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A current WWE star paid tribute to Batista ahead of her first championship win last Monday. The Animal is considered one of the greatest stars of his generation, alongside John Cena, Brock Lesnar, and Randy Orton.
This past Monday on RAW, Maxxine Dupri challenged Becky Lynch for the Women's Intercontinental Championship at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Dupri was triumphant in becoming the new champion, beating Lynch after an interference from AJ Lee.
In a post on its official YouTube account, WWE uploaded a vlog to share behind-the-scenes footage from Dupri's huge night. She trained at the Performance Center a few days before the match, getting some reps in while wearing a vintage Batista T-shirt.
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Maxxine Dupri took some bumps to get ready for her match and even got a pep talk from trainer Norman Smiley. You can see Dupri's fit for her workout at the start of the video below.
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It's no secret that Maxxine Dupri is a huge fan of The Animal after her tribute. The gesture came less than a month after her interview with Chris Van Vliet revealed the origins of her fandom.
Why is Maxxine Dupri a Batista fan?
Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet earlier this month, Maxxine Dupri was asked why she was a huge fan of Batista. Dupri revealed that it was due to her boyfriend, Anthony Luke, who sent a video of himself delivering The Animal's finisher on her to the Hollywood star himself.
"We start dating, this is pre-wrestling. I'm gonna say it’s like 2018, end of 2018, December, and Anthony was verified on Instagram from football, but this was before everyone was verified. It’s like, when you had a blue check, you had some finesse. And we had a great time playing around with that, because you could DM celebrities, and they would actually see it, because no one had blue check marks. So he took a video Batista Bombing me at my dad’s house, and he messaged him and sent it to him, and he responded. Yeah, it was pretty great," Dupri said. [H/T: chrisvanvliet.com]
Dupri added that the six-time WWE World Champion even joked to them about Luke stealing his moves.
