It should come as no surprise in a world like WWE where incredibly jacked and powerful men work vying for the spots that earn them the most money, there will be some disagreements.

Booker T and Batista had such a disagreement back in 2006 and it was something that had been brewing for a long time.

6 King Booker feuded with Batista after their fight

Let me give you some context on both men before we get into the heart of the matter.

Booker is around 6ft 3ins and has always been a jacked 250lbs, at least. He’s known to be a man you don’t mess with in the wrestling business and someone with legit street fighting experience.

The six-time world champion also spent 19 months in jail for armed robberies at Wendy’s restaurants in his hometown of Houston. He was 22 when convicted.

Batista is 6ft 4ins and hovers closer to the 260lb mark. He was a bouncer early on in his adult life until he seriously hurt two people one night and was sentenced to a year’s probation by the courts.

He has done a lot of MMA training in his later life – particularly after leaving WWE – and won his only ever bout by technical knock out in the first round.

So, we’ve established that these are two big, powerful guys. So what was the issue? A combination of things is the answer.

First off, it’s been widely speculated – and Booker T notes it in his autobiography – that Batista was engaging in an affair with Melina.

Melina, who now wrestles in NWA, was in a relationship with John Morrison at the time but was quite openly also involved with Batista. Booker says Morrison was upset, but also didn’t know what to do about it.

6 Melina with John Morrison

During a European tour, it was decided to take Melina to wrestler’s court over the matter with her official offence ‘Divaism’.

In other words, Melina was taking being a Diva either too far or too literally. She was found guilty by her peers, but when the crew returned stateside, Batista was not happy at all.

To add further fuel to the fire, The Undertaker was the judge and Booker T was on the prosecution team with JBL. It’s been said Melina cried inside ten minutes of this verbal roasting.

On top of all of this, Batista was getting a reputation in the SmackDown locker room as somebody who had become arrogant and didn’t respect the business or the boys anymore.

Booker T felt that way. It took him years to earn the respect he had in the business and Batista had pretty much arrived with a golden ticket in Evolution and became world champion in 2005, just three years after his real debut.

6 Evolution reunited on SmackDown 1000 with Triple H and Batista having a tense stand off

This would all come to a head when WWE talent congregated at a California mansion to record an advert for SummerSlam.

Booker T recalls the fight in his book, writing: “I remember being out in the pool with Tatanka, and then Dave Batista shows up and it was almost like a cloud coming over that nice beautiful scenery.

“What ticked Batista off with me was that I was always vocal with things. At this shoot, I told Batista, ‘Hey man, let’s just get this out in the open… I really don’t like you, you really don’t like me, but we gotta work together! It’s our jobs! We gotta go out and perform together, ya know what I mean? But if you ever cross me, you gonna have to deal with these [fists]!’

When talking about the fight, Booker goes as far as to say he ‘put a good beating on the boy!’

Getty 6 Booker T often works the pre-show panels for WWE these days

“Later on him and I actually confronted each other like men, the fight went down and ya know, I’m not gonna get into too much detail but I got fast hands man, I’m quick with my hands.

“I remember when I was a little kid, I was about 13 years old and I got beat up in my front yard, that was the last time I lost a fight. Needless to say, I put a good beating on the boy!

Elaborating on the issues with Batista in later interviews, Booker continued to assert it was about respect.

“I never had a problem with him or anything,” Booker T said to Wrestling Inc. “I mean, certain things once you get into the business – and I’m all about tradition and I’m all about respect as far as the guys that came before me and put in work. That pretty much was what that thing was about, it was about respect not just for myself but for all of the rest of the boys in the locker room.

“That’s just the way things happen, a lot of testosterone in the locker room and we all don’t get along. We all don’t like each other, we just have to work with each other. Sometimes, fights will break out and that’s what happened with him and I. We’re both men and, sometimes, men fight.”

6 Batista made it to world title status very quickly

However, Batista told WWE.com that those accusations hurt him and he was always grateful to the guys that had paved the road for him.

“Some guys say I’ve been running around claiming to be the top-money draw in the company, that I’m carrying the WWE on my back,” Batista said. “I never said anything like this, the rumours break my heart. I would never disrespect guys like Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, and Triple H with comments like these. I am not a p***k!”

“We had to get past this,” Batista said of the fight with Booker. “It had been brewing for a long time. It’s over. We will agree to disagree. We won’t be friends, but we will work together.

Dirtsheets at the time said that Rey Mysterio tried to play peacemaker, but it did no good. Booker called Batista out in front of all the boys and when the Animal came back to Booker minutes later, what he said next set the tone.

“What’s your problem with me, man? Do you find me a challenge because I’m a top draw on the card and have done more in the last couple of years than you have in your entire career? Are you jealous?”

6 Booker T and Batista would work together again

From there, it’s universally reported that Booker T won the fight and convincingly. However, Finlay tells a different story.

“I don’t know what started it but they were rolling on the floor. They will say that Booker T got to Dave, but that’s not how it was. Dave was on top of Booker T, you know? Booker T had a swollen eye. When we pulled it apart and stood em’ up, Sharmell kicked Dave right in the nuts. Nobody will tell ya that, but she snuck a kick in and kicked him right in the nuts. And he didn’t sell it!

“Booker was threatening, ‘I’ll come to ya door!! I’ll find ya in the dark!’ and Dave Batista said, ‘No, we’re gonna sort it out right now if this isn’t over it’s gotta be over right now!’ Then it broke down and it sort of fizzled out and they just agreed to disagree after that.

“But Dave didn’t get beat up by Booker T, that’s probably the main story out there but that’s wrong,” Finlay said.

It’s understood the two are friends again now and did indeed work with each other in WWE after that.

The narrative that they’d never be friends seems to have been cooled on both sides, with Booker saying: “It was a disagreement. Him and I, we settled our disagreement. If I saw him today, he’d get a big hug and I’d say, ‘what’s going on?’ You know? He’s a man, just like I am. Batista and I, right now, guys, we’re good friends. We buried the hatchet. That’s water under the bridge.”

All’s well that ends well!