WXW Photo Gallery UPDATED

Screencaps and photos from Batista’s earliest professional work as Kahn with WXW (SportsFest 99) and the Wild Samoan Training Center. Plus other pictures from Allentown, PA. {05/27 Update:Photo Gallery server fixed!}

Batista was 30 years old and knew his future was in professional wrestling. He had already gone through a bad tryout with WCW at the Power Plant Training Center and was looking for other options. Number one on his list was to get the attention of the WWF. To get to the big stage he would need training. With the help of his friends Batista moved his family to Allentown, PA  in March 1999 to start school under Afa Anoa’i at the Wild Samoan Training Center.

During his time there Batista learned the basics but only one month into training he suffered the first of many injuries that would later plague his career.  A torn triceps would keep Batista on the sidelines for the next six months. When he returned Afa worked one-on-one with the future superstar and eventual Batista got in the ring for a few thirty second squash matches.

On July 11, 1999, Gillberg, a wrestler who had had some success as a Bill Goldberg parody act,  issued an open challenge to the WXW locker room at SportsFest99.  Batista, competing at that time without a ring name, accepted. The crowd watched on as the unnamed giant destroyed Gillberg in seconds.

To see photos of Batista’s debut as Kahn in WXW, click here!

Name: Batista

Height: 6 foot 5
Weight: 290 pounds
From: Washington, D.C.
Signature Move: Batista Bomb
Career Highlights: World Heavyweight Champion; WWE Tag Team Champion; World Tag Team Champion; 2005 Royal Rumble winner
Entrance Video: WATCH
WWE.com Batista SubSite: http://www.wwe.com/superstars/smackdown/batista

Evolution was a heel stable that was based on World Wrestling Entertainment's RAW brand. Evolution originally consisted of Triple H, Ric Flair, Batista, and Randy Orton. Many consider Evolution to be a reincarnation of the Four Horsemen stable that was made famous in the NWA and WCW.

Stable history

The stable was formed when Triple H began uniting the past (Flair), present (himself), and future (Orton and Batista) of professional wrestling, hence the name "Evolution." The stable at one time controlled all the championships of RAW after the WWE pay-per-view Armageddon 2003 where Triple H won the World Heavyweight Championship, Batista and Flair won the World Tag-Team Championship and Randy Orton won the WWE Intercontinental Championship.

Eugene was made an "honorary member" of Evolution so that Triple H could use him to control RAW at one point. He was kicked out of the group after he ceased to be useful and (accidentally) cost Triple H a title match against Chris Benoit.

On an August 16, 2004 episode of RAW, Orton was kicked out of Evolution after winning the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam the previous night. Triple H, believing Orton's rise was too soon for his liking, still believed the championship was his and turned on Orton. Currently, Orton is rising up the ranks of the WWE as a dominant force. The Legend Killer seems to be doing well as an independant superstar.

On an February 21, 2005 episode of RAW, the Royal Rumble winner Batista turned his back on Evolution by throwing Flair out of the ring and delivering a Batista Bomb to the World Heavyweight Champion Triple H through a table. This was during the contract signing ceremony for WrestleMania 21. He did this as Triple H was trying to manipulate him into signing a contact which would have seen Batista leave RAW and head across to SmackDown! to face former WWE Champion and No.1 contender of his title JBL.

Batista, now split from Evolution, faced Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship, and won, at WrestleMania 21. A couple of weeks later, Triple H annouced that he had a rematch clause in his contract in which he gets a World Heavyweight Championship rematch, and thus Triple H vs. Batista was formed for Backlash. Triple H made a powerful statement that throughout his career, nobody had survived the Pedigree- an undebatable subject. Batista himself had a taste of the Pedigree himself beforehand and couldn't get up, thus placing Triple H in a state of overconfidence. Despite his efforts, Triple H once again fell to Batista at Backlash and was defeated again by Batista in a Hell in a Cell match on June 26, 2005, at the Vengeance PPV event.

After the departure of Orton and Batista from the group, the Evolution stable was ostensibly disbanded, though Triple H and Flair continued as a team for much of 2005.

