Disc Three
27th October, 2008
One day later our man teams with Shawn Michaels against Chris Jericho and John Bradshaw Layfield on Raw.
Well, that was the idea. As Jericho made his entrance JBL attacked Michaels backstage, eliminating him from the action and turning this into a handicap match, much to the delight of Y2J.
Needless to say that the dastardly duo controlled the majority of the match. Batista had his moments, but they were few and far between, but one of those moments came when he avoided JBL’s clothesline from hell attempt and took the rich man down with a spear.
It was then that a limping Michaels made his way down to the ring, and even though the referee didn’t see him tag into the match his entrance caused the opposition enough confusion so Batista could take JBL down with his powerbomb for the winning pin.
24th April, 2009
Our man takes a trip to merry old England as he teams with Shane McMahon to take on the Legacy team of Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase on Smackdown.
It’s a short and sweet television encounter here. Big Dave and Shane O’Mac looked pretty decent as a unit early on, even breaking out Demolition’s old finisher at one point, but it wasn’t long before the Legacy boys began to use McMahon for target practice.
The hot tag to Batista almost came, but when McMahon accidentally knocked his partner off the apron it looked as if the good guys were going to argue until Batista pushed McMahon out of the way and took Rhodes down with a spinebuster as he came off the top rope, and as McMahon was still the legal man he covered Rhodes for the winning pin.
7th June, 2009
Our man goes for the gold once more when he challenges Randy Orton for the WWE title in a steel cage match at Extreme Rules.
I was a little surprised that this match was so short. It began with Orton trying to take the coward’s way out by trying to escape the cage as soon as the bell sounded, but within seconds the Animal had taken control and began to use the champion as his own personal crash test dummy.
But as the match progressed Orton’s courage began to grow, and even though he still tried to get out of the cage whenever he could the evil streak was soon back for all to see when he tried to put Batista into the middle of next week.
Even contemplating that move proved to be the champion’s downfall. Batista swept his leg out of the way, and even though Orton resisted for as long as he could Batista soon took him down with his powerbomb for the title-winning three count.
9th October, 2009
Back on Smackdown our man goes up against an old foe in the form of C.M. Punk.
Punk came into this one looking rather the worse for wear, having taken on the Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match just a few days before. He didn’t do too badly here though, negating Batista’s initial onslaught and taking him down to the mat to eliminate his power advantage.
The Animal managed to brush off the cobwebs a few minutes later, but when the action spilled out to ringside and he tried to take Punk down with a powerbomb the straight edged one held on to the top rope, just getting back into the ring before the referee finished his ten count to give Punk the win.
Batista wasn’t too happy with the manner of his defeat though, and as Punk celebrated in the ring big Dave came back in and finally took him down with his powerbomb.
22nd November, 2009
Our man has returned to the dark side as he takes on his former friend Rey Mysterio at Survivor Series.
This was your classic speed versus power scenario, all brought about following a misunderstanding during a fatal four way World title match the previous month where the masked man broke up a pin that Batista claimed cost him the title. Mysterio looked great when he used his quickness to take the big man down, especially when he targeted him with a series of 619-like blows to the body.
But when the inevitable happened and Batista got his hands on the masked man it was the beginning of the end. The Animal took his man down with three vicious powerbombs, and after the third one left Mysterio completely prostrate the referee called for the bell and gave Batista the win.
That wasn’t the end of Batista’s work though. As Mysterio was being checked over by the trainers and medics Batista grabbed a chair and got back into the ring, putting an exclamation point on proceedings with a spinebuster onto the chair.
11th December, 2009
Our man faces Mysterio once again, this time in a street fight on Smackdown.
This proved to be just as entertaining and as brutal as their previous encounter. The masked man did a great job of taking the Animal down early on, but when Batista introduced him to the ring steps the tide turned completely.
Once again it was sheer power that took Mysterio down time and time again. Mysterio had his moments, but they were few and far between, and even a couple of chair shots couldn’t stop the big man from coming back. A spear halted Mysterio in his tracks, and a chair shot to the skull took him out as Batista took the winning pin.
Batista wanted more though, but when he put the chair around Mysterio’s neck his plans were thwarted by his rival and World Champion the Undertaker. A brief skirmish followed until Batista headed for the hills.
26th April, 2010
Back on Raw, our man faces Sheamus and Randy Orton for a short at the WWE title.
Originally this was meant to be a singles match between Sheamus and Orton, but before the action began Batista came down to the ring and complained about his loss to WWE Champion John Cena at Extreme Rules, and that he should be automatically be the number one contender. Orton and Sheamus then arrived on the scene to join in the argument until Cena himself appeared on the stage and suggested a triple threat match between the three of them. How Cena came about these match-making powers I have no idea.
So with the match made what we got wasn’t really your usual kind of triple threat match. No alliances were formed throughout the contest, and there wasn’t really any three-way action until the final few minutes. Up until then there were two guys in the ring while the other recovered at ringside having been rammed into a ring post or the steps or something.
