Batista has revealed the best pieces of advice he got from his mentors in wrestling.
The former World Champion recently had a short conversation with The School of Hard Knocks on TikTok. He was asked about the best piece of advice he has ever got.
The Animal reflected on the time when he first got hired by WWE back in the early 2000. He mentioned that he was very afraid of pissing people off, until Triple H changed his perspective with two incredible pieces of wisdom:
“There’s been a few things, especially when I was wrestling, I had a mentor named Triple H, and it was a couple things he said to me that always stuck with me. And one of the things was, you know, when I first got there, I was so afraid, like I didn’t want to piss people off, it was a hierarchy thing, and I was so afraid of being disrespectful, or pissing somebody off. And one day he said, ‘Look, man, you want to make money or you want to make friends?’
He says ‘This is a business. You got to look at it as a business. You’re a business.’ And so I always thought about myself as my own commodity. I am my brand. And so another thing he said, he said, ‘Just always imagine that everybody’s pointing a gun at your head. it’s up to you how many bullets you give them.'”
Live Beneath Your Means: Batista
Batista has been pretty open about his financial difficulties after leaving WWE in 2010. Despite multiple world titles in the company, the retired wrestling star found himself in a pickle. The 55-year-old wanted to pursue an acting career but he had a hard time because he couldn’t find a lot of jobs the first few years.
The Hollywood star has since found success and starred in hit franchises like Guardians of The Galaxy and Dune. Despite this, however, he tries to live beneath his means, as explained to him by The Undertaker:
“Financial advice. Best advice that I ever got, which I always offer to, especially to like professional athletes, because a lot of professional athletes they grow up, you know, not really having much. So when you get all this money dumped on you, you just want to buy everything you can afford. The best advice that I ever got was actually from the Undertaker, another wrestler.
He said, ‘always live beneath your means.’ I learned that the hard way. When I came out of wrestling, I literally lost everything. My house got foreclosed on, but I had a second opportunity to be successful in the film industry. Now that money in the bank means more to me than something that I don’t really need. Like I don’t need a Bugatti. I’d love to have a Bugatti but I’m not paying 3-5 million for a car because I don’t need one.”
Batista has not only found success for himself in the movie industry but he is also helping other wrestling stars get their foot into the door. Drew McIntyre is one such talent who has gotten a big movie role recently due to a recommendation from the MCU star.