When Triple H was gone due to injuries, Flair turned face once more by engaging in a feud with Carlito. When Triple H came back he remained as a heel, because he recently started a feud with Flair by beating him to a bloody pulp with a sledgehammer. Triple H had now betrayed all of his former teammates. Flair, however, got his revenge at Taboo Tuesday. Pleading with the fans to put him inside a Steel Cage for a title match against The Game, his prayers were answered, and he defeated his former best friend in a very exciting and bloody battle. The two former Evolution "young guns", Batista and Randy Orton, were shortly reunited when they were chosen to be part of Team Smackdown which eventually deafeated Team Raw. Batista went on to become WWE Tag Team Champions with the small but speedy Rey Mysterio. Orton went on to compete in an amazing rivalry with the Undertaker, concluding with a brutal Hell in a Cell match-up.

Trivia

• Evolution's theme song, "Line in the Sand" was composed by WWE's music composer, Jim Johnston, and performed by music group Motörhead. The group's first song was an instrumental composed and performed by Johnston.
• Evolution is the only four-man stable in which every member was the World Heavyweight Champion at some point of their careers. Of all those members, Ric Flair has held it the most, Triple H has held onto the championship the longest, Batista had to surrender the title due to injury and Randy Orton is the youngest champion in WWE history.
• Triple H admitted in a interview on IGN.com that the whole Evolution concept was to take two rising stars and turn them into the biggest stars that they could possibly be. Those two superstars turned out to be Randy Orton and Dave Batista.
• While Batista was injured due to a torn bicep, the official Evolution videoclip was made, which features Triple H, Ric Flair and Randy Orton on a helicopter and on their way to a private party in New York. Because Batista wasn't featured in the videoclip, some speculated that he was kicked out of Evolution and that there could be a possibly that he would return as a face. Another rumor was made that Batista would be replaced by Mark Jindrak. That was proven to be wrong when he returned and attacked Goldberg.
• Following Orton's departure from the group in late 2004, it was rumored that Maven was being lined up to take his place as the fourth member of Evolution. A couple of months later the seeds were being sown for Batista to leave which would bring the an end to the group. Maven was later released.

REAL NAME: Dave Bautista
BORN: January 18, 1969 in Washington, D.C.
6′ 6", 325 pounds
ALIASES/NICKNAMES: Kahn, Leviathan, Demon of the Deep, Deacon Batista

In a relatively short period of time, Batista has gone from simply being the fourth member of Evolution to being one of the biggest stars in the WWE and, with his victory at Wrestlemania, the WWE Champion.

Dave Bautista grew up in Washington, D.C. and worked as a bouncer in local bars and clubs. A meeting with Road Warrior Animal and Curt Hennig at a bodybuilding show in Minneapolis turned Batista towards a career in wrestling.

In early 1999, he began training at the Wild Samoans Training Camp in Allentown, Pennsylvania, led by Samoan Afa. A few months later, on October 30, 1999, Bautista debuted in Afa’s WXW as Kahn, defeating Southtown Joe. He quickly rose to the top of the organization. At some point in his early career, Bautista was given a try out by World Championship Wrestling but WCW chose not to sign him.

Instead, Bautista headed to Ohio Valley Wrestling in July 2000 where he was dubbed the Demon of the Deep Leviathan (or just Leviathan for short) and became a member of the Disciples of Synn, which would also include the future Mordecai and Tyson Tomko.

After defeating WWE stars such as Kane, Val Venis and the Big Show, Leviathan won the OVW Heavyweight Championship from Doug Basham on November 28, 2001 in Jefferson, Indiana. After several months of defending the title, Bautista lost the championship to the Prototype (John Cena). Bautista demanded a rematch, but was soon on his way to the WWE.

He initially wrestled in the WWE during a dark match in February 2002. Wrestling as Leviathan, Batista (the WWE losing the "U" in his name) teamed with Brock Lesnar and the pair defeated Randy Orton and Shelton Benjamin. His first on-screen appearance in the WWE came in May 2002 as Deacon Batista, the bodyguard to D-Von Dudley who was working with the Reverend D-Von gimmick. Batista remained with D-Von for much of the spring and summer of 2002, before turning against the Reverend and striking out on his own.

The break from Dudley also meant his departure from Smackdown. After several weeks of vignettes heralding a "Genetic Revolution", Dave Batista appeared on Raw, defeating Justin Credible. Batista soon earned the attention of legendary Ric Flair, who helped Batista in his battles with Kane, including a victory at Armageddon 2002.