The aforementioned final few minutes were somewhat frantic, and it looked like Orton was going to get the win after he took Sheamus down with an RKO. However, an intruding Edge had other ideas as he stormed the ring and took his rival down with a spear, and as he left the scene of the crime a groggy Batista draped his arm over the fallen Orton to take the three count.
23rd May, 2010
Having earned another shot at the gold our man challenges John Cena for the WWE title in an I quit match at Over the Limit.
PG-era I quit matches really are a lot different to those from just a few years before. Don’t get me wrong, this one had it’s fair share of brutality, but just not as much as I saw from the likes of Mankind and the Rock back in the day.
It was still quite entertaining though. The match began with Batista offering Cena the easy way out, with the champion responding with a good old fashioned microphone shot to the skull. From there they brawled around for a bit and exchanged submission holds before Batista powerslammed his man through the Spanish guy’s table.
Their fight soon saw them making their way through the crowd, where Cena managed to push Batista off a balcony, where there were several handily-placed security guards to break his fall. Their brawling then took them to the stage, and after clobbering Cena with a chair Batista tried to seal the deal by backing a car into him.
Needless to say that Cena managed to escape from that perilous situation, and after taking Batista down with an attitude adjuster onto the car’s bonnet he threatened to take him down with the same move on the car’s roof. Batista was having none of it though and said the magic words to end the match.
But despite hearing those words Cena decided to put an exclamation point onto the proceedings by going ahead with the AA anyway, sending Batista flying from the roof of the car and through the stage floor.
26th January, 2014
Our man makes his return to WWE in the Royal Rumble match.
Now this must be one of the most memorable and most controversial Rumble matches ever. Not because it was C.M. Punk’s final WWE appearance, not because of Roman Reigns breaking the record for eliminations, and certainly not because of who won. But more on that later.
Batista entered the match at number 28 and eliminated Erick Rowan, Ryback and Alberto Del Rio in quick succession. He looked pretty good in there, especially when you consider he’d been out of the ring for over three years, but as the match went on, and after Big E Langston entered at number 29 things started to go sour as far as his triumphant return goes.
That’s because when Rey Mysterio was the last man to enter the match he was greeted with a chorus of boos, simply because he wasn’t Daniel Bryan. Bryan-mania was really running wild back then, and it didn’t matter who was in the ring because at that moment everyone in the crowd turned against the match.
That was until Reigns eliminated Sheamus to leave himself alone in the ring with the returning Animal, and despite the fact that he’d been promoted as the babyface hero when he returned the fans took against him immediately as they willed Reigns on. The two powerhouses went at it, taking each other down with their respective spears, but when Batista eliminated Reigns to win the match and book his spot in the Wrestlemania main event he was greeted with a chorus of “No! No! No!” before being soundly booed.
23rd February, 2014
It’s the final match of the collection, and with his main event match at Wrestlemania secured our man warms up for his title shot by taking on Alberto Del Rio at Elimination Chamber.
At one point it looked like this match wasn’t going to happen. With Batista having put Del Rio through the announcer’s table a couple of weeks before on Raw the Mexican came out wearing a neck brace and walking with a crutch, claiming he couldn’t compete. It turned out to be a massive ruse when he clobbered the Animal with the crutch, and although he was given the option to miss the match Batista decided to compete.
Now this was when it got really interesting. Even though he was meant to be the hated heel Del Rio became the default babyface, simply because he wasn’t Batista. The crowd cheered everything he did, and when they weren’t cheering him they cheered for Daniel Bryan, C.M. Punk, Rob Van Dam, Chris Jericho, and Brock Lesnar. They would have probably have cheered for Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden if they’d risen from the dead and made an appearance, simply because they weren’t Dave Batista.
As for the match it was a pretty short encounter with Del Rio dominating it for the most part as he focused his attack on the big man’s arm. The crowd were willing him on to victory until Batista countered his cross armbreaker attempt and took him down with his powerbomb for the winning pin, and as he recovered after the match Batista told the booing crowd to “deal with it.”
In conclusion – several hours and several thousand words later and we’ve finally reached the end of this collection. So what is my overall view of WWE’s tribute to the Animal.
Well, I thought it was quite enjoyable. It was nice to see how his career developed through the years, from his early days as a sea monster through his religious phase, to his time as one of the top dogs in the company, right up to his triumphant return as the all-conquering hero. Wait a minute. Perhaps that should have read right up to his return as the hated villain or something.
Anyway, it’s a nice way to look back at the career of the Animal. The matches vary in quality of course, but you do get to see just what Batista was all about during his wrestling career, even though it left a sour taste in the mouths of many when he came back.
So with all of that being said there’s just one more thing to do here, and that’s to give this release the thumbs up.
With thanks to Fremantle Media and Fetch Publicity for supplying a copy of this release. Batista: The Animal Unleashed is available to buy online at www.wwedvd.co.uk
You can read Britain’s longest running professional wrestling & mixed martial arts blog attwoshedsreview.blogspot.co.uk, follow me on Twitter @JulianRadbourne, or join my Facebook group at www.facebook.com/
