10 Times Wrestlers Were Broken In The Hard Way

10. Batista

Batista was seasoned in Ohio Valley Wrestling, and you were only broken in the hard way there if, like, Santino Marella, you no-sold the resident supernatural act mere days after John Laurinaitis had bantered off Jim Cornette for the last godd*mn time, motherf*cker.

Prior to entering Louisville, and prior to learning the basics from Afa Anoa'i, Batista tried his hand at WCW's Power Plant facility, which produced just two acts of renown: a guy who didn't take any bumps (Goldberg), and a guy who was sent to another training school five years after debuting for a mainstream promotion (The Big Show). That might have something to do with the fact that the Power Plant was ran by DeWayne Bruce, a meathead with short man syndrome who took a perverse pleasure in making people vomit. Batista gave Bruce the thumbs down after a day, and later referred to him as a "bitter troll".

To enact this apparent fetish, he would take Batista and a legion of the luckless by the backs of their t-shirts and effectively strangle them when they performed push-ups, in addition to making them exercise every second of the day without water or rest. Triple H, per Dr. Tom Prichard, later hired DeMott because he was "fan of that drill sergeant Power Plant training", which seems at odds with his latter day rep as an admirer of the indy scene.

Now, we're not saying Trips purposefully orchestrated bad training to make himself look better when something of an in-ring regular, but...