Batista

Dave Batista

David Michael Bautista, Jr. (born January 18, 1969), better known as Dave Batista or by the ring name Batista, is an American professional wrestler. Batista is currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), wrestling on its SmackDown! brand.

Batista is a three-time World Heavyweight Champion and the winner of the 2005 Royal Rumble match.

Batista is a three-time World Heavyweight Champion and the winner of the 2005 Royal Rumble match.

Early life

Bautista is of Filipino and Greek heritage. His year of birth was disputed for several years. His website originally listed him as being born in 1969, while several contradictory news reports claimed that he was actually born in 1966. In March 2006, Batista stated in an interview that he was born in 1969. He confirms the same in his autobiography "Batista Unleashed".

World Wrestling Entertainment

Debut (2002)

He began his WWE career on the May 9, 2002 episode of SmackDown! as Deacon Bautista, a heel enforcer for Reverend D-Von on the SmackDown! franchise. Batista made his WWE in-ring debut in a tag match teaming with D-Von against Randy Orton and Faarooq with Batista pinning Orton after using his spinebuster. Over several weeks, Orton tried to beat D-Von and Bautista with different partners, but ultimately lost each time to Bautista's spinebuster. Bautista suffered his first loss in a match against Rikishi after D-Von accidentally struck him with a punch, allowing Rikishi to take advantage and pin Bautista for the win. Bautista and D-Von started to argue over the forthcoming weeks, with Bautista eventually turning on D-Von. After splitting with D-Von, he signed with RAW and was re-branded as Dave Batista (or simply Batista). He aligned himself with Ric Flair and feuded with Kane, whom he defeated in his pay-per-view debut at Armageddon 2002.

Evolution (2003-2004)

Personal life

Batista's father, David Michael Bautista, is Filipino and his mother, Donna Raye Bautista, a lesbian, is Greek. His grandparents were also from the Philippines as his grandfather served in the military, worked as a taxi driver, barber, and other odd jobs to feed the family. Batista says he is not ashamed to admit he came from a poor family. He has publicly admitted to having a hard life where, as before he was age nine, three murders occurred at his front lawn. As young as age 13, he was stealing automobiles. By age 17, Batista was considered estranged from his parents and on his own, despite admitting later that "I am proud of my parents. They are good, honest, hard-working folks. They taught me the values of working hard." Batista became a regular bouncer for clubs until he was arrested after a fight that left two badly injured patrons, one of which could be found lying in the street. After a trial, Batista was sentenced to a years' probation. Batista was also a lifeguard before he had dreams of becoming a bodybuilder. He credits bodybuilding as possibly saving his life.

Batista was married to a woman named Glenda in the early 1990s and had two daughters with her, Keilani (born in 1990) and Athena (born in 1992) before divorcing. Batista married his second wife Angie on October 13, 1998, however they divorced in 2006. Before the age of 40, Batista had already become a grandfather of two grandsons: Jacob & Aiden by Keilani, his first daughter. During his marriage with Angie, Batista became an avid collector of vintage metal lunchboxes. He admits his favorite is the 1967 Green Hornet lunch box, as it has Bruce Lee on it. This collection started when he bought Angie an ET lunchbox and she did not want to break it, so he bought a second one. Batista revealed that he and Angie were separated in the August 2006 edition of WWE Magazine. He later revealed, in his autobiography, a relationship with WWE Diva Melina after the divorce from his wife in 2006, which led to a brief angle on SmackDown! during a feud with MNM. Shortly after, he dated 2006 Diva Search contestant Rebecca DiPietro before resuming a relationship with Melina.

On October 16, 2007 his autobiography "Batista Unleashed", a WWE Book, was released. In an interview about the book, Batista claims "I didn't want to tell my story unless it was honest," and that "you have to go through three sets of lawyers: Simon & Schuster lawyers, WWE lawyers, my lawyers. Everything now being the way it is, you can be sued for the simplest thing." One source of controversy was the mentioning of Chris Benoit, who was almost completely removed due to controversy. Batista responded saying "I loved the guy. I despise what he did, but that doesn't erase him from my life. I fought to keep him in there and glad they did." When asked about his ex-wife, Angie, he says "[we] have really become close again, which we really haven't been in years. I really learned a lot about her, and she learned a lot about me from reading the book. She actually saw things from a different perspective from reading the book. So that was definitely therapeutic."

He has numerous tattoos, including a large Chinese dragon on his back, red Kanji lettering on his upper left biceps which says "Angel" in tribute to his former wife Angie, a signature design on his upper right biceps, and a small Sun on his stomach which encircles his belly button. He recently added a tattoo on his arm of the flags of the Philippines and Greece merged into one.

Other media

In addition to wrestling, Bautista has been in several commercials and on several magazine covers. He was shown breakdancing in a commercial promoting WWE SummerSlam 2004 where he did his take on a "floor routine", a routine that arguably mocked the floor routines shown at the Olympic Games. He was also on the cover of the April 2005 Flex Magazine.

Moreover, Bautista has acted and has guest starred in several television shows as both himself and in-character as Batista. He guest starred in the eighth episode of Season 6 of the American drama, action/adventure television series Smallville; he plays an extraterrestrial alien named Aldar that escaped from the Phantom Zone, who sucks the bones out of people for nourishment. Along with John Cena and Ashley Massaro, Bautista appeared representing WWE on an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in January 2007, giving the kids of the family whose house was renovated WWE merchandise and eight tickets to WrestleMania 23.

On November 5, 2007, he appeared on an episode of Family Feud with several other WWE superstars (Credit: Wikipedia).

Profiles

WWE