10 Wrestlers Security Had To Kick Out Of Buildings

2. Batista

Charlotte Flair
WWE.com

The name James Tillis will likely mean nothing to even the biggest of wrestling fans, but Tillis held the position of Head of WWE Security from 1997 until 2011. And during that time, Tillis had to once remove Batista from a WWE venue.

During an interview with Andrew Thompson, this story was brought to light by James, with him detailing how the incident took place in Boston somewhere.

To clarify, this was before Dave Bautista was tearing it up on the main roster as The Animal. With Tillis having strict orders from Vince McMahon to keep the backstage area clear of non-company personnel, the Head of Security was approached by Big Dave.

Asking to speak with John Laurinaitis, the future World Champion was informed he could only see Johnny Ace if he had an appointment. As he didn't have such an appointment booked in, Batista was taken out of the arena.

Tillis said how polite powerhouse Dave was, and that he returned the following day with an appointment to see Laurinaitis. From there, the rest is history.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.