Jim Cornette Reviews A&E's WWE Rivals: Triple H vs. Batista 

Dave always looked sharp in those tailored suits. That’s how a champion should look.

Batista was one of my absolute favorites growing up. I might actually check this out.

I haven't even listened to this yet, but I wanted to give Travis Heckel massive props for giving us a funnybook-accurate Drax.

The first Batista vs Triple H trilogy is amazing: Batista ended the reign of terror and nobody could stop him, Triple H tried and he got basically destroyed every match, to the point HHH decided to use his undefeated gimmick Hell in a Cell as a last resort and he disappeared until his amazing feud with Ric Flair. Batista also had that kickass theme that pumped everyone when he came to clean house.

Batista is the rare breed where he’s successful in both wrestling and Hollywood. Multiple time world champion and being part of big box office movies like Infinity War and Dune

Batista in the classic Drax outfit I LOVE IT !!!

I think Batista had really found his groove as a heel just before leaving WWE. He Was cutting some great promos.

Love how Brian pointed out where the thumbs up came from when Randy originally won the belt from Benoit

Batista as the face of Smackdown (along with Taker) is probably my favorite time as a fan. Batista is no doubt a legend to me

The fact that Jim helped train Batista and Batista goes on to gets over in Hollywood as Drax I'm sure without knowing that Jim liked comics.

What’s kinda funny is that Dave’s original comments dragging OVW for not preparing him to be ready to wrestle on the big stage was in an interview a couple days before he won the world title at wrestlemania the first time. And in that interview while he makes the comment about OVW he actually mostly agrees with the things that Corny says about him during his time in OVW. He comments that he didn’t like his original character in the WWE because it took away his body which was his biggest asset. But then he comments in hindsight it was a good thing because he couldn’t depend on his body so he was forced to learn to work better in the ring. He also comments about how he was nervous when he began to speak more on the show because he had always been quiet and shy. And he says that being stuck with Flair and Triple H was great because WWE had to stick him with the best to learn from or there was no hope for him. So as peeved as guys like Corny have been by his OVW comments (he does state that it prepared him to responsible and other things), even back then he was at least self-aware of what he was and where he was at in things and that he needed work to succeed. I can get why his comments on OVW were annoying because it is shitty to say you learned more in two days from Finley than two years in OVW. But I don’t think he was truly arrogant when you see his follow up comments in the interview of knowing how much help he needed to be able to succeed. Also notable that when he was asked about acting back then he said there was no chance he could be a leading man and that his best chance would be in supporting roles. So for better or worse I do think he at least had self awareness at one point or another. I also think his approach to acting is kinda cool. He’s intentionally tried to stretch himself and do challenging roles that enhance his skills over sticking to a niche blockbuster role for everything like the Rock does. So the dude isn’t perfect but he seems overall solid in varying ways. I can appreciate that he at least acknowledges how far he needed to grow and the help he needed to get there over acting like he did it all on his own. Also thought it was cool that he wanted his final match to be with HHH who he feels he owes a lot to and that he demanded to lose to him. I think he has more good than bad to him as it applies to wrestling.

The thumbs down promo segment on Raw is one of the most memorable ever

Batista's rivalry with The Undertaker is up there with this one. It's what made me a fan of Batista and his heel run.

The build to this was excellent. I've heard that Vince at one point wanted to do Triple H vs Batista on TV and Triple H had to talk him out of it. The HIAC match is absolutely brutal and took Batista to the next level much like Mick Foley did with Triple H 5 years before

Oh man you killed it Travis!! Gave him the original Drax design 👍🏻🤌🏻

Kane appeared 3 times in OVW I believe. Brothers of Destruction vs Batista and DDP

18:23 I like how Brian recalled this moment... Its so important to the lore of the "Rise of Batista". In fact, I'd go as far as to say Orton's "Fall from Grace" in 2004 (and subsequent chase for the title into 2005) was monumental to establishing Batista. Don't forget, he's the one that pointed out how HHH didnt have Batista's back in the Elimination Chamber.

Taker and batistas feud was good But what I want to bring out was at the time it was such a big deal When Cena and Batista had their first ever match at Summerslam 2008. Wow that crowd was so into it. It felt like such a big deal. You couldn't believe they were finally going at it. And I was actually shocked (rare at the time) Batista went over. I hope we get a batista vs cena biography because Dave really returned the favor on his way out putting cena over

Star-Lord Cornette is a W

Batista is great and he always looked like a star

Man love these artworks hahhaa Dave as classic Drax and Jimmy as Starlord hahaha keep em comin Travis!

