An actor, a professional wrestler and a MMA fighter
David Michael “Dave” Bautista Jr. (also known as Batista) has succeeded in becoming a world famous actor, a six-time world champion in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and a professional fighter in the Mixed Martial Arts Contest (MMA). In SPECTRE, the 24th Bond movie, 007 (Daniel Craig) and the hulking henchman Mr Hinx, played by David Bautista, race through the narrow, dimly lit backstreets of Rome.
Born on January 18th 1969, in Washington D.C. Bautista is the child of a Filipino descent father and of a Greek descent mother. In his early life, he was a regular bouncer for clubs until he was arrested after a fight. After a trial, he was sentenced to one year of probation. At that time, he decided to become a bodybuilder and he credits that move for potentially saving his life.
After a rejection from the WCW Power Plant wrestling business by Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker, he went to the World Wrestling Federation where he trained with Afa Anoa’i’s school in the Wild Samoan Training Center.
In 2000 under the ring name Leviathan, he made his first debut in Ohio Valley Wrestling. He joined forces with Synn and as a member of the Disciples, he had a series of consequent wins. Bautista won the OVW Heavyweight Championship from the “Machine” Doug Basham.
In May 2002 he began his televised WWE career 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.
From there on, with different teams, he won totally four times the World Heavyweight Championship and two times the WWE Championship.
Dave Batista had his first biographical DVD released through WWE Productions entitled Batista: I Walk Alone. It was released on 20 October 2009.
In addition to wrestling, Batista has been in several commercials and on several magazine covers. He was shown breakdancing in a commercial promoting WWE SummerSlam in 2004 and he was also on the cover of the April 2005 Flex and Muscle & Fitness for September 2008.
In 2010 he decided to quit the WWE Universe and started making appearances in films. He appeared in the “Scorpion King 3” and in “The Man with the Iron Fists” of that year. In 2013 he played the role of villain in the movie “Riddick” and in 2014 had a major role playing Drax the Destroyer in the movie “Guardians of the Galaxy”.
He will make appearances in the upcoming movies “Highlander”, “Warrior’s Gate” and “Kickboxer”.
On 21 June 2010, Batista announced to TMZ.com that he would be embarking on a MMA career. He became a purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu under the tutelage of Cesar Gracie and in 2012 he won his first professional MMA match against the 40-fight veteran Vince Lucero by TKO (technical knockout).
Dave Bautista has two daughters by his first wife Glenda, Keilani and Athena.
