When he was at his lowest in OVW, Bautista felt as though the company was getting ready to let him go. As a "last-ditch effort" to keep him onboard, Bautista was sent to work directly with several of the company's veteran wrestlers and trainers, including Dave Taylor, William Regal, and 'Fit' Finlay.

"'Fit' Finlay, in a day, changed my life," Bautista continued. "'Fit' just took me aside and started talking to me, like, 'What's wrong with you, dude?' More than the physical stuff, he just got in my head a little bit and made me see things differently, and a lightbulb just went off in my head."

Looking back at OVW, Bautista brought up the controversial Jim Cornette, who was booking the promotion at the time. Though he said fans often believe he dislikes Cornette, the "Guardians of the Galaxy" star stated that he has a lot of respect for the former wrestling manager, mainly because Cornette taught him a great deal about wrestling's history.

Bautista made his WWE main roster debut in 2002, initially serving as muscle for Reverend D-Von. However, he quickly joined the group Evolution alongside Triple H, Ric Flair, and Randy Orton, and his career took off from there.