The Sandman has offered his assessment of Batista as an in-ring performer, arguing that the former WWE World Heavyweight Champion may have been better suited to hardcore wrestling than traditional matches.

Speaking on episode 135 of The Sandman Podcast, the ECW legend and his fellow panelists looked back at WWE's June 2006 ECW Arena house show, which was recently uploaded to WWE's Vault channel on YouTube.

The conversation eventually shifted toward WWE's handling of the revived ECW brand and its decision to place established WWE names such as Batista, Big Show and Bobby Lashley prominently on the show rather than building around ECW originals and emerging talent.

Discussing Batista specifically, The Sandman suggested his strengths could have been used differently.

“Batista probably would have been way better in a hardcore situation than a regular match,” The Sandman said.

Podcast host Brian W. Tosh pushed back somewhat, arguing that Batista had periods where he was a very capable performer and produced a number of strong matches during his WWE career.

While The Sandman agreed that Batista possessed undeniable presence and star quality, he remained critical of his overall wrestling ability.

“Everybody knows he was a mid-level worker,” The Sandman said, before acknowledging Batista's ability to maximize what he had. “But he had it. He used it.”

Tosh then highlighted Batista's enormous success outside professional wrestling, saying, “There’s a reason he’s in Hollywood,” while describing him as an extremely successful individual.

Another member of the panel suggested Batista's physical appearance and presentation would actually have made him an ideal fit for ECW. The Sandman stressed that he wasn't attempting to dismiss Batista's career, instead arguing that a different wrestling environment might have played more naturally to his strengths.

“I thought he would have had good hardcore matches,” he said.

The Batista discussion formed part of a broader debate over WWE's controversial 2006 revival of ECW. The panel questioned why the company increasingly relied upon established WWE performers at the top of the card instead of allowing ECW originals to help establish a new generation.

Within months of ECW returning, matches involving Big Show, Batista, Bob Holly and Bobby Lashley became prominent attractions for the brand.

The Sandman questioned whether Vince McMahon would ever have allowed ECW to become more successful or popular than WWE's established programming, suggesting the revived version of the promotion was effectively destined to struggle from the beginning.

Batista, of course, went on to establish himself as one of WWE's biggest stars of his generation. He became a six-time world champion, won the Royal Rumble twice and competed in major WrestleMania matches before successfully transitioning into Hollywood.

His acting career has since included major roles in Guardians of the Galaxy, Dune and Knives Out, among numerous other projects.

The Sandman's argument focused primarily on style. He felt Batista's combination of size, physical presence and intensity could have translated especially well to matches featuring weapons, brawling and the less traditional environment historically associated with ECW.

He made a similar observation about larger wrestlers from ECW's past, referencing performers including Roadkill and Bubba Ray Dudley and noting that they were capable of doing many of the same things as smaller wrestlers despite their size.

Elsewhere during the podcast, The Sandman revisited the June 2006 ECW Arena event, which took place just 11 days after the revived ECW debuted on Syfy.

Interestingly, The Sandman admitted that he has no recollection of the show despite defeating Justin Credible that evening.

The episode also covered Paul Heyman's post-show address to the ECW crowd, CM Punk's early appearance against Stevie Richards and the main event between Rob Van Dam and Kurt Angle.

Despite criticizing how WWE eventually positioned established stars on ECW, The Sandman had considerable praise for Big Show. He recalled an occasion when Big Show deliberately bled during one of their matches without warning him beforehand and described the former WWE Champion as a “Philly boy” who was very much “one of the boys.”

Rob Van Dam's memorable 2006 run also entered the discussion. The Sandman suggested RVD's career could have reached even greater heights had his arrest not disrupted his simultaneous reigns as WWE and ECW Champion.

The Sandman described Van Dam as a “super Hall of Famer type,” believing his career trajectory could have been considerably different without that setback.