Batista Opens Up About Failed WCW Tryout & Path to Bagging WWE Contract

Former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Batista recently opened up about his failed WCW tryout and his journey to earning a WWE contract.

During a conversation with W.O.L.F. GYMS, Batista revealed that before signing with WWE in 2000, he went for a WCW tryout in Atlanta. However, it ended disastrously, as he didn’t make it past the first stage and was told that he didn’t have it in him to become a professional wrestler. The Hollywood superstar then detailed the journey that led to him bagging a WWE contract at the turn of the century.

Here’s what Batista said:

On his failed WCW Tryout

“I went to a tryout in Atlanta. It was for WCW at the time. I didn’t make it past the first stage. They told me to get the fuck out, and I’d never be a pro wrestler. I didn’t have what it took. And so I was pretty crushed because I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life.”

On what he did to earn a WWE contract

“And so I waited for about a week, and then I started making calls, man. I started, you know, calling people to see if someone would train me. I didn’t know how it all worked, but if I could find someone to train me, and through me and my buddy Jonathan Meisner and a very close friend of mine, Rich Salis, we actually found this camp in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Wild Small Wrestling Camp. They were directly affiliated with the WWE.

“So what I did was I borrowed money from my buddies. I went up there, I got an apartment, I started training like full-time, and I was there for about a year before I got a tryout with the WWE. And so I made it with them. I got a contract, but it was for 650 bucks a week, but they sent me to Louisville, Kentucky, to start training, and I trained there for two years before I finally made it onto TV.”

On his initial struggles after joining WWE

“I was happy, like, I was successful at that point. But yeah, I was there for a couple of years, and I finally made it to TV. It was like every time I took a step, it was like that’s where a new struggle began. Even when I got to WWE, I just wasn’t prepared. Like I thought any day, I was going to get fired, and it was just, you know, some people took me under their wing and really helped out, and I was able to kind of persevere and make it there.”

Check out his comments below:

Batista would go on to become a WWE World Champion at WrestleMania XXI, establishing himself as one of the greatest WWE Superstars of all time. He wrestled his final match against Triple H at WrestleMania 35.

Please credit W.O.L.F. GYMS’s YouTube and give an H/T to 411Mania for the transcription if you take quotes from this article.