Evolution was formed in early 2003 when Batista joined Flair, Randy Orton and Triple H in a new super group that many people compared to the Four Horsemen. Evolution quickly made a name for themselves when they beat down Scott Steiner and later ripped off Kane’s mask.

However, Batista was soon sidelined with a torn bicep in March 2003 during a house show match against the Dudley Boyz. Two months later, he re-tore his tricep muscle when he fell while jogging. It would be October before Batista returned to action, attacking Bill Goldberg to earn Triple H’s bounty on the then-World Champion.

In addition to aiding Triple H in his feud with Goldberg, Batista also had earned the ire of Shawn Michaels. Batista lost to Michaels at Armageddon 2003 but at the end of the night, he and Flair had won the WWE Tagteam Championship, as a last-minute entry into the Tagteam Turmoil match.

After losing the tagteam titles to Rob Van Dam and Booker T, Batista and Flair turned their attention to helping Randy Orton in his feud against Mick Foley. The three members of Evolution joined forces to take on Foley and The Rock in a victorious effort at Wrestlemania XX.

Batista and Flair regained the Tagteam titles the night after Wrestlemania but the title reign lasted only a couple of weeks before a loss to Chris Benoit and Edge cost Evolution the belts. After the loss, Batista began feuding with Chris Jericho, defeating Y2J at Vengeance. Jericho and Batista would also clash again, in a Triple Threat match involving Edge at SummerSlam, with the Intercontinental Championship in the balance. Despite Batista’s best efforts, it was Edge who walked out with the title.

With Randy Orton ejected from Evolution the next night, Batista was now seen as the future of the group. Meanwhile, he and Flair would battle Chris Benoit and William Regal in tagteam action. As a solid member of Evolution, Batista defeated Randy Orton on a September 2004 edition of Raw to cost Orton his chance at becoming WWE World Champion while Triple H held the title.

As the Survivor Series approached, Batista began to look towards a possible shot at the WWE title if his team were to win the main event. However, the team of Chris Jericho, Randy Orton, Maven and Chris Benoit won, which was the beginning of tension between Batista and Triple H.

That tension escalated on a weekly basis, with Batista accidentally eliminating Ric Flair during a battle royale and Triple H’s mistimed chair shot knocking out Batista during a tagteam match against Benoit and Jericho. When the combatants were announced for the Elimination Chamber with the vacant World title on the line, both Triple H and Batista were included and things began to escalate, especially when Batista defeated Rhyno during a "Beat the Clock Match" and earned the right to enter the match last, rather than Triple H.

At New Year’s Revolution, Batista lost when he was eliminated by Randy Orton, although it appeared that Triple H could have helped save Batista from elimination, but chose not to. Triple H also did little to endear himself to his fellow Evolution member when he interfered in a Number One contender’s match between Batista and Orton, causing Batista to be defeated.

No matter, Batista defeated WWE Tagteam Champions La Resistance to earn a spot in the Royal Rumble. On January 23, 2005 at the Rumble, Batista eliminated John Cena and won the right to compete in the main event at Wrestlemania 21. After several weeks of uncertainty, Batista decided to stay on Raw and face Triple H, leaving Evolution behind.

Batista would walk into the main event at Wrestlemania the challenger, and walk out the World Champion. A month later, Batista defeated Triple H in a rematch at Backlash and then followed it up with a victory over the Game in a Hell in a Cell match at Vengeance. It appeared that Batista would rule the roost on Raw for some time to come.

Instead, he would be the very last draft pick to move from Raw to Smackdown, suprising everyone, most notably JBL, by appearing at the end of the June 30th, 2005 edition of Smackdown. JBL, upset at not being named the new champion after John Cena left for Raw, immediately targetted Batista.Batista was more than up for the challenge, defeated JBL at the Great American Bash, SummerSlam and in a bullrope match on the September 9th edition of Smackdown.

With JBL dealt with, Eddie Guerrero was named the new number one contender. However, Guerrero has feigned friendship with the World Champion even after a loss to Batista at No Mercy although few expect the unlikely partnership to last.

– compiled by John Milner

source: slam.canoe.ca

Another side of the World champion

By STEVEN JOHNSON — SLAM! Wrestling

WASHINGTON — You walk out the front door of the MCI Center, a glimmering, 20,000-seat artery of activity in the heart of the most powerful city in the world, turn right on F Street, and walk about 500 feet to the west.

