Whether you know Dave Bautista as a fearsome
WWE superstar or as a galactic guardian named Drax, you're probably a fan. Dave Bautista is a really likeable, personable,
agreeable sort of person. But it's kind of surprising if you know very
much about what Dave Bautista has been through. Bautista was born in 1969, and according to
his book, Batista Unleashed, the Washington D.C. area he grew up in was one of the nation's
poorest at the time. As he was growing up, crack cocaine was about
to hit the streets, killings in the neighborhood were common, and according to him, life expectancy
for children was, quote, "worse than in many third world countries." Bautista casually mentions that three people
died on his doorstep before he turned 9. In an interview with the Tampa Bay Times,
he elaborates on one particular death, where his mother found a man dying of a gunshot
wound outside their house. She called for help, but the officials took
too long, and the man didn't make it. Meanwhile, Bautista, his sister, and several
other children were playing outside nearby. They were so accustomed to violent sights
that they didn't even shed a tear, and after Bautista's mother saw it, the family promptly
moved to San Francisco. In his book, Bautista briefly dwells on his
lack of formal education. Though he enjoyed wrestling in high school,
his actual grades were far from amazing. By his senior year, which he didn't finish,
they were so bad that he wasn't allowed to wrestle. Bautista says not graduating from high school
is something he regrets, especially because he knows he absolutely could have done it
if he had tried. Whenever he bothered to apply himself, he
got good grades, and his teachers were perfectly willing to let him make up assignments. However, young Bautista just didn't care about
education, and it remains a sore spot. In an interview with Sport Bible in 2018,
Bautista admitted that if he could live his life again, he would focus on getting an education. Bautista might look like he was built at a
shipyard, but he has a family just like everyone else, if maybe a slightly more turbulent one. Dave writes in Batista Unleashed that his
dad, a Filipino hairdresser, wasn't really prepared to be a father. Bautista also had an older brother who died
in a car accident. Dave's mother, Donna Raye, managed to bring
up her children while also struggling with poverty and family issues of her own. After separating from Dave's father, she started
having relationships with women, which was a potential social problem for a woman coming
from a conservative Greek-American family. In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation, Bautista says, To drive home his pro-LGBTQ stance, he once
even threatened boxer Manny Pacquiao for making anti-gay comments. Troubled youths tend to dabble in crime, and
young Dave Bautista was no exception. On the podcast Anna Faris is Unqualified,
Bautista says his childhood gang used to specialize in petty theft. They'd go down to the houses of kids they
knew and steal small stuff like clothes and knickknacks they couldn't afford. "We were always like stealing stuff, and stealing
this, stealing that. You know, the police would pick us up and
my mom would have to come get us and beat the hell out of me." Bautista has since called his youthful thieving
ways "kid stuff," but puberty turned him into a completely different beast. According to the Tampa Bay Times, Bautista
grew large and intimidating during his later teenage years and ended up taking on a protector
role in his group. He eventually ended up with an imposing body
that made a career as a nightclub bouncer a pretty logical choice. Unfortunately, Bautista turned out to be a
bouncer of the "splatter" variety, and he roughed up unwanted clientele so much he was
once even charged with assault. If you've ever wondered what it takes to get
a body like Dave Bautista's, you might not like the answer. In a 2019 interview with the Tampa Bay Times,
Bautista says he spent his 20s in a state he calls "reverse anorexia." Despite being a fresh father of two daughters,
he had no real plans or ambitions, so he got stuck in a loop: He worked all night as a
bouncer, then spent hours at the gym, and by the time he got home, he'd sleep all day
and start the cycle anew. Despite weighing over 300 pounds and doing
virtually nothing but working and lifting, he felt he was never big enough. Bautista spent ten years on this schedule,
which didn't do any favors for his family's financial stability. As he was pushing 30, he realized he had wasted
a decade of his life and was in a situation where he had to borrow money just so he could
buy Christmas presents for his children. "And I realized that I had...I accomplished
nothing and I had no future and I had nothing to fall back on." This bleak situation ultimately came with
a silver lining, as the impoverished Bautista decided to try his hand at wrestling. Dave Bautista entered the physically grueling
world of wrestling at a relatively late age. This may be why his first, star-making tenure
with the company was marred by injuries that sidelined him for months at a time. According to Batista Unleashed, his first
serious injury was a triceps tear that sidelined him for seven months in 2003. Bleacher Report listed other notorious mishaps:
In 2006, he was forced to vacate his WWE World Championship because of yet another torn triceps. In 2008, a similar tear occurred in his hamstring,
sidelining him for what was supposed to be six to eight months. He came back in four, and had just enough
time to capture the WWE championship before a biceps injury forced him to drop the title
the very next day. A lower back injury later stopped him from
