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| Article: |
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| Putting Down The Animal |
Luke Dormehl |
Why Batista has chucked it all in at the height of his WWE career
“I would love to go out as a heel,” Batista stated in an interview with the Daily Mirror in 2009. “With me, it's a very grey area – even when I was a heel, I didn't do anything over-the-top heelish and even as a babyface, I've done a lot of things that are very heelish… There aren't any plans [to turn] that I know of, but I'm sure [I will] at some point before the end of my career.”
Flash forward a year and Batista is indeed a heel… and openly discussing retirement. Ironically though, he also happens to be enjoying arguably the best run of his career.
Batista made WWE aware last year that he was considering walking away when his contract expired in 2010. Since then, the company has been scrambling to get him to re-sign with it but, at time of writing, no agreement had yet been reached and all reports suggest that Batista will leave WWE for, at the least, an ‘extended absence’ after his aptly-named ‘I Quit’ match with John Cena at Over the Limit.
Coming just months after we bid a fond farewell to Shawn Michaels (provided that he keeps the promise of his WrestleMania match stipulation, that is), it seems slightly surreal to also be discussing the possible end of Batista’s career. While there are only a few years between them, their respective careers are vastly different. Michaels wrestled for 25 years – Batista, for his part, wrestled for little more than ten. And that only five of those years for Batista were spent as a genuine main event star makes his career seem that much shorter.
Because he broke into wrestling at a later age than most stars, retirement is something that’s been on the cards since practically his first day in the job. As Batista once said, “In wrestling, 30 [the age Batista was when he began his career] is damn old. It’s one thing if you’re 30 and in the prime of your career; if you’re 30 and you haven’t hit the big time, it’s pretty ridiculous to think that you’re going to go anywhere. A lot of wrestlers have to hang up their gear by the time they reach their mid-thirties. Their bodies just won’t do what needs to be done… Me? I wasn’t even in the ring yet.”
But is Batista planning to leave WWE because his body can no longer do what is required of it? Does The Animal – like Shawn Michaels – consider it a ‘career well done’ and feel that it’s better to go out on a high note? Or is there something else at work: has the behind-the-scenes relationship between Batista and WWE – an organisation that he claimed he’d ‘love to always have a job’ with – somehow soured?
For the rest of this feature, check out issue 55 of FSM - available at WH Smith and all good retailers. (For US readers we are now carried at Borders and Barnes & Noble, so check for local availability or click here to subscribe.)
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