Man, 1997 - 2005 was my era. It fucking rocked. So many good feuds I'd forgotten about. Triple H v Randy Orton was great aswell

19:37 No, lmao. Austin in the leadup to WM 17 lost two straight falls to Triple H at No Way Out, which people don't remember happening.

I remember the first time I saw Batista on TV. He was doing pull-ups and had a short conversation with Ric Flair. He looked like a badass I was instantly a fan.

“Batista is coming for the world title against the Game at WrestleMania” Underrated Jim Ross quote

Oh wow... Travis drew Bautista the way Drax was depicted in the 1990's Infinity Gauntlet saga instead of his 2000s look. #DeepCut

Ummm Jim, I thought Mark Jindrak was known for being huge?

With the help of Wrestling Bios, A&E will need to do a WWE Rivals: Bret "the Hitman" Hart vs. Road Dogg Jesse James. Ladies and Gentleman, Boys and Girls, Children of All Ages.....Shaddup

Took me a while to come around to Batista when he debuted, but he slowly won me over. I just wish we had more time with him when he was a heel in 2010. Also, I enjoyed his small run in 2019 when he returned after his Hollywood success. Shame about his last match.

HHH v Drax? This was worthy of a rivals episode? Fookin' ell.

It was a pretty good rivalry. Each match got better. And it came full circle in 2019.

I really want a Randy Orton documentary. Can you imagine what good shit would be in that?

18:43 The fans already knew about it Brian.😄

I’m sorry but saying that Mark Jindrak had “no real physique” when he was dubbed the “Reflection of Perfection” and had one of the greatest overall Pro Wrestling aesthetics of all time (imo) is crazy on Jim’s part

The gym in TITAN TOWERS is absolutely stunning with the neon on the walls would be a bucketlist to get to work out at that facility.

I never got into Batista personally. One of the times I quit watching WWE was right after he beat Tajiri lol. But in retrospect it was the right move.

I had stopped watching by then, so wasn’t even aware that this was a feud. I am happy seeing Batista doing well these days tho!

I did like the times Dave and Rey were either feuding or being the best of friends. I'll never forget YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE MY FRIEND ever.

13:40 No Brian. Jindrak was not "originally cast for Evolution." It was always Orton and Batista. When Batista tore his Triceps in February 03 and Orton broke his foot, the group was on pause. Orton healed in May. Vince wanted HHH to replace Batista with Jindrak. HHH didn't want to so filmed the vignette with Flair and Orton in such a way where Jindrak was waaaaay to the side of them..😂😂😂 He never waivered on his guys or vision. He told Vince Orton and Batista were his guys and he'd wait for them. And he did.

Batista had, to me, one of the most unique, successful careers in the history of the sport. No he was not around forty years or anything like that, but a guy starts in his thirties and does what he's done. Obviously like many, wrestlers, he had a lot of help. Especially from HHH. I was never a fan of Mr. Levesque, but he was paramount to Batista in his career. I really think Dave gets it. To see him have this new career in tinseltown as a main/character actor is quite cool 👍👍

Jindrak had great size, look, physique and loads of potential. He was kind of shy on the mic and like Randy Orton was a bit of a troublemaker backstage and didn’t take it seriously.

I can’t believe what a great acting career Batista has had. Hats off to him. He’s terrible in everything and keeps getting more and more roles. Living the dream

You know what, if a&e wants to do massive ratings, they should make a punk vs cena episode or even a hunter vs punk episode. Everyone makes big money, even punk!

I can never get over Jim talking about big ass Dave being so cold 💀

Wow, the original Drax The Destroyer look. I'm disturbed that I know that.

What's crazy is that Bautista is older than HHH yet at the time you would never think that.

They probably didn't show Triple H giving Randy Orton the thumbs down because that was the night Orton beat Chris Benoit, and they didn't want to risk either showing Benoit or his name plate on the belt.

Thank you Travis for the proper artwork.

21:44 I mean he also left Ric Flair bloodied and beaten backstage to get Triple H to agree to a match, but yeah lol

It's amazing how many superstars OVW produced compared to how few superstars NXT and the PC have produced.

Batista on smackdown in the 2000s was my favorite era cuz I remember being a kid watching then I think I had a great childhood

Mark Jindrak was *never* in Evolution and he had a physique in 2003; that's why he had a looking-in-a-mirror gimmick on Velocity which no one watched, ever.

