Batista’s Rise To Power Is Well Deserved
By Tim Baines
Dave Batista is a man’s man. With muscles on his muscles. Tattoos on his tattoos.
He’s a champion … WWE’s world heavyweight strap holder, a title he’ll defend against 10-time champ and the man he beat at Wrestlemania, Triple H, at tonight’s Backlash pay-per-view.
His battles pale in comparison to the ones fought by his wife, Angie, a real-life warrior.
Angie fought off two bouts of ovarian cancer and another one to her lower intestines.
"It makes you put a lot of things in perspective," says Batista. "There’s a feeling of helplessness. She’s faced death. She’s proven she’s stronger than I’ll ever be.
"She didn’t want me to see her that way … so she’d wait until Mondays, when I was out of town, to have her treatments."
One of his tattoos, on his left arm, means "Angel," a reference to his wife.
"Her mother drew the design on a piece of paper and I had it done as a tattoo," says Batista, who’s come a long way in a short time. Now, 36, he began wrestling in 1999, after a conversation with Mr. Perfect and Animal of The Road Warriors. He quit his job as a bouncer and left behind his dream of being a bodybuilder to train under Wild Samoan Afa.
Says Batista: "My wife and I moved out of Washington to Allentown, Pa. I dropped everything. I was so unnatural at it, it became a challenge."
In his first match, he squashed Gillberg (Duane Gill) with a powerbomb. After a WCW tryout, he landed in Ohio Valley Wrestling, WWE’s training territory. He wrestled as Leviathan and soon got his break in WWE, initially as Deacon Batista, a bodyguard for D-Von Dudley. A long stint in Evolution with Ric Flair, Triple H and, for a while, Randy Orton, ended. Now he’s a champ, although Batista says his three daughters aren’t that impressed.
"One of my 14-year-old daughter’s friends had my picture up and my daughter was really creeped out by that," says Batista. "They’re not impressed. To them I’m just dad."
Yeah, dad at home. But wrecking machine in the ring.
Looking back at Wrestlemania, Batista says: "I’m not the most emotional person, but (after I won the title), I broke down. I cried. I lost it, which is very strange for me. It was the end of a long journey, a storybook tale, beating a 10-time world champion."
Maybe his status — his role in WWE history hasn’t really set in yet.
"We were taking a picture … I was in it with Shawn (Michaels), Ric (Flair) and Triple H. I was thinking out loud: ‘How in the hell did I weasel my way into this picture, it doesn’t seem right?’ "
Sure it does, champ.
05.01.05 source: The Winnipeg Sun
