AEW announcer and Senior Advisor “Good Ole’ J.R.” Jim Ross took to an episode of his “Grilling Jr” podcast to talk about a number of topics, including whether Vince McMahon was convinced Batista was his top guy in 2005.
Ross said, “Yeah, no doubt about it. Dave deserved the opportunity, and the only way that Dave was going to get over it was to have a celebratory post-match. And we pulled that off. And to Triple H’s credit, he came to work and did a hell of a job in putting Dave over and making Batista look strong. You know, I was involved in that scenario. If you remember, I had a match with Triple H in the Garden where Batista saved me from getting killed. And so I had a vested interest in the outcome and ongoings. So Triple H did a tremendous job of leading the way and having a viable match with Dave. You gotta remember, you know, Dave was not one of The Funks or Briscoes. He had a skill set that was somewhat limited, and Triple H magnified it very, very well. So my hat’s off to Triple H on that one.”
On why the honeymoon stage between WWE and Hulk Hogan ended in 2005:
“It’s backstage politics. Just — he got old, and enough was enough in that respect. Communication was not good. A lot of the talents felt like they were being sacrificed at Hogan’s expense. So I don’t know, it was just an uneasy arrangement. But the way he was being booked and helping some of the talents was a good thing.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to 411Mania.com for transcribing the above quotes)
