Sports Celebrity: Batista an American Wrestler

David Michael Bautista, Jr. (born January 18, 1969), is a former American professional wrestler, bodybuilder and actor best known for his time in WWE. In WWE, he became a six-time world champion, winning the World Heavyweight Championship four times, and the WWE Championship two times. He is the longest-reigning World Heavyweight Champion in WWE history. In addition to these championships, Batista 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). Batista was also the winner of the 2005 Royal Rumble match.

After trying out at World Championship Wrestling's Power Plant, Batista signed a contract with the WWF in 2000 and was sent to its developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), where he won the OVW Heavyweight Championship.

Batista was born the son of David Michael Bautista, who is Filipino and Donna Raye Bautista, who is Greek. His parents separated (and eventually divorced). His paternal grandparents were also from the Philippines as his grandfather served in the military, worked as a taxicab driver, barber, and other jobs to feed the family. Batista 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." 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, he was sentenced to one year of probation. He was also a lifeguard before he pursued a career in bodybuilding. 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, yet they divorced in 2006. Before the age of 40, Batista had already become a grandfather of two grandsons: Jacob and Aiden by Keilani, his first daughter. During his marriage with Angie, Batista became an avid collector of vintage metal lunch boxes. 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 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, 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 the Chris Benoit double murder and suicide.

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 also has a tattoo on his arm of the flags of the Philippines and Greece merged into one. While taking time off due to injury in 2009, Batista had both upper arms covered in large, tribal style tattoos, including the word "DC soldier" on his right biceps.

On June 16, 2010, Batista attended Strikeforce: Los Angeles, having previously registered an interest in competing in Mixed martial arts. On June 21, 2010, Batista announced to TMZ.com that he would be embarking on a MMA career. Batista has announced that he and Strikeforce have agreed on a price and are negotiating a contract. Though in April 2011, Batista announced to TMZ.com that negotiating a contract with Strikeforce fell through when Strikeforce was bought by Zuffa, LLC.