Jim Cornette Reviews WWE Rivals: John Cena vs. Batista 

I was at Ford Field that night. Went from being pissed they were going on 4th, to marking out big time. Great great match, arguably the start of the late career Undertaker renaissance (I’d go with Angle/Taker at NWO 06).

My Brother and I were at Ford Field for WrestleMania 23, that was our first WrestleMania in Person. Yes, I consider that Match to be one of The Best Matches of Batista's Career.

From what I remember about 23, it was petty theft.

My favorite streak match of all time.

@@TakeNoteOfThat Damn you gotta see my favorite wm ever live in person. Im so jealous.

It's comforting knowing a tank like that can still get anxiety!

Same reason Bret Hart wore the shades initially as he said in his book, he didn't have confidence in his promos when he was young and he thought people could see it in his eyes.

Batista wasn't taken out of the main event because he wasn't over any longer, he was still over and left of his own accord. Perhaps he could've lasted up there for many more years.

@@pkj2148 He deffo could have laster much longer especially as his character was the best we seen with his heel serious gimmick

@pkj2148 I don't know about that; Batista spent over a quarter of his last 1 year injured. And he wasn't going to get more spry. He could've gone on longer, but with diminishing returns

Thank Dementia Vince and John Laryngitis for that. They were incapable of making new stars hence why there was such a big void of stars in the 2010s. And it's not like they didn't have talented guys; Vince just didn't know how to use them or get them over

​@@kaathesacolyte2943 i think that once they had squashed the competition Vince got back to his old habits with scatologia humor, goofy gimmicks and thing about 'personnality' and pushing guys like super heroes. Just take a look at how they handled NXT guys at first, it was rough too even with triple H's involvement.

Hell, that couple literally made two of the biggest guys in the mid 2010s- when Jim all but confirms they had what it took to get over. Makes you wonder just how much potential we lost because of Vinnie Mac and Johnny Ace

@@MarvinT0606 Consider that Drew and Cody were in WWE by this point and under Vince they were "the guy he handpicked" and Dashing/Stardust. Free from him they are now two of the biggest stars WWE has.

@@arthurdaffos1490 I think it was also going corporate; Vince felt like he was bullet proof so he fell back into the goofy early 90s bookings. Not to mention he added in all of his weird perversions like going from the evil boss to the "genetic jackhammer".

unfortunately his size works against him. I know he wants more serious roles but he's always going to get shoehorned into big guy roles.

@@benjambreegyou have no idea what you are talking about

Baptista is the worst actor ever imagined did you see Dune? Lol also he has TDS

Agree he’s easily the best on screen. I loved him in knives out

@@benjambreegyou didn’t see the m night movie then

Idk if I’d use that metaphor but fuck me that’s funny dawg 😂

They weren’t trained by cornette his in ring was shit😭 and he wasn’t the only person helping with promos he’s the only one 2 brag about it he helped them ur giving to much credit

Damn bro always dunking on these comments. WilCee is the Michael Jordan of Cornette Comments 💯

Says a lot that they all had long careers and overcame bad booking because of their sheer ability

You're talking like they debuted this year. This was back in the early 2000s. Cornette could very well be out of touch today

Drax, all day.

Close as we'll get to DC v Marvel

Both them did a fantastic job in them roles

I’ll do you one better… why is drax? 😂

Bald guy in Dune vs. Dominic Teretto’s brother.

I agree except towards the end Cena and Orton got played out after like 18 matches over the years

I might prefer Cena vs Edge tbh. Edge and Orton were both amazing heels of that era tho for sure.

Cena and Punk also had a good short rivalry And really love the Batista and Taker feud

Good times, miss the ruthless aggression era

Cena v Orton was Insanely boring after the first few matches. People are on glue if they're saying it was an amazing fued

It'a shame he left in 2010 as he deffo could have laster much longer especially as his character was the best we seen with his heel serious gimmick

That stuff was some Steineristic art

@@RAZERDsXe "I'm hurt!"

Corny hates rap and it was a little too sports entertainment to his taste. But it worked because Cena made it work for him, on anyone else it wouldve been a midcard gimmick forever

Word Life !

The thing is, it was a gimmick that Cena had complete control over- there were some segments long after his rapper persona that he deliberately reminded his opponent (and the crowd) that he was still the Doctor of Thuganomics. But Cena dropping the knucks and the chain was a downgrade he never recovered from. Cena showing up in WM40 with his trademark knucks would have been wild

Cornettes math is off. Batista wasn’t injury prone. He got injured like twice during his whole career. One just happened to being during one of his world title runs so he had to drop the belt. He was there from 02-11 about 8 and half to 9 years. He just BARELY missed the return of Lesnar in 2012 and he wasn’t because he was old or injury prone or couldn’t hack it he left on his own accord because he didn’t like the kiddified PG suck fest the WWE was turning into and he didn’t understand where a guy like him would still fit into the PG era and he was 100% right. Those fickle neck beard fans turned on him during his return for boring as paint drying Bryan Danielson. Good job 👏

@@thehorrorhound6575 Funny thing is I quit watching a couple years after WWE went PG as well because I was also frustrated with how the product was going. Super Cena and Brodus Clay were around then

"They took mah shins, Hank." 😂😂

Absolutely. That story should be mentioned in their rivalry.

