David Michael Bautista

David Michael Bautista (WWE wrestler)

David Michael Bautista, Jr.(born January 18, 1969), better known by his ring name, Batista, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment on its Raw brand, but is currently inactive due to an injury.
In professional wrestling, Batista is a five-time world heavyweight champion, having won the World Heavyweight Championship four times and the WWE Championship one time. In addition to these championships, Batista has also 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). Batista was also the winner of the 2005 Royal Rumble match. After trying out at the WCW Power Plant, Batista signed a contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 2000 and was sent to its developmental federation, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), where he won the OVW Heavyweight Championship.

Early life
Bautista was born the son of David Michael Bautista, who is Filipino and Donna Raye Bautista, who is Greek.His parents separated (and eventually divorced) after his mother came out as a lesbian.His paternal 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. Bautista says he is not ashamed to admit he lived in poverty.
He has publicly admitted to having a hard life where, as before he was age nine, three murders occurred on his front lawn.As young as age 13, he was stealing automobiles.By age 17, he 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." Bautista 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, he was sentenced to one year of probation. He was also a lifeguard before he purused a career in bodybuilding. He credits bodybuilding as possibly saving his life.

Wrestling career
Bautista tried out at the 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, who sent him to train with Afa Anoa'i's school in the Wild Samoan Training Centre.


Debut
He made his Ohio Valley Wrestling 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.

He began his WWE career on the May 9, 2002 episode of SmackDown! as Deacon Bautista, 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 Bautista with different partners, but ultimately lost each time.Bautista suffered his first loss in a match against Rikishi after D-Von accidentally punched him, allowing Rikishi to take advantage and pin Bautista. Bautista and D-Von argued over the forthcoming weeks, with Bautista eventually turning on D-Von. After splitting with D-Von, he signed with Raw and was renamed to Dave Batista (or simply Batista). He aligned himself with Ric Flair and feuded with Kane, whom he defeated at Armageddon.

Batista won the World Heavyweight Championship on April 3 at WrestleMania 21. Batista won a rematch with Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship at Backlash. After Batista retained his title against Edge, he was betrayed by Ric Flair, who helped Triple H viciously attack the champion as Triple H challenged Batista to a Hell in a Cell match at Vengeance. Batista won the match at Vengeance, retaining his title yet again. With this win, Batista became the first wrestler to pin Triple H in a Hell in a Cell match.

On June 30, Batista was revealed as the last pick in the 2005 WWE Draft Lottery; he made a surprise appearance while JBL was celebrating his victory in a six-man elimination match to win the new SmackDown! Championship. JBL defeated Batista at The Great American Bash by disqualification after the referee saw Batista use a steel chair. They had a rematch at SummerSlam in a No Holds Barred match in which Batista pinned JBL. The feud culminated in a Bull Rope match with Batista retaining his championshp. Soon after retaining the title in a feud with Eddie Guerrero, WWE.com reported that Batista suffered a muscle tear in his back at the taping for the November 11 edition of SmackDown! due to a double chokeslam from Big Show and Kane. Plans had been made for Batista to defend the title in a Triple Threat match with Eddie Guerrero and Randy Orton on the November 18 episode, but the match did not take place due to the unexpected death of Guerrero on November 13, the date of the taping. Batista paid homage to Guerrero during the SmackDown! and Raw tribute shows dedicated to Guerrero's memory.

Batista led Team SmackDown! against Team Raw in an inter-brand feud before Survivor Series. The feud saw Big Show and Kane chokeslamming Batista several more times in the weeks leading up to Survivor Series in an on-camera explanation for Batista's injury. Batista ultimately helped his team win the match. After Batista saved Rey Mysterio from Big Show and Kane, it was announced that Mysterio would team with Batista to face the Big Show and Kane at Armageddon.

On the December 16 edition of SmackDown!, Batista and Mysterio defeated WWE Tag Team Champions MNM to become champions in a match they dedicated to Eddie Guerrero, and the clash with Big Show and Kane at Armageddon turned into a Champions vs. Champions encounter. Batista and Mysterio lost to Kane and Big Show at Armageddon. Two weeks later on SmackDown!, MNM defeated Batista and Mysterio after help from the returning Mark Henry to regain the WWE Tag Team Championships. During the interference, Henry attacked Batista, and performed his World's Strongest Slam. The teams met again in a steel cage match that Henry also became involved in, and Batista and Rey were defeated again. On January 9, WWE.com announced that Batista tore his right triceps during a match with Mark Henry at a live event on January 6. Due to his injury, Batista was forced to vacate the World Heavyweight Championship at the SmackDown! tapings on January 13, two days after surpassing Triple H's previous mark of 280 days for longest reigning champion. In his book, Batista Unleashed, Batista said that he believed that Henry was "careless" during their match as he never gave Batista any warning that the move was coming. Batista went on to have successful surgery on his arm on January 12.


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 in 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 and Muscle & Fitness for September 2008.
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 played 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.

During the week of November 5, 2007, he appeared on Family Feud with several other WWE superstars. On September 7, 2008, he appeared on an episode of Iron Chef America as one of the judges, with snails as the theme ingredient Batista, along with Candice Michelle, Shelton Benjamin, and Josh Matthews, represented the WWE at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in an effort to persuade fans to register to vote in the 2008 Presidential election. Bautista has also appeared on MTV Cribs showing his house and his cars.

In May 2, 2009, he was shown on camera where he accompanied Philippine boxer Manny Pacquiao in his fight against British boxer Ricky Hatton in which Pacquiao won in the second round. He told the UK Sun that he loves Hatton, but Manny is in a league of his own, adding that he is thrilled to be there to support Manny before his bout. In June 2009, Batista made a cameo appearance in an episode of the Australian soap opera Neighbours. Batista is currently working alongside Rob Van Dam and Ja Rule in an upcoming movie titled Wrong Side of Town. Batista will also star in the movie Wapakman alongside Manny Pacquiao and Nicole Scherzinger. He is confirmed to be the villain in the movie.

Personal Life
Bautista 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. Bautista married his second wife Angie on October 13, 1998, yet they divorced in 2006. Before the age of 40, Bautista had already become a grandfather of two grandsons: Jacob and Aiden by Keilani, his first daughter. During his marriage with Angie, Bautista 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. Bautista 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 Perez after the divorce from his wife in 2006, which led to a brief angle on SmackDown! during a feud with MNM.

In October 2007, his autobiography Batista Unleashed, was released.In an interview about the book, Bautista 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 the Chris Benoit double murder and suicide. Bautista 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 " 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. He has also made a cameo appearance in Relative Strangers.