The recent Booker T/Dave Batista fight started because of Batista’s mouth. During the Summerslam commercial shoot, Batista consistently mouthed off about the Smackdown brand. He badmouthed the other workers, saying that the show could not draw without him around to pull in ratings, and that everyone was hoping he would heal from his injuries quick enough to come back and “save the show”. He consistently degraded the quality of the Smackdown shows, saying that they “just haven’t been the same” since he left, and kept pointing out that Raw was clearly the superior show.
While these comments were what led directly to the fight, the tensions between Batista and the rest of the roster had been building for some time. Since the departure of Brock Lesnar, Batista has believed himself to be “above” the rest of the roster, and has claimed on several occasions to be on the same level as The Rock, Steve Austin and Triple H. While his ego never seemed to be a problem backstage before his injury, he’s always been prideful of his friendship with Triple H, even going so far as to point out to other workers that he’s friends with “management”.
The fight clearly did not favor Big Dave, however, as Booker was definitely taking the upper hand before Sharmell pulled him off of Batista. Batista has claimed that he was protecting his injured arm, thus giving a reason for losing the fight.
All parties agreed not to talk about the fight, mainly because Batista did get dominated and WWE brass doesn’t want the public to know that one of the brand’s main drawing cards was decisively beaten in a real fight by someone who’s not supposed to be in his league.
Source: Wade Keller
