Unquestionably, one of the best WWE Superstars was Dave Bautista. His career in WWE history is among the most distinguished. Batista has accomplished nearly everything in his professional wrestling career, as seen by the numerous trophies and championship victories he has won. Over the years, his rivalries and matches have demonstrated his ability within the squared circle.
Batista undoubtedly has one of the best careers in WWE having a lot of rivalries throughout his career. He had quite some rivalries including the likes of John Cena, Triple H, The Undertaker, and many other Wrestling legends. Chris Jericho was also one of his formidable opponents during this time.
During 2008, Batista squared off with Chris Jericho in a steel cage match. The match saw Bautista getting fined by Vince McMahon as he was seen blading himself in the match. During this time, WWE made an era-defining transition in their product getting PG-rated. Under the new guidelines, there were certain rules which included showing no Bleeding on TV which wasn’t liked by the Animal.This is the match that Batista got fined 100k by Vince McMahon.
Jericho, Dean Malenko and Mike Chioda got fined 5k each, which Batista paid for them because he felt so bad. https://t.co/jTyYzeEk01 pic.twitter.com/Y0HBemtxD7
— ChanMan (@ChandranTheMan) November 28, 2023
To sell his injuries even more, Bautista used a blade to bleed out during the match. This Blading wasn’t a thing wrestlers were allowed to do since WWE began to showcase family-friendly content for everyone. Vince McMahon was furious with the incident hence fining The Animal worth $100,000 for his act.
Dave Bautista didn’t like the idea of WWE going PG
WWE took a huge step in their plan of action moving to become a PG-rated show. The company was showcasing a lot of edgier and over-the-top content before becoming more family-friendly in 2008. Wrestling fans weren’t thrilled seeing the transition and so was Bautista. During the Talk is Jericho Podcast, Bautista talked about his blading incident and how he didn’t like the PG Product shown by WWE.
#OnThisDayInWWE 15 years ago on #WWERaw:
Chris Jericho comes up with a new and creative finish to his steel cage match with Batista – and is again the World Heavyweight Champion @IAmJericho pic.twitter.com/KFAm3uaHj8
— On This Day in WWE (@OTD_in_WWE) November 3, 2023
“We were PG, and that didn’t make any sense to me. I didn’t want to hear that, especially when there’s a title match involved.”, stated Batista. He further talked about how he was rebellious but it was a right thing to do for the company. “It was me being rebellious. It felt like the right thing to do. I was a little bitter with the direction the company was going. I wasn’t on board; I wasn’t a part of the program.”, said Dave.
WWE has surely become a global phenomenon since going PG and has earned a global reputation. Their product might not be edgier as it was, but it has certainly attracted a lot of fans and media hence becoming one of the most popular sports entertainment companies in the world.