There, inside what was once a high-ceilinged bank building, you come upon a pair of hip dance clubs, hot spots that are part of a trendy district where people meet and roar and drink into the wee hours of the morning.

It’s a two-block walk from point to point. For Dave Bautista, it’s the journey of a lifetime.

Five years ago, Bautista — the "u" has been dropped from his nom de guerre — was toiling in those nightclubs — Babylon, The Bank, and others — guarding doorways that were considerably less wide than he, working as hired muscle to put down trouble before it started.

On August 21, he will enter the MCI Center to a thunder of hometown applause as he defends his World Heavyweight Championship against former titleholder JBL at Summerslam.

At an imposing 6-foot-5 and 300 pounds, Batista is the embodiment of power and strength, a powerful successor to the lineage of WWE champions like Bruno Sammartino and Superstar Billy Graham.

But, as he reflects on his life as a bouncer, and a childhood in a struggling home just a few miles away in southeast Washington, his soft, off-camera voice quivers and cracks.

"It’s kind of emotional. It’s very emotional to come back here and have achieved so much. To know that five years ago, I was down the street …"

He composed himself and continued: "In a really short period of time, I’ve achieved a lot. It’s just coming back home, and people really appreciate and really respect what I’m doing. I came from the streets, I was a real poor kid. To me, it’s kind of like the American dream. I think people can see that and can relate to it and always back me up on it."

Most outsiders see only the official side of Washington, with presidents and senators, three-piece suits and solemn proclamations of international consequence. But there is another side of Washington. It’s a city in which 17 percent of residents live below the poverty line and parents worry about violence in their children’s schools. And Dave Batista understands that.

He was born 36 years ago in northeast Washington at Lawrence Cambridge Hospital, a facility that no longer exists. But he lived most of his youth in the rough environment of southeast Washington, attending school at Van Ness Elementary, and living in a tough area near the U.S. Marine barracks at 8th and I Streets.

"My roots are very deep in D.C.," he said. "I spent most of my life living in Southeast. I grew up on the streets." Sometimes, he and his friends, who were predominantly African-American in a city that now is 60 percent African-American, would try to round up enough gear to play football.

"We didn’t have any money for equipment or anything, so we’d scrounge up stuff here and there. It was a big deal for us to go out and play a football game. I remember I had a pair of shoulder pads, and it was a big deal. Another kid had a pair of kneepads. We all had different stuff. We were so poor, we couldn’t afford much."

When Batista was 12, his family moved to San Francisco, but he returned a few years later to live with his dad and attend Wakefield High School in suburban Virginia. It wasn’t a model childhood — occasionally, he got into minor scrapes and trouble with authorities.

For about 10 years, he worked as a bouncer at night and competitive bodybuilder by day. He got into wrestling after Road Warrior Animal and the late Curt Hennig saw him at a physique contest in Minneapolis and suggested he visit the WCW Power Plant in Atlanta.

That went nowhere, he recalled, and more than one fan has noted the connection between WCW’s demise and its inability to develop talent like Batista. When he checked with the WWE, officials directed him to Wild Samoan Afa’s camp in Pennsylvania. After starting a stint as Leviathan in Ohio Valley Wrestling in July 2000, he could finally stop checking drunken rowdies. He debuted with the WWE in 2002 as a bodyguard to D-Von Dudley.

Batista hooked up with Ric Flair, Triple H and Randy Orton as Evolution. For more than two years, the group controlled RAW, with Batista in the role of enforcer that he held at the Babylon bar, only with a lot more exposure. His rise culminated with World title victory over Triple H at WrestleMania XXI in April.

"It was a dream come true. I still have a hard time putting that into words. Just a whole wave of emotions hit me when that match was done. Before that, really that week, I really didn’t sleep much and it was just like I was walking around in a dream. Then afterwards, I was flooded with emotions and I still really can’t put into words the feeling of being on Cloud Nine."

JBL, a villainous cross between J.R. Ewing of Dallas fame and Ted "The Million Dollar Man" DiBiase, plans to "rip apart" Batista in their no-holds-barred match at Summerslam, But, as someone who paid years of dues as an undercard worker, he also appreciates his opponent.

"Dave is unbelievable. He’s a genetic freak; he really is," JBL said. "You can’t have a body like that without great genetics. He’s as strong as he can be … and very popular."