I preferred Jericho's 2007 brief run

Wait, what? Did somebody really say that? 😕

@@quentinkaasa47 yeah if you look at the episode it says Raw General Manager on the screen during that segment.

Can’t expect wrestlers to use steroids

@@pleaseshutup7053 I know, nvr said they should. I mean look at Gunther, he would pass as a wrestler as well

@@pleaseshutup7053 steroids or not. Wrestlers should develop discipline in making themselves look good imo.

@@jayteepanganiban4301 that’s what most of them do in the wwe anyways

The Batista bomb was far more believable than the The Rock Bottom. Man, that was a laughable finishing move.

Who was the fake one?

@ezekielluna6265 Mason Ryan. His character was booked like the Second Coming of Dave Batista. Hell, Ryan looked _very similar_ to Batista that WWE thought he'd go over with the fans. He didn't.

@@MarvinT0606 Great point I never thought of that. Im willing to bet youre right, Vince saw him, and thought of him. But he wasnt great was he (i missed that era) did he have a story behind him or anything to get him over, Or was he bad in the ring. I know he was in NEXUS, vince probably thinks theyre all interchangable toys (not in the tony khan way) and was like "Fuck Batista who needs him I CREATED him, I have another one right here"

@@ezekielluna6265 Vince never learned from his experience with Scott Hall and Kevin Nash: even if you legally own a character, you can't force the crowd to like a character that isn't the same man

La knight going through that right now

Hell think about Punk. So many things had to go right for him to not get completely buried because of all the stuff he was involved in.

There's an omnibus video, a collection of OVW discussions on the channel. It's about 2 hours long, I think.

It’s creative and protected Batista

@@Myleslambeth I get it but that was too comedy for me at the time. Id expect r truth to tape miz legs together to win the us title or something not cena.

​@@patrickboian8545that was a brilliant way lol. Cena literally wore him down and closed any way Batista had to untie himself and then tied him up. It was done brilliantly.

Vince should have sent Nash to tell them to restart the match

He dropped that schtick in 2006

@@pleaseshutup7053 More like 2007

who cares what the hateful people think anyway !

Loser

Batista isnt a ring general but he never gets any credit for what he could do in the ring. Just his presence alone doing a slam and popping to his feet was special. No one else did it, it stood out, and ifk wjere it came from I hsvent seen it since. He actually has matches where for his size he did some really good bumps, he sold well. The problem is everyone just remembers that bad Mark Henry sell. And he has had good matches with people that arent named Taker also, but people barely talk about them

I’d say that Batista was a bigger deal than Cena at that time but once Cena went to Raw he never looked back.

The smackdown vs raw 2006 game that came out in 2005 also had both stars on the cover

I'm sure Corny wouldn't have the same issues if WWE could have ever done it right, but it was always half assed. This shit where they would send guys from one brand to the other just to swerve the fans, but also cause they were scared to have one brand where the "good" wrestlers were (first brand split, it was SmackDown, easy), and then the fact that the PPVs were always kinda a mess during brand splits. I think WWE let their own concept down... Multiple times. There was a lot of good to be done, but McMahon was not thinking of any of this as bring related to a SPORT, especially not after 2000 when he decided he was incapable of fucking up, and then preceded to spend two decades fucking up. If they had ever just remembered people watched wrestling for some wrestling, and given some of the sport side of things some legitimacy, the brand splits might have built into something like a Raw vs. SmackDown Super Bowl, something big between the brands when they had developed their own big names and had time to work apart. I dunno, it just should have been handled with more devotion

What a complainer

As a kid at the time that spot was amazing

How did they bury him? When he’s doing the professional job on his way out. He was more professional than Bret was at Survivor Series ‘97. When Bret refused to drop the title and caused all that drama.

@@StonerSports24 that scarred me. To see a big absolute beast get Sonned by some smaller guy..

@@keeganhurley119 yea but don't make him Quit.. they had to have known that that would've ruined his image for if he ever came back in the future (and he did end up coming back)

@@zhougongjin2704 you can’t act like cena wasnt absolutely jacked too only smaller in height.

In that biography did they talk about how he Punked Goldberg, Lesnar, and Undertaker?

@@zhougongjin2704what’s your fucking problem

@@zhougongjin2704nope lol

I didn't hear that. I know WWE sent punk to Heyman in OVW to fire him. And Paul told them you have a main event talent in this guy.

No more fake documentaries, about his alcoholic lifestyle, under the guise of fast food science.