Dave Bautista doppelganger thinks comparisons to WWE legend ‘hindered’ his career-Alistair McGeorge-Entertainment – Metro

Surely looking like Batista could never be a bad thing?! (Picture: WWE)

For so much of his WWE run, Mason Ryan drew comparisons to Batista.

The 42-year-old wrestler, who is now starring in KÀ by Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas, burst onto the scene on Raw back in 2011 and fans immediately joked about the similarities he shared with the former world champion.

As comparisons go, the Hollywood star – whose real name is Dave Bautista – isn’t bad company, but it did put some pressure on the newcomer.

‘I was aware of it,’ he exclusively told Metro.co.uk. ‘You could argue maybe that it hindered my career a little bit.’

He pointed out that even WWE management were concerned about the similarities he shared to Big Dave in terms of his physique and overall look, and so his own wrestling move set was restricted.

‘They made me grow my hair out, for example, when I first got there, because they were worried I looked too much like him,’ he recalled.

Mason Ryan was constantly compared to Batista by fans (Picture: WWE)

Under his real name Dave Bautista, the hulking star has gone onto become a huge Hollywood star (Picture: WWE)

‘So when I debuted, they were like, “Hey, we want you to grow your hair out”, just to try and avoid those comparisons. And they didn’t want me doing any kind of move that he did.

‘So they didn’t want me doing any kind of spear or Power Bomb. So it could have been an issue, but it wasn’t like I was thinking too much about it.’

Mason – real name Barri Griffiths – pointed out that ‘it’s almost like every era’ has stars who will be compared to big names from the past.

Mason had to adjust his moveset to avoid being too similar to Big Dave (Picture: WWE)

‘You know, Ryback comes up, everyone’s calling him Goldberg, Bron Breakker, people comparing him to Goldberg,’ he said, referencing the current Intercontinental Champion.

He added: ‘You always see comparisons, right? For some reason it happens more with the bigger guys, the more muscle bound guys.’

For Mason, he never quite found his feet as a major player in WWE, and by 2014 – after injuries halted his momentum, and a spell wrestling on live events instead of television – he was let go from the company.

He went back to the independent scene, but there was another twist in the tale as WWE go in touch a year or so later to tell him Cirque du Soleil were looking for a wrestler to appear in one of their Las Vegas productions.

‘It wasn’t an easy decision, because I knew at that point, I was 33, 34 – going to work for Cirque du Soleil, doing five shows a week, probably that would be the end of my wrestling career,’ he admitted.

‘It wasn’t an easy decision, because obviously, I’ve worked work really hard to get where I was. And, you know, I loved wrestling. That’s where I always thought I’d be.’

Now, he’s a star in Cirque du Soleil (Picture: Erik Stein)

He had to give the offer ‘some really serious thought’, realising it was ‘an unbelievable opportunity’ to go from WWE to another iconic company.

‘Now to go work for Cirque du Soleil, and have some job security and just be part of this amazing show in Vegas,’ he smiled. ‘Ultimately, I knew it was the right decision.’

He added: ‘I had no problem making it. To walk away from wrestling at that point was, wasn’t an easy decision to make, but in the end, it was undoubtedly the right decision.’

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