Ross welcomes Dave Bautista to the show for part two of his interview.
Ross asks Bautista about his relationship with Vince McMahon. Bautista says it’s important to develop a relationship with McMahon but he can also smell an ass-kisser. The timing has to be right to really develop a great relationship with McMahon, and he thinks his timing was perfect.
He recalls having heated creative arguments with McMahon and on one occasion McMahon said, “You know what I want to do now? I wanna slap the shit out of you”. There was a mutual respect between them by that point so Bautista could laugh it off, but you can’t push him that much early on without a good relationship because you probably won’t have a job for long.
Bautista says he’s loved Chris Jericho ever since his WCW days and he calls him a “very good man”. Ross recalls bringing Jericho into WWE and offering him an opportunity, but not nearly as much money as WCW’s guaranteed contract was paying him. Bautista says that Jericho knew he’d be a star just based off of his incredible charisma alone, and that’s why he took that chance.
