WWE Batista: The Animal Unleashed DVD Review

Perhaps a more appropriate tagline for this new WWE release would have been Batista: The Animal Understated. The documentary on this 3-disc set runs at 40 minutes and is essentially a whistle stop tour of Dave Batista’s life since he left the WWE in 2010.

Dave is relaxed, calm and honest and speaks with a maturity and wisdom that few 45 year old semi-retired professional wrestlers possess – he is almost unnervingly low key and modest, drawing you in with his everyman humility. But, as a collection, this is certainly no better than the 2009 release, I Walk Alone. And when compared to recent superstar retrospectives (Triple H and Warrior, for example) the relative brevity of the documentary feature might give you every right to feel rather short-changed.

If, of course, matches are what you look for in these sorts of things, then you will be happy enough. Most of the work on display is taken from 2007-2010 providing you with some light and shade and some different offerings from those that were available on I Walk Alone. Though his excellent work with The Undertaker is not exhibited here, there are matches worthy of remark with Shawn Michaels, Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio and Edge for your money.

Watching Batista on his return to WWE in January 2014 feels at times as though you are intruding on some deeply private moments. There is wonderful backstage footage of him meeting staff old and new (look out for his chat with Khali), in what he refers to quite firmly as his ‘home’. What strongly comes across, though, from this voyeuristic insight is that Dave Batista is a professional who likes to do things by the book, doesn’t like special treatment and would rather do something the hard way rather than merely dialling it in. A case in point is found in his preparation for his latest film: if you read about Guardians for the Galaxy, you’ll find that he and Chris Pratt trained for two and half months just for their one fight scene which director, James Gunn, decided at the 11^th hour he wanted to film in one long shot without cuts. Batista has noted that it took them 22 takes to get it right. Here is a man who is not shy of a little hard labour.

Having left in 2010 due to the shift in the product to a PG-era and what he felt was a growing lack of opportunities for him in main event spots, Batista moved to pastures new. We’re shown his work with Josh Rafferty under Cesar Gracie in preparation for his first, and only, professional MMA fight against Vince Lucero in 2012. Gracie talks about his commitment to training and that he was a natural despite his age when he first arrived. Stephan Bonnar is equally complementary in what is an interesting departure for WWE programming as we are shown Jiu-Jitsu training and the toughness of MMA and real fighting is explored and explained. We even see Dave receiving his purple belt from Gracie and the subsequent belt-whipping from his peers in the dojo.

At his return to Raw in Dayton, Ohio, in January, he jokes about the WWE having faith in his ability to work after four years out of the ring. He is acutely aware that he has legions of internet detractors (well, haters) and, returning from a recent Achilles tendon injury amongst many new, young faces in the company, he is clearly desperate not to ‘mess it up’. Describing himself on several occasions as his ‘own worst critic,’ Batista is happy to work just as physically as he used to, despite the L1 spinal surgery that he underwent in 2011 (an injury that he reveals he sustained when Cena threw him through the stage at Over the Limit 2010).

Seeing how hard Batista worked whilst away and knowing how hard he worked during his first run in WWE, makes his reaction to the boos that he gets at the Consol Energy Center at the Royal Rumble in Pittsburgh all the more uncomfortable to watch. The crew captures him post-show, backstage that night where he looks somewhat crestfallen and, although trying his best to acknowledge that the business is like that sometimes, is visibly saddened by the reaction.

He leaves us with words of deep excitement for WrestleMania 30 and his utter and very genuine delight at being cast as Drax the Destroyer in Guardians of the Galaxy. The work he has done in his time away and the success he has gained seems to have been like everything else in Dave Batista’s life: rocky, tough and hard-earned. If you piece together the facts from I Walk Alone and add in this stop-gap, you gain a clearer picture of why he is so visibly moved when he talks about Marvel’s decision to go with him for their latest marquee piece.

It might have been better, therefore, to have waited. Had WWE followed Dave Batista through to the other side of the film’s release this summer and to a subsequent return to in-ring action, they may well have found themselves with a far more remarkable documentary feature, chronicling the story of their jeered former champion taking on the world of Hollywood and winning. At 45, though, would that have been possible? Would that have been wise? Regardless, we’re left little more than a pleasant stroll through the last four years of Dave Batista’s life and another collection of some of his finer matches as he awaits the launch of the next stage of his career.