The Tragic Real-Life Story Of Dave Bautista

Wrestling fans were the first to witness Dave Bautista's star power when he burst onto the scene as his animalistic WWE persona, Batista. After becoming a 6-time World Heavyweight Champion, Bautista left the ring for Hollywood, where his imposing stature and quiet charisma earned him roles in "Blade Runner 2049," "Guardians of the Galaxy," "Army of the Dead," and "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery." But Bautista's rise to fame was no overnight success story. The wrestler-turned-actor began his career after struggling for years just to survive.

After enduring a childhood plagued by poverty and crime, Bautista spent his early adult life trying to stay afloat. During a 2020 appearance on "The Kelly Clarkson Show," Bautista was asked what he'd wanted to be when he was a little kid. "I wanted to be alive and not in jail," he answered. He went on to say, "My life started at thirty."

At thirty, Bautista began wrestling, an age when many wrestlers are planning for retirement. But being a late bloomer in the industry did not curtail his ability to succeed. In fact, Bautista's success as a wrestler, and now as an actor, is particularly inspirational considering the obstacles he's overcome along the way.

Dave Bautista, nicknamed "The Animal" during his time in the WWE, stands at an imposing 6-foot-five, and is covered in tattoos. But there was a time when he was just a little kid trying to navigate the world under less-than-ideal circumstances. One such source of strife was Bautista's relationship with his father.

Bautista writes in his memoir, "Batista Unleashed," "basically since I was able to walk, I never felt that my father supported us." Bautista goes on to say that his father was never really around and that his mother took on both parental roles in raising him and his sister. Over the years, the relationship didn't improve much. Bautista explains, "I don't think he ever wanted to be a father. He told me recently that he never knew how to be a father. That was f***in' obvious. But he could have taken a better shot at it."

While Bautista didn't have a strong father figure, he bonded with his older cousin, Anthony, whose family he lived with for a time. "Anthony and I were close while we were growing up, very close ... [he was] the closest thing I had to a brother as a kid." The two boys spent a lot of time together, even fighting in a brotherly way. "I always looked up to him and wanted to be like him," Bautista writes. Sadly, Anthony died in a car accident in the early 2000s.

Given the circumstances of Dave Bautista's early life, it is not hard to imagine that school would have posed some difficulties as well. Although he made it to his senior year of high school, he ended up dropping out. He told Men's Health, "My circumstances were different and school wasn't a priority. So I went a different route, because I wanted to eat."

Even though the decision not to graduate seems to have been made out of necessity, Bautista still has his regrets. In an interview with SportBible, Bautista admits, "If I could go back and do it again ... I would go back and focus on education." He goes on to say that he preaches the importance of education to his own children as well. "Wherever you go you take your education with you...I think the fear of me not having that to fall back on was the desperation that I had and luckily I made it. There's a lot of people who don't."

Dave Bautista was wise enough to use his impressive size and stature to his advantage. He worked as a nightclub bouncer from age 17 through his twenties, but he realized it was ultimately a dead-end job. It wasn't until age 30 that Bautista sought out a career in professional wrestling, a decision that was born out of desperation. "I was broke and had no future and had two kids," he said on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." "What led me into looking for a career ... one year I had to borrow money from a club owner because I didn't have money to buy my kids Christmas presents."

Of course, when Bautista made it to the WWE, he made it big. He garnered thousands of fans and went on to win six World Championship heavyweight titles. However, his time in the WWE was not all smooth sailing. When he first began wrestling for the organization, he was assigned to play a character he wasn't quite comfortable with. Before he was Batista a.k.a "The Animal," he was Deacon Batista, the bodyguard of Reverend D-Von. Bautista told Men's Health, "They wanted to force me to learn how to work. They were doing it by taking away what I'd always relied on, my body."

Bautista quit the organization twice, once in 2010 and again in 2014. The first time it was due to the WWE's lack of support regarding Bautista auditioning for movie roles, and the second time was chalked up to creative differences.

Dave Bautista has been married and divorced three times. It seems there were several factors that contributed to his marital issues. For one, his grueling schedule with the WWE. In an interview with SportBible, he revealed, "Throughout my wrestling career, I was never home." The distance understandably put a strain on his relationships, and Bautista went on to say, "I lost a marriage with someone who was a very, very close friend of mine. We still remain friends, but just never being home just tore our marriage apart."

Another factor that led to divorce was temptation. In his memoir, "Batista Unleashed," Bautista admits, "A big part of what happened has to do with me seeing other women—for a while women became my drug of choice while on the road." Some sources claim that Bautista had a legitimate sex addiction at one point during his wrestling career. Bautista had a weakness for women, and due to his rising star status, he suddenly found himself with many opportunities to indulge in the temptations of the opposite sex. Clearly the situation didn't bode well for a married man.

It's strange to imagine that such a seasoned performer, both in the wrestling world and in the film industry, might be uncomfortable in front of a crowd. But Dave Bautista struggles with social anxiety, at times to a debilitating degree. In an interview with Wired, Bautista discussed his anxiety throughout the audition process for "Guardians of the Galaxy" and how his nerves continued to plague him even as shooting began. He said, "I was still nervous, especially on my first day. I came into shooting about two weeks after everybody else started, so I turn up and everyone was in work mode while I was trying to get caught up."

Bautista is often seen wearing his signature tinted sunglasses, but the accessory is more than just a fashion choice. He told Men's Health, "[The sunglasses are] a pacifier, a therapeutic thing." He began wearing them during public appearances as a pro wrestler and they simply made him feel more comfortable in anxiety-inducing situations.

Clearly, Bautista does not let his anxiety hold him back. He continues to win audiences over with his stellar performances and he currently enjoys his life with his beloved dogs in his sprawling home. It sounds like a pretty nice life, hard-earned and well-deserved.