Batista DVD Review

Despite having a relatively short career to warrant a career retrospective, Batista has accomplished so much in so little time that this set is warranted. This 3-disc DVD set features a documentary and a few extras on disc one and eighteen matches on the other two discs.

The Documentary: The disc starts off with 90-minute documentary about the life and career of Batista. This is one of the better documentaries about a wrestler's life that the WWE has done. While it breaks no new ground that wasn't in his autobiography, it is more entertaining than Batista: Unleashed was. Unlike the book, this DVD did a better of capturing the emotions of Batista as he wears them on his sleeves.

Problems With Disc One: Between the documentary and extras, there was less than two hours of content on this disc. In addition, a play all feature for the extras would have made for a better viewing experience.

Match Selection: Based on comments in the documentary, I was surprised not to see the match where Batista won the tag team titles with Ric Flair or his teaming with Rey Mysterio on the DVD. I would have liked to have seen more matches on this DVD as there was room for them on disc one.

Editing Issues: During the Royal Rumble match on disc two, he who shall not be mentioned was in the ring. The match is then edited in such a way that you rarely see his face and his elimination is missing. What's next, blurring him out like the old WWF scratch logo or replacing his face with someone else like George Lucas did to Anakin Skywalker in the re-release of Return of the Jedi?

Overall Recommendation: Fans of Batista will love this DVD. Even if you aren't a huge fan of Batista, the documentary is good enough and some of the matches are classic enough that this DVD should be a part of your DVD collection.

For matches that are available on another non-PPV DVD, I will note the DVD it is also available on in parenthesis and italics.

Disc Two

• Ohio Valley Wrestling ’01: OVW Champion Leviathan vs. Doug Basham
  
• Armageddon ’02: Batista vs. Kane
  
• Armageddon ’03: Batista vs. Shawn Michaels
  
• Royal Rumble ’04: Tables Match - World Tag Team Champions Batista & Ric Flair vs. The Dudley Boyz
  
• Vengeance ’04: Batista vs. Chris Jericho
  
• Royal Rumble ’05: The Royal Rumble from the point Batista entered the match
  
• WrestleMania 21: World Heavyweight Champion Triple H vs. Batista (The Greatest Superstars of WrestleMania)
  
• Vengeance ‘05: Hell in a Cell Match - World Heavyweight Champion Batista vs. Triple H (Hell in a Cell; Triple H: The King of Kings)
  
• SummerSlam ‘05: No Holds Barred Match - World Heavyweight Champion Batista vs. JBL
  
• No Mercy ‘05: World Heavyweight Champion Batista vs. Eddie Guerrero (Viva La Razza: The Legacy of Eddie Guerrero)

Disc Three

• Survivor Series ‘06: World Heavyweight Champion King Booker vs. Batista
  
• SmackDown 12/1/06: World Heavyweight Champion Batista vs. King Booker vs. Finlay
  
• WrestleMania 23: World Heavyweight Champion Batista vs. The Undertaker
  
• One Night Stand ‘07: Steel Cage Match - World Heavyweight Champion Edge vs. Batista
  
• Cyber Sunday ‘07: Steel Cage Match w/Steve Austin as referee - World Heavyweight Champion Batista vs. Undertaker
  
• RAW 12/10/07: Batista, Triple H & Ric Flair vs. Randy Orton, Edge, & Umaga
  
• SummerSlam ‘08: Batista vs. John Cena
  
• Armageddon ‘08: Batista vs. Randy Orton