Batista quickly added that his wife, Angie, is even stronger, in her own way. For three years, she has battled ovarian cancer, carefully timing her treatments to fit in with his heavy travel schedule. Batista said last week that she is doing "very well." On his left arm is a tattoo with "angel" in kanji script, for his wife.

The WWE is banking on Batista’s popularity to jump start sagging ratings for its Smackdown show. The behemoth moved from RAW to headline Smackdown during the company’s latest personnel two-step, which will ultimately define his reign as titleholder. With Smackdown moving to a new night (Friday) on UPN, Batista will be asked to hoist more than a 100-pound pair of dumbbells.

"It’s a lot of weight on my shoulders with Smackdown. They’re expecting a lot out of me," he said.

"But I wanted to step up. I wanted to step up and be a leader … I’m kind of a day-by-day guy. But I’m hoping people will see me, and it’ll spark a little interest, and they’ll turn on Smackdown."

Despite WrestleMania’s position as the sport’s signature event, Summerslam at the MCI Center will hold a special place in Batista’s heart. Even though he has gone to other places — he lives in the suburbs of Northern Virginia — in some ways, he never left the city.

"I think I have a good lesson for D.C. humble roots, real D.C. roots. People always look at our city and they see all the politicians and everything. Really, they’re guests," he said, pausing for emphasis.

"They’re not Washingtonians. It’s not what D.C.’s about. They’re in the political headquarters of the world. But not’s what D.C. is all about. It’s about the people, good people, proud people."

So it’s understandable that Batista is deeply troubled by what he sees in his hometown. Just six weeks after he won the World title, Washington officials announced they would spend $30 million in the next two years for security at schools.

In part, that came in response to the fatal shootings of a 16-year-old and 17-year-old at two high schools in southeast Washington, a few blocks from where Dave Bautista played football with his friends.

"When I went to elementary school in D.C., me and my sister were the only two white kids in the school. We never had any problems. There wasn’t the violence back then. This is just a whole new plague that’s swept D.C.," he said.

"It’s heartbreaking. Some of the things I hear — kids are getting killed for stupid things, like their shoes, or because they stepped on somebody else’s shoe, or they said the wrong thing, or they looked at somebody the wrong way and they’re getting shot for it. It makes me sick."

Yet, Batista is not going to judge the motives of kids who get into serious trouble. Drawing on his own experiences, he knows that life on the streets causes things-bad things-to happen sometimes. Jumping to conclusions … well, issues can be more complicated than people understand, he said. So, when his whirlwind life slows a bit, whenever that might be, maybe he can help mend a small part of the troubled city.

"I don’t want to sound self-righteous and I don’t want to send a message because I don’t know where the kids’ heads are at. I don’t know what they’re going through," he said. "I’ll make a visit. I’ll give up my time, do whatever I can … I’d like to actually go in and see them and talk to them. Then maybe I could offer a message of inspiration.

"Sports and athletics is what got me here, what made me a success. That’s a positive. If I can give back to help kids in that way, that’s something I know. That’s something I can relate to. I’d love to do that."

For now, Batista lives just outside of Washington, convenient to Dulles International Airport, with his wife, three daughters and a complement of dogs.

But from time to time, he reminds himself of where he came from. He goes down F Street and checks out the old haunts. Now, although the clubs go by different names-Home, Platinum-they still have much of the same cast and all of the memories.

"Same clubs, still down there, still open, still running. I still go back when I can go, just to see old faces, keep up-to-date with everybody, let them know that I haven’t changed. I’m still the same person."

And that’s not the only part of his past that he fervently embraces.

"I drive through my old neighborhood all the time and I always look at my house when I was a kid in D.C. It’s pretty much as I remember it. It’s gone downhill a little bit. It’s been kept up somewhat, as much as that area can be kept up. I always try to remind myself where I come from." 

 source: http://www.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2005/08/14/1173167.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Batista

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1176985/

by Aaron Williams

If Vince McMahon wants a poster boy for "Ruthless Agression," he would do well in choosing David Batista. At 6′5" and 290 pounds of solid muscle, this former bodybuilder and powerlifter cuts a most imposing figure.He is now well on his way to establishing himself as one of the most charismatic and striking new Superstars to arrive in WWE in quite some time.

Unlike many Superstars, Batista never thought that he would make his living in sports-entertainment. As a young boy, he watched WWE programs in the early ’80s, but drifted away from it in the late ’80s and early ’90s. In highschool, the Washington DC native wrestled, played football and threw the shot put. He also discovered bodybuilding, a sport he would dedicate himself to.