Love Batista, enjoyed the turn, but I actually dug Orton’s face-turn more than I did Batista’s. Ultimately, it went nowhere, but the young future Ace being the first to leave or get kicked out of the group was a great idea. I was…13-14, and I remember being totally in Orton’s corner. I was wrong in the long run - Orton works better as a top heel - but shit, was that fun.

Triple H wasn't bleeding in all three matches he only bleed at Wreslemania 21 and Vengeance not Backlash

Damn. Jim misses some good matches when he took his break from wrestling. I would if we send Jim recommendations, I would like what he thought on Lesnar vs Daniel Bryan or Lesnar vs AJ.

We all know why you weren’t on the Kane bio and you won’t review it…

Their hell in a cell match was probably Batistas best match ever I thought. With his match with taker at mania being a close second

I've always been a Batista fan. His world title reign was my junior year of high school. His power stuff looked so cool and believable, one of the best 300+ pound super heavyweights out there.

I usually agree with Cornette like 99% of the time, but I'm going to defend Batista here because of when he was being quiet or "meek", as Jim said, in OVW. He was green to the business and so from my perspective he was just being respectful and doing the right thing by being quiet and listening to what he was told to do. Of course there's probably some context we're missing because we weren't there, but it only sounds like Dave was trying to break in the right way. Now if he said he wasn't speaking up when in character, that's something totally different.

Sean O’Haire was great in WCW and his Devil’s Advocate gimmick was interesting in WWE until they ruined it by dropping that and sticking him with Piper.

19:00 "Triple H was a cool heel that never sold anyone's promos." - Brian Me: Watch HHH'S facials when Nash returns after HHH and Flair beat up HBK in 2003 and Austin announces the HIAC Bad Blood match. Watch HHH sell Goldberg jobbing out Evolution and breaking HHH's hammer on his thigh. Watch HHH blade for Booker before WM19 and sound defeated Talking to Flair with the towel on his neck. Watch his facials when the triple threat match is announced for WM20. I could go on...

I just watched Hotel Artemis over the weekend. Batista was good in that movie, too. If you haven't seen that movie, check it out.

I really loved Sean O'Haire what a sad tragedy. It was heartbreaking to me when I found out he had passed away especially the way he did. He had so much potential in my opinion. I thought he had the entire package as a wrestler. Such talent wasted.

This is why I want Jim to do watch alongs for the shit he missed. He’d LOVE the Punk vs Cena match.

Angie Bautista is alive and well, for the record lol. She survived cancer.

Tells him to call it on the fly like flair. Checks notes like DDP…

next season should be old school fueds only. hulk vs macho. ric vs steamboat stuff like that

How did Jindrak have no real physique? There's no hope for anyone if that's the case lol

Please review the China and Kane documentary!

Classic Drax costume...how I know I'm in the right place with the right folks! 👊

2:14 - 2:20 right here is why it is unfortunate when Jim doesn’t know the background or context of certain WWE wrestlers. He never saw Bray when he was actually good, or New Day when they were the best as intentionally annoying heels.

(not deep comic fan) at first i thought that was martian manhunter but then saw corny was starlord. As a teen watching batistas era in wrestling lots of kids in my middle school wanted to be buff like him

Jindrak was built!

I’ve always thought HHH’s “reign of terror” was vastly over-hated. He really helped make Orton and Batista. Raw’s main event was Rizzler thin. Only egregious victim was Booker T

Jim’s gotta go back and watch for that 2003-2008 era

Jim can crack all the jokes he want about Batista career but than man theme song along with the entrance alone put him in the HOF .. he had us kids in a choke hold after that win at mania against triple h

Sean O'Hare is the biggest missed opportunity for WWE in the 00s

Jindrak was only about to get in when Dave got hurt at first but triple h said no he will wait for dave to come back off injury

OG Drax! Travis is a scholar and a gentleman!

Triple H acting like he found a diamond in the rough

The devil's advocate role was sean o hare not mark jindrak

I'm just spitballin' here but I think, I THINK, Batista may have devloped dramatically from his OVW days to his world title run. Every single time someone speaks of Batista's name, Corny mentions his chilly meekness of 25 years ago. Yes, we get it.

I would think that any wrestler was taken under the wing of triple H (management/champion) and paired with Ric Flair, would get over lol

According to the Evolution documentary that WWE did for season 1 of the Ruthless Aggression series on the network, Batista was the first choice. Jindrak was the guy that WWE wanted to replace Batista with in 2003 because he was injured. That would’ve happened but Triple H put a stop to that because he knew that Jindrak didn’t fit the role for the group. Jindrak confirmed that in the same documentary but years later claimed he was the original first choice. Batista said he was always the first choice in the documentary and I’d rather believe the guy who made it instead of the guy who comes off as a hater who didn’t make it.

