Here is a more detailed eye-witness account of what happened on 5/15 during the filming of the SummerSlam commercial between Booker T and Batista.
There was apparently an underlying issue between the two, which neither would talk about. There has been speculation this stems from the problems Melina had with Sharmell on the Australian tour, which led to the guys giving up their final night in Australia for wrestlers' court to sentence Melina for her behavior, although Booker has told friends it was Batista's attitude that caused it, as he perceived, and still does, that Batista feels like he's superior to the rest of the guys and perceives the only people he respects are the top guys like HHH and Ric Flair.
As said by Booker on the WWE web site, it did have to do with his belief that Batista didn't respect the history of the business, but the belief is there was something personal that had gone down, including Booker's claim that Batista said things directly to him that he took as being told he was nothing but a jobber, and in the course of the argument, Batista told Booker that if he didn't like it, they could settle it, and he could take him out at any time.
Batista hadn't been around much in months since he had been rehabbing his surgically repaired triceps and his tom lat. Booker felt that Batista had been bragging about what a big draw he was, while the rest of the guys didn't like it because the Smackdown guys felt they weren't earning any more money last year than they did the year before. Overall, Smackdown business was up from a year ago, but there are a lot of factors involved with that, including merchandise for the top guys, international touring, and the more direct appeal to the Hispanic market.
When Batista came to the commercial shoot, it was said he only went up to certain guys to shake their hand, which were top guys and Fit Finlay. For better or for worse, given locker room etiquette, the guys he didn't come to, who went to him, some of them felt that was a slight, which probably would have meant nothing in the long run except things quickly compounded. Anyway, major rule of thumb if you are in a WWE locker room-walk up to every person there and introduce yourself the first time, and every other time, shake everyone's hand. Apparently, Booker was one of those and felt Batista was being a big shot and had no respect for business and cut a promo on him. He may have brought up the article from the U.K. where Batista, when he was still on Raw, cut down Smack down and saying the wrestlers didn't work as hard and the performance of some of them sickened him. The only thing we were told directly is the two argued, when Batista told Booker he could take him out at any time, Booker responded by saying why not try right now and step into an empty room, close the door behind us and go for it.
There were a lot of underlying negative feelings when he came over. Things went back and forth because Batista's first program was with JBL, and Batista confided in Eddie Guerrero that he felt JBL was sandbagging him in their program that didn't click. During the argument back-and-forth, which Booker was getting the better of, Batista apparently insinuated he was a draw and pointed to Smackdown ratings going in the toilet since he left. The worst part of that is Batista is 100% correct as far as the timing went. You can argue the reasons, but they are much lower now than when he went down for the injury as champion. It wasn't the full reason and was probably only a minor factor at best as compared with the pre-emptions and lame duck status on so many of the stations. Even when Batista was there, Rey Mysterio has been the big draw on Smackdown for the past several months. But he was pushed as the top babyface and his being out was a factor and didn't help any. But you can imagine how that plays in front of the rest of the guys, worse, because deep down the ones who pay attention to ratings know there is something factual to the statement.
There were people who tried to talk Batista out of it, not just because either or both could get hurt needlessly and both are old enough to where they should know better and not be fighting. Plus with Batista, given his triceps injury, after three operations, he was risking his career over something stupid.
By that point he appeared to have felt he had to save face because everyone was watching. At the same time, before they ended up fighting, when they were just arguing, it was said Batista should have let it go, but wouldn't, which is one of the reasons he was the one viewed negatively. Mysterio was said to be the last person Batista talked with before the guys left the two of them alone in the room, and he tried to talk Batista out of it.
The first fight saw the two actually in a room. Everyone left and they shut the door. Booker's version was that he put his hand on the doorknob to close it, and got sucker punched. Booker came back and was doing some real damage. People heard the sound of fists meeting flesh, and after a very short period of time, maybe 30 seconds, the door was opened and people saw Booker on top pounding on Batista, and the wrestlers broke it up.
Batista was screaming to let it continue, so they did, and Booker was again getting the better of it. Batista in the second round grabbed Booker's braids and tried to throw knees from the clinch like you'd see in a Muay Thai style fight, well, aside from the fact you can't pull someone's hair but you can drive their head down and throw knees up, but the best they could do was hit Booker's elbow. Booker was taunting him, saying, "Is that all you've got" and "Your hitting my elbows." One version is Sharmell kicked Batista low and he went down, which may have been a factor in the later Melina-Sharmell incident. When it was pulled apart by Angle, JBL, Finlay and others, it was said that was when Batista got a good punch in, described as a sucker punch, which was the punch that swelled Booker's eye.
After that, it was said Booker was really furious and vowing that some time and some place he'd get him back, saying, "I'm an OG," (slang for Original Gangsta), while Batista claimed Booker was a cancer to the locker room. Booker said, in front of everyone, that if anyone thinks he's a bad influence in the locker room to say it, and nobody would. Batista was apparently surprised that none of the wrestlers agreed with him. The general feeling is Booker is a laid back guy who doesn't bother anyone, and has no reputation for starting trouble. Booker looked at Lashley in particular and asked him, and Lashley said to Booker that he'd always helped him out and given him good advice. Sharmell also cut a promo on Batista somewhere in there.
There was a general feeling coming from several different sources that Batista deserved what he got. Even people you would expect to back Batista were taking Booker's side in this. I don't want to say that everyone now believes it was real, because there are still skeptics, but there are very few of them at this point. We're told there were no plans to book these two against each other in a program before hand (of course, if it was an angle, McMahon wouldn't let anyone know ahead of time so that would have to be the case). We're also told there are no plans to do so now, either. I guess time will tell on that one, but for whatever reason, there really hasn't been all that much interest in this past the minor curiosity stuff for a day. While the two did do a personal appearance together and even posed for photos on the company's web site and have agreed to put it past them, the bitterness definitely still remains.
Booker is more liked generally as "one of the guys" and Batista is more seen as a guy who was handpicked for stardom as opposed to having earned it, and is more mends with the top guys. Still, with the exception of people in OVW, and they more didn't like Batista for what he said about OVW after leaving than anything he did when he was there, I’ve heard few people negative about Batista as a person. Those in OVW only recall Batista once getting into it with another wrestler, and that was an incident with the late Robbie Dicks (Robbie D), where the story is Dicks, who was really a junior heavyweight, got the better of the situation, but Dicks had a rep for being a tough guy and was a star college wrestler.
He was sort of handed it, but the truth is, it was more handed by the fans. The fans chose him over Randy Orton, who was really the hand picked guy.
They paid big on PPV from Survivor Series through Backlash last year to see his chase of HHH. But with limited ability in the ring, not that many years experience, and less than superlative promos (although his promos by no means are bad and in my opinion, get the job done), you can see where some jealousy would be possible, particularly since Batista has been outspoken on his own opinions. There is a weird caste system about who is "allowed" to speak candidly without reprisals, and who isn't, and Batista is at the pecking order level where he should be, but because of his relative lack of inexperience, there were underlying problems in people's minds because of it.
King Bookman and Queen Sharmell might actually be a bit of fun.