Batista competed for three years as a body builder, most of which was spent filling out his large frame. In highschool, he wrestled at 185 pounds; by the time he was done with bodybuilding, he weighed an incredible 390 pounds.

To support himself, Batista worked as a bouncer. Although hesitant to use his overwhemling strength, Batista wasn’t shy about delivering some serious beatings when the situation demanded it. Needless to say, he never came out on the short end of a brawl, and more than a few paid a serious price for their foolish bravado.

In late 1997, he moved to Minneapolis, and began power training at the same gym where Road Worrior Animal and Curt Hennig trained. By this time, Batista had started watching WWE again, and he asked Hennig about getting into the business. Hennig suggested he try out with the old WCW. So, Batista packed his bags and headed for Atlanta and WCW’s training facility, The Power Plant.

His experience there turned out to be less than memorable: "I really didn’t like the way they were running things there. They more or less brought everybody in to humiliate them. I didn’t care for that atmosphere."

He remained undeterred by his WCW experience and contacted WWE. At the time, WWE didn’t have open training camps, so officials in the Talent Relations Department recommended that he enroll at a wrestling camp in Allentown, Pennsylvania, run by former WWE Tag Team Champions, The Wild Samoans. In March 1999, Batista journeyed to Allentown to begin his quest of becoming a WWE Superstar.

Once there, he got off to a rocky start. Just one month into his training, he ruptured his triceps muscle and was forced to sit on the sidelines for six months. At the time, he weighed 360 pounds and was simply too big to be able to withstand the punishment in the ring. The bug had bitten him, though, and as soon as he was able to return, he did.

By November 1999, his trainers decided that Batista was ready to show his skills to WWE, so he ararranged a tryout with WWE’s developmental talent manager, Dr. Tom Prichard. Though he was still green, Prichard saw enough potential to sign him to a developmental deal. Batista was ecstatic. But it was only the first step on his journey to a full-time career with WWE.

In March 2000, Batista was sent to WWE’s developmental organization, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) in Louisville, Kentucky. There, OVW owner, Jim Cornette dubbed him, Leviathan, and with the help of his fellow trainees, Batista began to develop into an unstoppable force. Early this past summer, Batista recieved the call he’s been waiting for: WWE officials were bringing him up to SmackDown! After three long, hard years, Batista had made it.

"When I got the call, I was shocked more than anything else. I’d been down in Louisville for two years and wasn’t sure what was going to happen to me. They just told me they had something for me, and that I needed to get a suit. So, I went out and bought a $500 suit. Of course when I got up there, the first thing they did was cut the sleeves off."

He made his first apperance as Deacon Batista, Reverend D-Von’s bodyguard. His first time through the curtain was surreal. His head was spinning and it wasn’t until a week or two later that it finally hit him that he was now a member of the "A" team.

His reception backstage couldn’t have gone better and with D-Von’s advice and encouragement, Batista has quickly begun getting acclimated to his new surroundings. There are few men the the world with his size, presence and agility, and it’s only a matter of time before he is a main-event Superstar. Until then, he doesn’t want to get ahead of himself.

"My main short-term goal is to improve my ring work," says Batista. "In OVW, most of my matches were short. In order to compete with the best, I’m going to have to improve my ring skills. My goal is to become a singles Superstar, and I know I have to [improve my ring work] in order to do that."

Height: 6 foot 5
Weight: 317 pounds
From: Washington, D.C.
Finishing Move: Batista Bomb
Career Highlights: World Heavyweight Champion; World Tag Team Champion; 2005 Royal Rumble winner

Decked out in expensive shades, apocalyptic tattoos and dressing in slick suits, Batista has the presence of the World Heavyweight Champion. But get him angry and you will bare witness to "the Animal" being unleashed. Projecting incredible intensity and confidence, Batista is a thinking man’s World Heavyweight Champion. A fearless man of a few words, Batista makes those words count and backs them up in the ring with his raw power – twisting spines with the Batista Bomb. Batista’s career took off when he joined Evolution. But when Batista won the 2005 Royal Rumble, he gained the right to challenge Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 21. There, he would reach the pinnacle of sports-entertainment – thanks, in a large part, to his ability to power out of Triple H’s Pedigree finisher attempt.