5 years only. That is literally just an election cycle, if you count the campaign year!

Rico looked like a young grandfather idk what Jim is talking about him looking “25”

Did Rivals skip Batista kidnapping and allegedly assaulting Ric Flair (no physicality was on display, just a bloodied septuagenarian K-O'd on the floor) during his seventieth birthday party on Raw; so, Triple H would "give him what [he wanted]"?

This thumbnail needed corny's face under the helmet quill wears

Gotta be weird for Cornette to see Batista popping up in Marvel blockbusters nowadays.

"Fans were sick of HHH. He was pushed beyond where fans wanted him." -Brian Me: I literally saw the following signs binge watching Raw. I don't have Peacock. I have hard dvd copies so can freely pause and read without buffering problems or crowd piping edits: Vengeance 2004 "HHH: Hartford's only World Champion" Fall 2004 Raw that said "Push HHH," "Evolution is your Solution." Raw in Fresno, CA 1.31.05 "Everyday is HHH day." "We worship HHH." 1.6.05 Ft Lauderdale, FL "HHH is God." "Triple H is a triple threat" sign Feb. 28 2005 Raw "The FrancHHHise" sign March Raw 2005 in Atlanta, "Triple H is the truth," "Hammer Time," "The Game is Forever" sign. Raw after WM 21, a good 5-6 HHH fans rocking his Motorhead inspired shirt, and another dude who's wearing the 2002 HHH jersey (this guy is a die hard HHH fan. I've noticed him in the front Row for several WM 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25. And the Raws after. He's a white guy white dark brown hair, kinda stout build. Not obese, but not jacked either.) On that Raw, a woman has a pink sign that says "I still love you HHH." April Raw, NYC 2005 "HHH is God," "Time to play the Game" Raw in England before Backlash 2005 "HHH is still the Man" sign and "Fear the pedigree," "To play the Game, You've gotta beat The Game" Sign June 2005, Binghamton, NY Raw: "HHH is the Wrestling God." "Push HHH." And don't get me started in 2006 with that Cena feud that NOBODY wanted Cena to win at WM22. And it's not a "smark" city thing. Canada, US, Japan, HHH has a worldwide following. The IWC can say what they want, but the crowds have a lot of respect and admiration for him during his supposed "Terror Reign" despite being a heel. Corny and Brian can be condescending all they want. But HHH definitely by 2005-2006 became his generation's Flair. I don't mean literally in # of title wins or look. I mean that serious working heel who could adapt to any opponent's wrestling style, and could work the mic and his own facials to get any opponent over. To the point he did it so well and so often that fans start digging him because to quote HHH, he's "That Damn Good" at what he does. HHH was a needlemover. If he left in 2002 just like Austin and Rock, WWE would be in bad shape. Undertaker had a reduced schedule like HBK were he was 60-70%, not 100% full time. HBK didn't want that anchor role anymore. Kurt broke his neck with Lesnar in 2003 and again in 2004 rushing back too soon. HHH was that nucleus getting the Edge, Orton, Batista's ready. And got the Jericho, Benoit, and Kurt's ready years before them to handle to handle the Edge, Orton's, Batista once they finally were ready to be prominently featured main eventers.

It's sad we got to the point 25 writers sounded like a conservative number, really that one ever sounded reasonable, but who ever imagined McMahon would manage to quadruple what he had in 2003? And speaking of chances, Jim has mellowed regarding both Triple H and Batista so much it's crazy.

I'm always baffled how Bray can get hurt, when he barely wrestles at all.

Seems like they wont review the Chyna one despite them saying they will :(.

Have you noticed that Triple H can’t stay out of a faction for too long in periods of his career? Whether it’s a DX, or the corporation, Evolution etc

Chris beniot did that to triple h before

Did anyone see that flick with Batista where they’re makin someone kill themselves to save the world..I keep forgetting to look for it

say what you want about Mark Jindrak, but the dude has always had an amazing body. the reflection of perfection c'mon

Jim spitting too much venom on Batista, it’s almost as if he feels insulted that Batista was a success. It’s okay Jim he basically used Leviathan as inspiration for his role as Drax. 5 year career or not he made it.

Batista has been on record that he has social anxiety

Hated HHH in '02. RVD got hot, HHH beat him. Kane got hot, HHH beat him... and took his mask. Booker got hot... HHH beat him after toeing the racism line leading up AND after taking 35 minutes to pin him after one (1) pedigree. HATED him.