Former WWE writer Brian Gewirtz was a guest on E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness. Gewirtz worked closely with some of the top stars in WWE history like the Rock, Edge, Christian, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho and more during his time with the company. During the podcast, Gewirtz shared the ‘Ballad Of Little Dave Bautista’.
If you wondering what that means, Vince McMahon had the idea to create an elaborate backstory for each of his characters. One of these ideas was for Batista to be a foster child. Here is the story from Gewirtz:
“So one day, we were in the writers room and Vince told us, ‘dammit, characters need backstories. We don’t know anything about these guys when they come in. We need nuanced, layered backstories.’ I’m like, ‘okay.’ [Imitating McMahon] ‘So, with that in mind…’ We’re like, ‘oh boy, here it comes.’ [Imitating McMahon] ‘What if Dave Bautista was a foster child?’ I’m like, ‘what?’ He’s like, ‘no, it’s why he has a chip on his shoulder and that’s why Ric [Flair], because he’s in Evolution at the time, Ric is kind of his father figure,’ so all that kind of makes sense. Okay, he’s a foster child. That’s why when someone attacks Ric, he gets all worked up because he has this real life respect for Ric and his father figure. Great! So Vince kind of lays out this promo for Flair where it’s this very nuanced, interesting story about how Dave was abandoned as a kid and bounced around from foster home to foster home and grew a chip on his shoulder. And so, okay, it’s my job to take that and kind of, not rewrite it completely, but get it formed in form where it makes sense for television and everything and a little less rough.”
Gewirtz says that he took the idea from Vince and wrote an amazing promo for it:
“As I’m writing this promo, I am thinking, ‘this is it, this is what changes people’s perspective on professional wrestling because it’s that good.’ So in the production meeting, I’m reading this promo. Ric has pulled Dave aside. He’s like, ‘alright now, big man, listen. I know why the pain inside of you feels like it’s growing every day and because of your history of being a foster child’ and all this type of stuff. As I’m reading it in the production meeting, I see Vince take his, peripheral vision, he doesn’t like it when I do this, but I see this giant X being formed over this precious promo that I’ve spent all weekend working on because he’s like, ‘God, it’s so boring! You’re putting me to sleep!’ I’m like, ‘but you wrote most of it!”
He also says that the only thing that aired about Batista being a foster child was a throwaway line from Flair:
“This is what actually aired. This is the whole vignette, his whole backstory, ‘we need backstories’: it’s Ric warming up Dave and going, ‘alright, big man, tonight, you’re going to walk down that aisle, woo, because you’re an animal! You’re the man! You’re also a foster child. Now, later tonight…’ That’s the whole thing, one little throwaway [line]! Yeah, and never mentioned again ever.”
The whole podcast with Gewirtz was hilarious and we recommend checking it out.
Let us know what you think in the comment section below. [h/t to WrestlingINC.com for the quotes].