David Michael "Dave" Bautista Jr.(born January 18, 1969)is an American actor and former professional mixed martial artist and professional wrestler, signed to WWE under the ring name Batista. He is a six-time world champion, winning the World Heavyweight Championship four times and the WWE Championship twice. He is the longest-reigningconsecutive days World Heavyweight Champion in WWE history, and has won the World Tag Team Championship three times (twice with Ric Flair and once with John Cena) and the WWE Tag Team Championship once (with Rey Mysterio). He was the winner of the 2005 Royal Rumble match and went on to headline WrestleMania 21, one of the top five highest-grossing pay-per-view events in pro wrestling history. Batista returned to WWE and won the 2014 Royal Rumble match, after which he headlined WrestleMania XXX.
In August 2012, Batista signed a contract with Classic Entertainment & Sports to fight in mixed martial arts.He won his MMA debut on October 6, 2012, and defeating Vince Lucero via TKO in the first round. He was representing the Philippines. As an actor, Batista has starred in The Man with the Iron Fists (2012), Riddick (2013), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), the 24th James Bond film, Spectre (2015), and will appear in the Kickboxer reboot in 2016. He has also appeared in several direct-to-video films since 2009.
Bautista was born in Washington, D.C. His father, David Michael Bautista, is of Filipino descent and his mother was ofGreek descent. His parents separated and eventually divorced. His paternal grandfather served in the Philippine military, worked as a taxicab driver, barber, and held other jobs to feed the family. Batista has said that he is not ashamed to admit he lived in poverty. He has admitted to having a hard life; before he had reached the age of nine, three murders had occurred on 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: "I am proud of my parents. They are good, honest, hard-working folks. They taught me the values of working hard". He became a regular bouncer for clubs until he was arrested after a fight that left two patrons injured, one of whom was rendered unconscious. After a trial, he was sentenced to one year of probation. He also worked as a lifeguard before pursuing a career inbodybuilding.He credits bodybuilding with potentially saving his life.
Professional wrestling career
Training
Batista tried out at the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) Power Plant, but was told he would never make it in the wrestling business by Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker.He then went to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), who sent him to train with Afa Anoa'i's school in the Wild Samoan Training Centre. Most recently, he trained with Cesar Gracie and is a purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.[21]
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment/WWE
Ohio Valley Wrestling (2000–2002)
He made his Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) debut in 2000 under the ring name Leviathan, where he immediately joined forces with Synn. As a member of the Disciples of Synn stable, he went undefeated until being beaten at Christmas Chaos by Kane with help from Stone Cold Steve Austin. He later won the OVW Heavyweight Championship from "The Machine" Doug Basham before losing the belt to The Prototype. A few months later, Bautista left OVW after he was promoted to World Wrestling Entertainment.
Deacon Batista and Evolution (2002–2005)
Main article: Evolution
While still in OVW, Bautista began appearing on non-televised WWE events. He began his televised WWE career on May 9, 2002 episode of SmackDown! as Deacon Batista, a villainous enforcer for Reverend D'Von. He made his WWE in-ring debut in a tag team match teaming with D'Von against Faarooq and Randy Orton,pinning Orton. Over several weeks, Orton tried to beat D'Von and Batista with different partners, but ultimately lost each time. Batista suffered his first loss in a match against Rikishi after D'Von accidentally punched him, allowing Rikishi to take advantage and pin Batista. Batista and D'Von argued over the forthcoming weeks, with Batista eventually turning on D'Von. After splitting with D'Von, he signed with Raw and was renamed Dave Batista (or simply Batista). He aligned himself with Ric Flair and feuded with Kane, whom he defeated at Armageddon.
In January 2003, Batista joined Triple H, Ric Flair and Randy Orton to form the villainous stable Evolution.Batista, however, was sidelined for much of 2003 after he tore his right triceps muscle at a Raw live event in a tag team match against the Dudley Boyz. While training after the injury, Batista re-tore his triceps, extending his stay on the sidelines. Batista made his return on October 20 episode of Raw, interfering in a match between Bill Goldberg and Shawn Michaels and "shattering" Goldberg's ankle with a chair. After the interference, Evolution came out, and Triple H rewarded Batista with $100,000. On November 10 episode of Raw, Goldberg defeated Batista by disqualification when Triple H interfered.
At Armageddon, Batista took part in two matches; losing to Shawn Michaels in a singles match, and winning a tag team turmoil match along with Ric Flair to become one-half of the World Tag Team Champions. By the end of the event, all four members of Evolution held every male championship on Raw, with Triple H winning theWorld Heavyweight Championship and Randy Orton winning the Intercontinental Championship. They held the title until February 16, 2004 episode of Raw, when they were defeated by Booker T and Rob Van Dam.They later regained the title for a short period.
At Survivor Series, Triple H, Batista, Gene Snitsky and Edge were defeated by Maven, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, and Randy Orton in an eight-man elimination tag team match for control of Raw over the following month; the members of the winning team would each be the Raw general manager for a week. Throughout the next two months, the relationship between Batista and Triple H began to deteriorate. After a loss to Chris Jericho, Triple H verbally insulted Batista. Batista teased leaving Evolution that night, but declared that he was still part of Evolution and that they tricked everyone.Despite this ploy, Batista began behaving more like a fan favoriteover the next few weeks in comparison to Evolution's villainous tactics. One particular moment saw Batista express disgust as Triple H and Ric Flair boasted about how they had intimidated and/or beat up Jim Ross, Danny Hodge, and Stacy Keibler. Regardless, he continued to show his loyalty to Triple H and Evolution by running down to the ring and assisting them in matches.
As 2005 began, Triple H realized the possibility of Batista becoming a threat to his World Heavyweight Championship. Triple H suggested that he not enter the Royal Rumble, claiming that it would be selfish of him to do so, and to simply focus on Triple H retaining the title. Batista entered anyway and went on to win the Rumble earning the right to participate in the main event of WrestleMania 21 against the World Champion of his choice. In an attempt to persuade Batista to challenge WWE Champion John "Bradshaw" Layfield and challenger John Cena in a triple-threat match rather than him, Triple H concocted a scheme to have Batista run over in alimousine resembling the one used by Layfield. Initially, Dave did not want help from Evolution and wanted to confront JBL by himself. Triple H insisted that Evolution stick together and accompanied Dave anyway, saving him from the oncoming vehicle. Batista became aware of the plot while sneakily eavesdropping on fellow Evolution members and signed a contract guaranteeing him a match with the World Heavyweight Champion Triple H at WrestleMania 21, thus leaving Evolution and officially turning into a fan favorite. Batista initially pretended that he would sign with SmackDown!, giving Triple H and Flair the "thumbs up", but turned it into a "thumbs down" before attacking the pair. He emphasized his departure by powerbombing Triple H through the table used for the contract signing.
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