The WWE Backstage Fight Between Batista & Booker T

What happens when a rising WWE superstar makes disparaging comments about half of the locker room to a major publication? It creates a lot of bitter feelings towards that budding main eventer, and the veterans he put on blast would most certainly not take kindly to being disrespected in that manner.

While apologies would usually solve the hurt feelings, in this instance the sourness and tension lingered on for well over a year, resulting in a heated slugfest between a well-pushed WWE pet project and an ageing main event player. 

A Stupid Comment

At the dawn of 2005, Batista was on his way to main event stardom. The green 36-year-old had improved massively under the tutelage of Triple H and Ric Flair during his time in Evolution, which also allowed Dave Bautista to work against the likes of Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, and Shawn Michaels. 

It initially appeared Randy Orton would be the ex-Evolution stablemate to win the World Heavyweight Title from Triple H at WrestleMania 21, but Batista had launched himself above Orton in the pecking order, and he went on to win the 2005 Royal Rumble before pinning The Game at WrestleMania. 

The seeds of what would lead to a backstage fight with Booker T were planted ahead of Batista’s Royal Rumble win. After being asked by The Sun about the differences between Raw and SmackDown, Batista, a Raw talent, said about SmackDown: 

"I try to watch the shows but, for me, they’re hard to sit through….I’ve watched their tapings live and it seems like a lot of the guys couldn’t care less. There’s a lack of passion and pride….They’re more worried about where they’re going after the show, which also makes me sick because it means they’re not there to work."

These weren’t kayfabed, in-character comments about Raw being superior to the 'rival' brand. This wasn't The Animal talking about the scripted standing of his fellow wrestlers – these were unprovoked shots at his co-workers' collective work ethic. Batista's printed comments contained no exceptions, so to the reader he was criticising the likes of JBL, John Cena, Rob Van Dam, Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, The Undertaker, Kurt Angle, and Booker T. 

This, ultimately, upset much of the SmackDown roster, with some feeling that Batista only respected certain veterans and was far too full of himself considering he had only been in the business for a small handful of years. 

Tensions between Batista and the SmackDown locker room hadn’t dissipated by the time he was drafted to SmackDown in June of 2005. There remained a sense of détente, however, because nobody was going to try and start a fight with Vince's handpicked champion.

Melina 

The negative feelings continued to simmer, though, and they allegedly only got worse when an example was made of somebody close to Batista.

Around late 2005, Batista reportedly had an affair with Melina, then the valet of WWE Tag Team Champions MNM. Melina herself had garnered a diva-like reputation, and was hauled into wrestler’s court. One of those presiding over the court was Booker, who helped lay out the case against Melina amidst claims that Melina had issues with Booker’s wife Sharmell, which was the impetus for the trial. 

Melina was ultimately convicted, although her punishment is unclear. Regardless, the conviction very much irritated Batista. He apparently held ill will towards Booker T via Sharmell’s involvement, while Booker T had no love lost for the reigning World Heavyweight Champion. 

Batista wasn’t World Heavyweight Champion for long, however, as he vacated the big gold belt in January 2006 after he tore his triceps during a house show match with Mark Henry. While Batista was at home, tensions still didn’t dissipate, and then reports in late spring noted that WWE was planning a summer feud between the returning Batista and the wrestler who would be World Heavyweight Champion by then, King Booker. 

The Fight 

With a match expected to take place at SummerSlam, King Booker, Batista and several others likely to be on the supercard were brought in for a commercial shoot for the Biggest Party of the Summer in Encino, California in May. 

Upon arriving at the shoot, Batista allegedly only shook hands with select main event players, as well as Fit Finlay. Per the rules of backstage protocol, however, everyone shook hands with everyone. 

The former champion also joked to a Raw star about moving over to SmackDown, according to Kurt Angle on his podcast.

"I was there after the fight ended, but I heard what occurred. Batista got there for a commercial shoot. We were all doing a commercial. I think it was for SummerSlam, and someone approached him and Batista said, 'When are you coming over to SmackDown because I have nobody to work with,' and Booker took that as, 'Wait a minute, I'm on SmackDown, there are a lot of people to work with.' I think Batista was just saying because there were a lot of injuries going on, it was getting a little bare at the top, and he was just trying to tell the person I'd love for you to come over and work a programme with you," Angle said.

For Booker T, this was the final straw as he lashed out at Batista for his year of transgressions, with Batista angrily replying, during which Dave allegedly told Booker he could take him in a fight, any time, any place. Booker T immediately decided this was the time and place for the fight to happen.

Instead of the fight taking place in the open, the two men brawled in an empty room behind closed doors, with there being no witnesses to the sheer bulk of the conflict, with heavy thudding blows being some of the noises that exited the room. 

After 30 seconds elapsed, several people rushed into the room, with most witnesses noting they found Booker in the mount position, raining down strikes onto Batista’s head, suggesting Booker T won the fight.

There was a dissenting voice, however, as Finlay later stated that Batista won because he inflicted significant damage to Booker T’s eye. Kurt Angle also stated that Batista was a "little banged up", while Booker T had a "black eye" following the scrap. Regardless, nobody witnessed anything beyond what happened after the door was opened, so individual takes may be taken with a grain of salt.

What was witnessed, however, was a restart of the fight. After the initial skirmish, Batista demanded a continuation, and the two locked horns again. Batista threw several punches, which Booker managed to block with his elbows. Sharmell then stepped in and kicked Batista below the belt, according to Finlay.

After that happened, JBL, Kurt Angle, and Finlay all intervened to pull Booker away. As Booker was being restrained, a sore Batista suddenly landed a hard punch to Booker's face, which was the likely culprit for the damage to his eye.

WWE.com actually reported on the incident, leading some to believe it was a work, though it was anything but. Booker sported the damage during the next day's SmackDown taping, and the broadcast team acknowledged his involvement in the fight. If anything, WWE felt the skirmish would add fuel to their eventual on-camera feud. 

After The Fight

That feud did indeed take place later in 2006, as Booker T won the revived King of the Ring tournament and adopted an over-the-top royal gimmick on his way to winning the World Heavyweight Championship from Rey Mysterio at Great American Bash.

Batista returned on the July 7 episode of SmackDown and soon moved into a feud with King Booker after a short programme with Mr. Kennedy. Booker T would remain champion at SummerSlam and in a four-way at No Mercy before Batista regained the belt in a headline match at Survivor Series. Their feud would finally end at Armageddon when John Cena and Batista defeated King Booker and Finlay in a tag team main event.  

There were no further issues between Batista and Booker T, and life simply moved on. Batista remained a perennial main event player for the next three-plus years. Booker and Sharmell, meanwhile, bowed out of WWE in the autumn of 2007, before immediately showing up in TNA.

After years of reiterating that he and Batista weren't friends, Booker admitted in 2023 that he had no hostility toward Batista, and that if he saw him today he would give the wrestler-turned-actor a big hug over his success in Hollywood.

Booker T also said about the fight on his Hall of Fame podcast: "It was an incident that happened between two men, and if you’re a man, you know something about that. If you’re a man who’s got testosterone running through your body and you’re in a testosterone-driven business, you might get in a fight with somebody. That doesn’t mean you hate them. Don’t mean you don’t like them. It was an incident that happened."

That is how it tends to be in a tension-filled pressure cooker like pro wrestling. The passage of time often tends to squash every silly beef there ever was. In the moment, though, those silly beefs can result in brutal confrontations.