Batista responds to claim that he doesn't respect controversial WWE veteran

Former WWE Superstar Batista has responded to people who believe he doesn't respect a veteran. The veteran in question is former OVW booker Jim Cornette.

Jim Cornette used to run Ohio Valley Wrestling. In the spring of 2002, four massive names made their way from OVW to the main roster: John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Batista, and Shelton Benjamin.

In a new interview with Chris Van Vliet, The Animal opened up about Jim Cornette and stated that people think he doesn't respect him. He then made it clear that he has a lot of respect for Cornette.

Check out his comments below:

“What hurt me was my character that I had in OVW [Leviathan], because I really had – and I always get grief about this because people think that I don’t respect Jim Cornette, and I really do. And the reason I do is because Jim Cornette taught us so much about the history of wrestling. He taught us so much about the traditions of wrestling." [H/T WrestleTalk]

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Batista rose through the ranks pretty quickly on the main roster

Like John Cena and Randy Orton, Dave Bautista received a big push shortly after he came to the main roster.

He joined Evolution on RAW and became the group's muscle man. In early 2005, he turned on Triple H and Ric Flair and went on to challenge The Game for the World Heavyweight title at WrestleMania 21.

At 'Mania, he defeated Triple H in the main event to win the first of his many world titles. 14 long years later, he met The Game once again at The Show of Shows in what was his final match. The No Holds Barred match ended with Triple H picking up a win.

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