During a recent appearance on “The Ross Report” podcast, Jim Ross and former WWE Champion Batista discussed WrestleMania 23, which featured “The Animal” defending his World Heavyweight Championship against The Undertaker and the “Battle of the Billionaires”. Below is their conversation:
JR: I believe Donald Trump stole Stone Cold’s baseball cap wearing idea to make himself be dressed down a little bit those 20 grand suits, so he could actually be the guy that was going to Washington to clean out the swamp. He’s wearing a custom-made suit and a ball cap. There’s Stone Cold in that man somewhere.
Batista: Yeah, well he’s basically a professional wrestler, someone who got elected President. I think he’s stole more from the WWE than just a baseball cap off of Austin’s head.
JR: He was a very high-priced gimmick wrestler. He only did gimmick matches.
WrestleMania 23, that was a big card at Ford Field. And I remember we sold more tickets which we should have. They had the Super Bowl there that year and we out drew the Super Bowl for our WrestleMania 23 for the “Battle of the Billionaires”.
What were the boys thinking?
Batista: I didn’t really talk to anybody about that and I think it’s just because I was so focused on our match. I mean, I was really in that zone at that time. But also I was really upset.
I’ve said this before and I say it with no shame – I was really upset that we weren’t the main event because I just felt like we should have been. We deserved to be. We set some milestones. I knew with the exchange of the title and everything, it was just more significant of a match.
And I also felt like Taker just deserved for that to be the main event. We should’ve gone last. So I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder. I felt like we got robbed of that top spot and we should have had it. And I felt like our match, I think it speaks for itself. I think we had the match of the night.
And I just felt like Taker should have been the last thing that people saw that night. So I had a chip on my shoulder and I was a little bit bent out of shape that we didn’t.
So I didn’t care. I didn’t give a damn what anybody else was doing.
JR: But Dave, you had to get there in that mindset to do what you did. You had to stay in that chip on your shoulder. Athletes have to do what they have to do to motivate themselves under the circumstances. Because here’s the deal, bud. Me, you, anybody other than Vince can’t change the line-up.
I’m not so sure that you got a lot of pushback on what should have closed the show. And that takes nothing away from Shawn and Cena. But you know, you’re right about the title and The Undertaker at WrestleMania.
Batista: That’s what I mean. That was a special night, you know. It was the first time you’d help that particular title and I still feel like we should have. But again, I say our match speaks for itself. I believe, personally, that we stole the show that night.
You can watch the highlights from The Undertaker vs. Batista match from WrestleMania 23 below:
