Original subtitles

[crowd cheers]

- It's Cena versus Batista

in the match the world is waiting for.

- That's when it was a Batista John Cena, WWE.

[crowd chants "Batista"]

- We started together.

- We had the same trajectory.

- The time is indeed now.

- That rivalry was just inevitable.

- John Cena can't beat me.

- This is a dream match up.

- And that's where the magic started to happen.

- Batista Bomb.

- It's Cena.

Whoa.

- Cena first Batista in the 2000's,

was kind of a battle to see

who the face of the company would be.

- You want to be the face of the company?

Step up and let's do this tonight.

- Their rivalry was actually not the stuff in the ring.

It was behind the scenes.

- We were counterparts and very competitive at the same time.

- There was a pulse to it.

This is the part where you ask me some [bleep] questions.

- It's like you should be happy for your success.

You're a main eventer.

Be happy with where you are.

And I think he saw that as a slap in the face.

- I should be the name and face of the WWE.

Both guys are highly competitive.

It becomes really personal in a hurry.

- You push forward.

You move on.

You overcome.

That is what I believe.

It was crazy from there on out.

- You're outta line.

- So much animosity

in this awesome rivalry.

- When two legends collide,

their rivalry stays pinned in our minds forever.

This is where we break down the legendary stories behind

the greatest rivalries of all time.

I'm Gabriel Iglesias

and this is

WWE rivals.

- The Champ is here.

[crowd chants "Cena"]

- John Cena and Batista,

two of the most incredible superstars in the WWE,

have both been on this amazing journey where it's like

they're almost mirroring each other,

similar trajectories and uh, ultimately having this rivalry.

- He's just like all of you.

He's a common loser.

- You know, they really brought the best out in each other.

- Yeah.

If you are at the top of any industry,

you want to be the best at anything.

You need somebody to push you.

- Between you and me, who's better?

- For Cena and Batista to be able to hold that rivalry and

hold the interest of the-the audience the way that they did

is just they're-just they're remarkable.

- And these guys had these expectations on them.

They exceeded it.

They had the expectations on the matches.

And they exceeded them.

- Look out.

- Boom, powerslam

- Well, this is a hell of a run.

- Hello, Kentucky and a welcome to Ohio Valley Wrestling

right here on WBKI.

- In OVW, it was crazy.

All these stud athletes, man.

And they just kept coming and coming.

- And that's where we see John Cena and Batista

in the same class.

John Cena was the Prototype.

- The Prototype, I'll tell you what.

He's got a brilliant future in this profession.

- And Batista was Leviathan.

- Leviathan is the new OVW Heavyweight Champion.

- What is my first impression of Dave Batista?

Larger than life.

And seeing guys like Dave motivated me.

- Oh my God.

- What are you gonna do?

[bleep]

- It was like, competitive, but in a good way.

- Oh, it's like that, huh?

I think we pushed the hell out of each other.

Prototype,

you may be the perfect man,

but no man can slay a Demon.

- You have two guys competing for the same space.

- Prototype went for the kick.

The demon catches him,

clotheslines him out of his boots.

- And having Dave,

in that same trajectory-

- Prototype now belly to back and again on the Demon.

- -that's how that motivated me.

- Prototype is the new Ohio Valley Wrestling

Heavyweight Champion.

- At the time, WWE was changing completely.

The Attitude ERA was over,

and then losing The Rock to Hollywood,

that was a big hit.

And then it quickly became what's next?

What do we do now?

- In 2002, when there's no Rock it was like we need new,

we need young, we need fresh, and we need it now.

And I remember a lot of consternation going back and

forth in the production meeting.

John and Dave-

Are they ready?

Are they not ready?

- You know, the trigger was just pulled,

whether they're ready or not, guess what,

we're putting them on TV and hopefully they become successes.

- Well Tazz I know this kid, this is John Cena,

one of the many young talents who couldn't be looking to knock

on the door of opportunity.

- When you come from

your developmental programs

and you get to the show,

you're starting completely over.

- John Cena was somebody that we didn't know what to do with.

- You gotta admit, this is a little boring.

- Boring, boring, boring.

- He was boring.

- He had these shorts where he would wear

different colors that matched

the sports teams in each city.

- John Cena wearing the Carolina blue.

I'd like to point that out.

- But he needed something else that-that wasn't going to do it.

- Meanwhile, Batista,

he was put with D-Von Dudley as Deacon Batista

and was D-Von's enforcer.

- What the-

- Who is that to?

What is that?

What's he holding?

- He was a big son of a bitch.

[laughing]

- Thank you.

- But the gimmick didn't go well.

- I hated it.

I thought it was the dumbest thing I ever seen.

[laughing]

- The reason that the-the Deacon Batista character didn't work

is it wasn't Dave.

It wasn't authentically, Dave.

- Not only that, but backstage,

I didn't say all the right things.

I barely said anything at all because I just, you know,

I wasn't that guy.

I wasn't-

It was hard for me to go up and shake someone's hand.

And um a lot of guys took it the wrong way.

They thought I was an arrogant person, a standoffish person,

and I wasn't at all.

I was just very introverted.

- Everybody backstage had their reservations about me.

Nobody liked me.

Everyone was like, "Hey, don't work with John.

He has no respect for this business.

I don't think he's going to be anything."

And I would do nothing but prove them right in the first phase of

my attempt at connection and development in WWE.

- I wasn't progressing.

I wasn't becoming the guy that they needed me to be.

There was more than a few occasions where I thought

I was going to lose my job.

- The WWE used to make a series of cuts around late November

called Christmas Cuts.

I was told that I would be getting my release

at Christmas cuts.

- Frustration by John Cena.

- It's crazy to think about now

these superstars who would ultimately define an era-

were on the verge of not making it.

- In WWE, we travel as a community,

so we're all on the same bus.

So I heard a bunch of guys sitting in the back of the bus

and they were all freestyling, you know, like rapping.

And I remember just being like,

"Let's go try this."

- When he started to rap.

Everybody's clapping and oh, everybody's popping

on every little thing.

Well, if he can entertain the most cynical group

you could ever ask for,

he can entertain in the masses.

- Word life.

This is basic Thuganomics.

I excel beyond sports.

He rocks the horn on his head.

I rock a horn in my shorts.

- He was able to turn around and connect with our audience.

- It's time to make John Cena a household name.

- John Cena pumping it up.

- Bang.

- Connecting.

- It was unbelievable when he came out.

- Everybody got on their feet.

Everybody in the arena, it changed.

- Meanwhile, you have Triple H,

who is at an incredibly high point of his career.

He has his eyes on a young Batista and sees something

there and chooses Batista to round out

this incredible faction,

Evolution.

- Dave Batista, 6'5, 325 pounds

of genetic stopping power.

- Dave had gone from the big guy that just stood in the corner

with no sleeves to a guy that was having great matches.

- The Beast has been unleashed.

- By joining this faction,

Batista kind of becomes a made man.

- Around the same time, WWE was in the middle

of a brand split where the roster of SmackDown and the

roster of Raw were completely separated,

and on each show, Batista on Raw-

- Batista Bomb.

- -and John Cena on SmackDown-

- Smackdown's fastest rising star, John Cena.

- -were rising to the top at the exact same time,

and while they never touched,

they were clearly on a collision course.

- To see Dave with Evolution and the success of that-

- Yes.

- -it made me want to work harder over on the other side.

- Undertaker up on John Cena's shoulders.

- Wow, oof.

- You know, you had these two stars

from a creative standpoint,

you're just too tempted to leave money on the table

by not having these guys face each other.

- At some point, it's inevitable.

[fireworks]

- Welcome, to the 18th Annual Royal Rumble.

- 2005, in the Royal Rumble,

one by one, competitors getting thrown over the top rope

and eliminated from the match

until we get to what we've been waiting for.

- Well, we're down to one man from Raw,

one man from SmackDown,

John Cena, Batista the final two.

- Three years removed from a really slow start.

Here are these two superstars are face to face together.

What's going to happen next?

- This is a dream match up.

- This is awesome.

- It was crazy from there on out.

- Well, we're down to one man from Raw.

one man from SmackDown,

- John Cena, Dave Batista,

2005 Royal Rumble.

Everybody's like, "Okay, who's going to get this?

Who's going to get this?"

And it comes down to the last two.

- Going in we have a plan.

We at least know that Batista is is going to win

the Royal Rumble.

- I think it's Batista.

I got to believe it's going to be Batista.

- Dave is supposed to win the Rumble.

It was a great plan on paper,

but, uh, it didn't go according to plan.

- Again, the rules of the matchup,

once you go over the top rope, you are eliminated.

- To our shock, Cena and Batista go over the top rope

at the same time.

It wasn't written in the script, they'd go over at the same time.

If you wanted to write it in the script, you couldn't do it any

better than the way they both landed.

Every replay was inconclusive.

- Who went- who touched first?

- It was funny because I think

when I picked him up for the bomb,

he came up with so much force,

that he literally just flung me over the ropes

and we both went over.

- Whoa whoa, look out.

- oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Get him.

Oh geez-

- My God, they both went out.

- As a fan watching this, you could tell this-

I don't think this was supposed to happen.

- You could see the look in everybody's eyes that they were

trying to figure out what to do on the fly.

- Backstage,

we're listening in on headset.

- What happened?

- Nobody knows what to do.

- Camera four.

- Five's good, oh [bleep]

- Three.

- What the hell just happened?

- We got back in the ring and,

didn't know what was going on.

- Batista to wins it.

- No, no, no.

- And we got some.

- No Cena won.

- We got two winners of the Royal Rumble.

- It was crazy.

- Per order of the chairman,

he has ordered that this match be restarted.

- This is unprecedented.

This never happens.

- Oh no, no, watch out.

- Batista

Oh Batista from Raw overpowering John Cena.

- No, no.

- With the spinebuster.

- No.

- Batista beats Cena.

Batista, the exclamation point.

- The winner of the Royal Rumble match,

Batista.

- It was not without controversy.

- Yeah, that was absolute pure chaos,

but it became historic.

It was-it's one of the most memorable

Rumble moments in history.

- I thought it actually worked out better

because here we are still talking about it.

- Batista will be in the main event at WrestleMania 21.

We are live in Hollywood,

and this is WrestleMania.

- Wrestlemania 21,

we had two guys who were passing on the baton.

- Oh, here it comes.

He's got it.

The cover, hook of the leg.

- One, two, three

- John Cena is the champion

- Batista.

Batista Bomb.

- Triple H and I to Cena

and Batista, because those are the guys

that are going to carry the company forward.

- You know it's coming.

The-the young ones are going to try and push the old ones out.

I mean, that's just- that's nature.

- Can Batista pin him?

Yes.

Batista has won the world title.

- You know the two old guys telling the young guys,

here's the titles.

It's your show now.

They were expected to carry the WWE forward.

That-that's expectations that are beyond belief.

- That's when,

really it became

a Batista John Cena, WWE.

And I think with us coming up through OVW kinda

kinda neck and neck.

We're mirror images of each other.

Our careers, where they were going,

where they were at at that time.

[crowd chants "Batista"]

- But at the same time,

we're so different.

With Evolution,

I was usually always in the background,

but I went from being the guy in the background.

I went from being the muscle to being the star.

- You love Batista?

[crowd cheers]

- It was overwhelming at first.

[crowd chants "Batista"]

- I didn't know how to deal with that.

I had no idea.

It has its repercussions because I think when you're

an introverted person who is constantly

bombarded with attention.

You just want to crawl under a rock, hide.

A lot of times I would just separate myself from the locker

room and just be somewhere by myself, and not because

I felt like I was too good for everybody,

just didn't want to be around anybody.

I just wanted to be alone.

- An introvert was considered a dirty word

in the WWE at the time.

In some respects, he's the exact opposite of John.

- Gotta get back, gotta get back,

gotta get through.

- John is an extrovert.

- John Cena's in the house.

- John Cena was on all the marquees.

He was the one on all the commercials.

- Is that fresh toasted?

The Champ loves fresh toasted.

What if I come to your next birthday party?

- That's when things shifted.

WWE had decided that John Cena was going

to be the new face of the company.

- Diamonds are a girl's best friend.

It looks great on you.

[laughing]

- Okay.

- Dave loved that the company considered John

to be the number one.

He was just like, "Absolutely.

If the company sees John as the top guy, I'm all for it.

I'll be here in catering."

Um.

I think Dave considered himself just as equally talented and

just as equally money making as John Cena was.

That was a point of contention for Dave.

- I didn't feel like I was getting fair opportunities.

I felt like I was on the level of anyone in that company

as far as drawing a crowd, drawing money.

- It's like, Dave, you should be happy for your success.

You're a main eventer.

Be happy with where you are.

And I don't think Dave was satisfied with that.

And I think he saw that as a slap in the face.

So what's going to happen next?

- Every year in WWE, there was a draft.

- This is THE night.

This is THE night.

- Raw and SmackDown would mix up their rosters to see what

superstars were wrestling on what show.

- A SmackDown superstar is going to be coming into this ring

to make their Raw debut tonight.

- No matter how much, you know the company line was Raw and

SmackDown are two equal shows, which I believe they are now,

but back then, Raw was considered the A show.

So okay, now it's time for the number one star to be on the

number one show was, you know, a company decision.

- The very first pick, come on down.

[John Cena's music]

[crowd cheers]

- What's up?

- John Cena.

This is biggest acquistion in Raw history.

- The company considered John the top star,

and it was just time to make the switch.

- Meanwhile, Batista went from Raw to SmackDown.

Smackdown is a huge show, but Monday Night Raw was

simply where the top stars went.

- When he came over took the helm at Raw,

I thought he was- he deserved it.

But, um,

now I'm on SmackDown.

You know, I just-it was just part of the business.

- Beyond that,

by this time, the company had formed WWE films and started

producing Hollywood movies.

- Action.

- They cast John Cena in the title role of the movie

The Marine.

- Highway patrol this is John Triton.

They have a hostage.

It's my wife.

- But on the other hand, Dave was a top star, but he wasn't

the face of the company.

He wasn't getting movie opportunities from WWE.

So looking back on it, it's very easy to see why

he'd be frustrated.

- Throughout 2007, Cena and Batista are just continuing

their reign over WWE.

- The Champ is still here.

- It was so cool to kind of watch their parallels.

- I mean, there's your two guys.

They're the two guys that are carrying the company forward.

- Take a photo of Batista.

Listen to the crowd, man.

- Now Cena and Batista would each lose their titles,

gain them back,

but regardless of-of when the title was on them or not,

these were the two guys.

But they had not touched each other since the end of that

Royal Rumble match back in 2005.

- You know these guys are on a crash course to each other.

And, you know, at some point this is going to come to a head.

- As General Manager,

I am proud to announce that at SummerSlam,

it will be

John Cena,

versus "The Animal" Dave Batista.

- Dave and John are at the height

of their powers right now.

As money drawing stars.

- Our resumes are both impressive.

- We've answered a lot of questions.

But we've never answered this one.

- And if John versus Dave is a money drawing match,

then the need to do it is now.

- Between me and you, who's better?

[fireworks]

- It is indeed the biggest blockbuster of the summer.

No hype needed.

Nearly 16,000 strong

to see Cena and Batista butt heads

for the first time in a one on one match up.

The SummerSlam match.

There was a pulse to it.

- John Cena, the bigger star of these two men.

You gotta wonder if that's uh eating at Batista a little bit.

[bell rings]

- And then the pulse began to be strong.

- This match up really to prove he's better than who.

- The personal stakes of what was going on-

- Ooh

- Look out.

- Spinebuster

- -as far as Dave feeling resentment for, you know,

the company essentially picking John.

- Ooh

- There was definitely

an undercurrent of tension and reality.

- Cena hits it.

The cover.

He got him.

He got- no a kick out at two and a half.

Can you believe it?

- That night, the two of them brought out the very best

in each other.

- Uh oh, look at Batista is in another gear here.

- Batista Bomb.

The vicious assault.

And Batista picks up the win.

[crowd cheers]

- Here is your winner, Batista.

- It was special.

It was very special.

- To watch Dave have that all, you know happen for him,

and everything else, it was awesome.

- John Cena at that time may have been the face of the

company, but Batista scores the big win in the big moment.

And you're sort of left as a fan wondering,

"What's going to happen here?"

And not only that,

the WWE landscape was about to change in general.

- In the late 2000's,

WWE wanted to kind of go back to their roots,

family entertainment,

and that meant toning down language,

toning down storylines,

and so in what's known as the PG Era, there were handcuffs.

That was the era that Batista and John Cena had to exist in.

- Slowly, the people who were watching changed.

I saw it happen.

I didn't need a sheet of analytics.

I can see it.

So I said, "This is it. We're changing up, right now."

- I don't think John had any issue changing with the times.

- I'm talking to those people who still believe.

- He became much more of a babyface

fighting champion type guy.

- You never give up, you pick yourself up,

you brush yourself off, you push forward,

you move on, you adapt, you overcome.

That is what I believe.

- Now, it's a PG Era.

He was filling arenas with his PG message.

- Again, working with limitations,

and he made it work every single night.

- Why fight it?

He was like, "Hey, as long as they're reacting,

that's all that matters.

What are we doing tomorrow?"

[crowd chants "Cena"]

- But on the other hand, Batista the character,

and I suppose the human being as well,

is not a TV-PG kind of guy.

Like he's an adult character on a kid's show.

- This is not about you.

This is about me being in the spotlight where I deserve to be.

- At that time,

I wish I was somebody who was a little more exciting.

I wish I could have been a little more charming,

but I think,uh, John Cena was the type of wrestler

that I never wanted to be.

It was flashy.

It was very entertaining.

Um, but I didn't want to be that guy.

- At that time,

You have these two guys who have been the faces of WWE.

Even though they're these dominant forces,

you just don't see them together.

- WWE started using their imaginations about just

how good this rivalry could be.

- By the time we get to Elimination Chamber 2010,

Triple H is champion.

- Triple H in an unbelievable amount of pain.

He tapped out.

John Cena is the WWE champion.

- But, now a bigger story is unfolding.

- Congratulations Mr. Cena.

You're going to WrestleMania.

Just as long as you can defend your championship

right now against

this man.

[Batista's music]

- Oh my God, you got to be kidding me.

- Look out.

- Spear.

- This Cold War that had sort of existed behind the scenes-

is now back in the ring.

- Oh no.

- Look out.

- Batista Bomb.

Bone rattling.

You got to be kidding me.

Batista is the new WWE champion.

And Batista will headline WrestleMania

as the WWE champion.

- I gotta quit this winning and losing

in the same night [bleep].

Is this the part where you ask me some [bleep] question?

I'm through that one, and, uh,

I thought it did good, but it didn't work out that way.

Can't dwell on it.

I'm-I'm halfway healthy.

We'll see what the [bleep] happens tomorrow.

That's just it.

That's the way it goes.

- In 2010, and the build up to that WrestleMania

storyline and real life kind of collided.

- John Cena is the face of World Wrestling Entertainment

and that is what eats at Batista.

- This company has decided to label you-

as the man.

- I think the best rivalries are ones that are based in reality

that could bleed into the camera and on screen.

It always enhances it.

- John Cena.

- The name and face of the WWE.

- Dave's beef with Cena, I thought was like something

that people could relate to.

He was like really mad that Cena was the chosen one.

- Right.

- You know?

- Right.

- I mean, I should be the chosen one.

- Commercials.

- Perception in this, in this case, was reality.

- Movies.

- Some of those feelings might have been festering,

but now he could do it as a full blown heel,

bitter, angry character.

- I should be the name and face of the WWE.

I'm the biggest star in this company.

- And it just worked out perfectly.

The timing was now right to main event WrestleMania.

[door knocking]

- My man, how are you, buddy?

- How's everything going, all right?

- Good to see you, man.

- Good to see you too.

- Thanksfor coming back, I love it.

- Wrestlemania is this Sunday.

This is a big deal.

It's going to be fun.

I mean, uh Batista.

Dude's bad.

He's a badass.

But I think, uh, my main man, John Cena, is going to come

through and just kick some ass.

He's going to come out of this victorious.

- As much as John Cena and Batista

started on this parallel footing,

and as their time in WWE went on,

they only got bigger and bigger and bigger.

- Now you see the John Cena Batista rivalry

on the late night shows.

- You're up against a Batista.

- Yes, you know.

- Look at this guy, this is-

- So we finally got to this place

where WrestleMania became the spot,

where these two stars who had become superstars

had to settle it on the grandest stage.

[fireworks]

- John Cena and Batista finally facing off at WrestleMania 26.

What do you guys remember about that?

- I think they had built it up so perfectly that it was

everything that the crowd had wanted and more.

[Batista's music]

[crowd cheers]

- Batista has been craving the spotlight in recent weeks.

And here tonight he comes out

in a lone spotlight.

- If you say at WrestleMania 21,

"We're hoping that they're going to carry the company.

Five years later, WrestleMania 26, they're going to be

headlining it after being champion all these years,

half a decade."

That's a win.

- Solid investment.

- You can feel it here tonight a big fight feel.

- These guys who started together,

who came up together,

who were both trying to find themselves at one point,

and they both found themselves.

- Ooh Batista,

with a great counter.

- Batista, back to the neck, with a neck breaker.

- And now here they are at WrestleMania

in front of everybody.

- And here comes Cena.

[crowd cheers]

- Cena saying, "You can't see me."

- Batista down.

Look at Cena.

- Cena delivers the Five Knuckle Shuffle

- Huge crowd, so again, huge numbers.

We bet on you and we know that you were going to draw people

into the biggest show of them all and you're going to bring-

And that's what they did.

- Oh no, look at this.

Cena's in trouble.

Batista connecting.

Here's the cover, hook of the leg,

Cena kicked out.

- The noise is an indicator and there's noise out there.

- I think Cena's got it.

- Cena's got it.

- Attitude Adjustment

- The biggest I've ever seen.

- The cover.

New champion, no Batista kicked out.

- What?

- And it was that, you know, big match feel that we got finally

on the grandest stage of them all.

- Will we see a new champion?

Batista's in trouble.

Cena's got the STF locked in.

[bell rings]

- It's over.

[John Cena's music]

[crowd cheers]

- John Cena has done it.

- The winner of this match by submission,

and new

WWE Champion

John Cena.

- I got news for you, I won't have this forever.

I'm gonna lose it again.

But-

To lose the belief of all those that-

that give two damns about me,

and think when the chips are down,

I'm the guy that-that can't happen.

Tonight it didn't happen.

I'm very, very happy about that.

After all that talk about how you wanted to take my spot and

called yourself the face of the company.

You can write a chapter in The Dynasty of "The Animal"

Batista.

You can regain the WWE Championship.

How can he do it, folks?

Rematch.

- Ladies and gentlemen,

this is the Last Man Standing match.

The only way to win this match

is to incapacitate your opponent to the point,

that he is unable to answer the referee's count of ten.

- Let's go do it again.

Time to make magic again.

- There's the shoulder knock down by Cena.

John Cena building momentum.

Wild missed by Batista.

And John Cena's rolling.

- I think with the history, they really, really clicked.

- The arena has exploded.

- This is unbelievable.

- Spinebuster through the table.

- Part of that is trying to outdo each other,

trying to bring out the best in each other.

- Here comes Cena.

Here comes Cena.

- A count of eight.

Batista count of nine.

Will Batista make the ten count?

And he made it up.

- He's up.

How is he up?

- For John Cena and Batista,

we love the matches because of how creative they got.

- Cena with duct tape.

- We get the Last Man Standing.

- Cena's hog tying Batista.

- Where you're going,

"How are they going to continue

this sort of creative role that they're on?"

And they do.

- Batista is not getting out of this.

"You can't see me"

- Cena-

- What can see is the WWE Champion.

And that would be still John Cena

- The winner of this match and still WWE champion,

John Cena.

- At that point, as as great as Dave Batista was,

he really wasn't getting to show his true self.

The PG Era was not really conducive to his sensibility

and Cena usually got the better of him.

And so, I would guess that he felt left behind.

- At the time, I had, uh,

issues with WWE creative because of storylines,

but it's only because that's how much value I put into it.

Like that's what it is.

It's an art form to me.

Whether it's a physical story,

or a story you're telling through performance, uh,

it's a storyline.

And that's what draws me to it.

It's an art form to me.

It's physical performance,

physical art.

- I was much more business than creative.

I think Dave was much more creative than business.

Like, he's-he's very artistic, and I think Dave

wanted more to satisfy that creative urge, you know.

- I don't know how much more there was for him to do in WWE.

Yeah, it was a ballsy decision because Dave decided to bet on

himself having no acting credits of merit that people truly

remembered decided, unbeknownst to us,

that in a matter of weeks,

he would leave a top spot in WWE and become an actor.

It was really, you know, hit or miss as far as whether this

thing would work out.

- Two weeks with the WWE Championship on the line,

I will face Dave Batista

in an "I quit" match.

[crowd cheers]

[Dave Batista's music]

- That night, there was a lot of mixed emotions that were

going through my mind.

[bell rings]

- The following is an "I quit" match.

The only way to win this match is to make your opponent

say the words "I quit."

- At that time, Dave is leaving WWE.

It just speaks to his professionalism

because if I knew I was already one foot out the door-

- Oh.

- -and I knew I was going to go on to transition my skills,

talents and strengths somewhere else.

- No.

- Look out.

- Boom, powerslam

- I may want to be protective of myself while I do that.

- You gotta be kidding me.

Cena going for the Attitude Adjustment.

- But that wasn't Dave,

and that's that's a feather in his professional cap

wanting to put on the best show possible.

- Do you want to quit?

- I do, I want to quit.

I quit.

- He said it.

- He said "I quit"

- He said it, it's over.

[bell rings]

- Cena retains the WWE title.

- But putting his body in jeopardy-

- And he still did it.

- Wow.

- My God.

- -to still give th WWE Universe what they want to see.

- And there's no dispute tonight over who the best is.

John Cena, the WWE champion.

- I mean, it speaks to the respect that

they had for each other.

You know, even though there was this rivalry of them coming up

from the mud together and trying to be on the top, you know.

You know what I mean?

We've been to war together.

But I'm going off this way,

and I want you to keep this thing going.

Let me do this for you.

- Right.

- Like he's supposed to be your enemy, right?

But you're doing it- you're doing it.

- Yeah, it says a lot about Dave.

It's what everybody has done in the history

of this business that's worthwhile.

- Right

- And Dave Batista did the right thing.

And it's a great button on a rivalry.

- Yeah.

- That's what's great about Dave.

Just his ability to keep everything professional.

There's resentment when I'm given some opportunities and-

and Dave is struggling to find those opportunities.

But I will tell you personally,

never once did Dave treat me any different.

Uh, not just cordial,

friendly.

Like empathetically friendly.

- Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Batista.

- You know, I'm always a proponent of if you know,

you're leaving to make a big splash and big scene of it

and go out with a bang.

- Give me my spotlight.

Give me my spotlight.

- Make it be as memorable as possible.

- You're nothing without me.

This place is nothing without me.

- One could say that that was

A lot of the beginnings of us seeing Dave as he is now.

The ability to envelop a different personality.

- You think I'm kidding?

- You think I won't do it?

You think I won't quit?

I quit.

- That's the beginning of what we have now.

- You'll miss me when I'm gone.

You all miss me when I'm gone.

- Little did we know that this was only the start.

- Come on push.

- I think that was Dave basically saying,

"You guys have no idea what is

leaving your company right now and what's yet to come."

- After moving to Hollywood, to everyone's surprise,

except probably his,

Batista becomes a legit, bona fide Hollywood star.

While all of this stuff is happening for Batista, though,

Cena's acting career

would actually start to take off as well.

- They're doing gigantic box office performances

in these giant movies,

and I don't know if they're looking at each other's movies

and going, "Uh, this was a better year for me,

or that my film was better than this one," or whatever it is.

- Yes, coach.

- So I think there's certain levels to that rivalry that

could still continue in Hollywood, even though both of

them have amassed great success.

[laughing]

- Wow

- When you think about John Cena and Batista,

you wonder if either of them would have been able to get as

far as they got to had it not been for the other.

- Yeah, I think they both have just had such incredible

careers, but they also helped elevate each other.

- John Cena.

Batista.

This is a dream match up.

- Now we do have to take a serious look at that rivalry

as like a pillar of WWE.

And I don't think it was like "You won".

You know what I'm saying?

I think it's more of a "We won."

- I'm happy for John

He was given an opportunity.

He just took it and ran.

I mean, how can you hate a guy for that?

And also, he was never unkind to me.

He was never unfair to me.

I treated him with respect,

and he treated me with respect.

- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Yeah

- I got to see him and I was able to hug him in person,

and tell him that I'm so proud of him.

Dave had his struggles and he persevered.

So I'm, uh, I'm very I'm very proud of what he's done.