bruce yelled at him and dismissed him quickly.
“I went down there at 340 pounds, was all jacked up, went down with a buddy of mine and Sarge and he jumped in our faces and just got on us and he wanted nothing more than to just run us out the door. He was just a bitter troll of a man.”
Jericho added that Chael Sonnen, who recently appeared on Talk Is Jericho as well, reported having a similar experience when he tried out with WCW.