completing a scheduled circuit of shows. In 2006, Bautista allegedly got into a real
backstage fight with fellow wrestler Booker T. Wrestleview reports the fight took place
when the men shot an ad for the upcoming Summerslam. Bad blood had supposedly been brewing for
quite some time because of Bautista's bad attitude; his relatively quick rise to the
top of the food chain and lack of humility had angered many of his colleagues. Colleagues were also reported to be quite
happy with the way Booker T stood up to Bautista, hugging and high-fiving Booker afterward. Wrestleview also reported that Bautista confirmed
things had been escalating for a while. It must be noted, though, that the initial
reports of the fight's legitimacy appear to have come from the WWE itself, and Bautista
and Booker T were promoting their title match at Summerslam. According to Forbes, there have been allegations
that Bautista was aided by every dishonest athlete's best friend: steroids. In 2007, the aftermath of the Chris Benoit
case led the WWE to take a long, hard look at the company's wellness policy, and an ESPN
report eventually linked Bautista and a number of other wrestlers to a large doping ring. Bautista strongly denied the allegations,
and insisted that he was both tested regularly and operating, quote, "in full compliance
with the WWE wellness program." While he ultimately avoided suspension, the
cloud of steroid suspicion has hovered over his head ever since. Wrestling Inc. and Bleacher Report have both
reported on industry whispers about past steroid use, and some of his injuries seem oddly consistent
with the ones steroid users commonly suffer. According to Sportskeeda, Bautista has quit
WWE twice, in 2010 and 2014. His first departure was reportedly because
of a lack of movie opportunities, as Bautista discovered WWE Studios wouldn't offer him
roles. He asked if he could go outside the WWE and
audition for other films but was allegedly told to get dressed for a match. Bautista handed in his notice and left the
company a year later, and on his last night, few people bothered to thank him or say goodbye. He made a comeback in 2013, but creative differences
soon drove him out again. He reportedly wanted a slow buildup as a bad
guy, but the WWE decided to strongly push him as a hero, and the fans didn't love it. According to Bautista, it didn't help that
when he pitched a cross-promotion with Guardians of the Galaxy, WWE big shots Triple H and
Stephanie McMahon basically laughed in his face. Bautista returned to the WWE one last time
in 2019, when he wrapped up his wrestling career in a Wrestlemania match against Triple
H. Bautista lost. The life of a top WWE superstar isn't an easy
one to mesh with private life, and Dave Bautista has been less than successful at it. In an interview with Sport Bible, Bautista
admitted that the year-round grind of being on the road with the WWE didn't do any favors
for his marriage. According to Australian Broadcasting Corporation,
he ruined two of his marriages while he was on the road, and it wasn't just his constant
absence that was the problem. The superstar admits he was a prolific cheater,
and that obviously also hurt the people he loved. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports
that while Dave Bautista doesn't drink or do drugs, he was no different from his wrestling
peers who struggled with addictions. His drug of choice just happened to be a little
different. Although he didn't realize it at the time,
he was addicted to carnal pleasures while touring with the WWE. When the naturally shy and timid man became
popular and suddenly had scores of girls interested in him, he says he was completely unequipped
to handle it and dove in head first. While he didn't think it was a problem at
the time, he was eventually told that his constant womanizing was a problem. He says he has since matured and changed because
he doesn't want to hurt his business or be a bad role model for his children. Bautista's role as Drax the Destroyer in Guardians
of the Galaxy propelled him to mainstream fame, but according to Wired, the dream gig
could get surprisingly nightmarish. Bautista was terrified when he auditioned. His first day on set wasn't any better, because
apart from his own nerves he was unfortunate enough to start filming two weeks later than
everyone else. When he arrived, the anxious giant had to
scramble to catch up. When the existential terror went away, physical
discomfort took over. The role required buckets of makeup and body
paint, which took four hours to apply and another hour and a half to remove. Because the full upper-body treatment didn't
really allow the actor to sit down, he had to go through the entire process leaning on
a saddle-like perch. However, getting it all put on wasn't as bad
as having to don the Drax "costume" for many consecutive days. He says that by the third or fourth day, his
skin started to get sensitive, and by the sixth consecutive Drax day, he just wanted
to peel his skin off. A large, muscular wrestler can often carry
the stigma of people assuming he's a big stupid lug, and Dave Bautista faces an extra hurdle:
He's dyslexic. In an interview on Chris Jericho's Talk Is
Jericho podcast, Bautista says his dyslexia has made things like table reads for Avengers:
Infinity War and other films pretty difficult for him. Still, the wrestler has kept a sense of humor
about his condition and has been known to reply to badly spelled Twitter insults with
friendly advice about how to deal with dyslexia. "You Earthers have hang-ups!" As it happens, Bautista isn't the only Guardian
of the Galaxy who deals with dyslexia. According to the New York Times, his castmate
Zoe Saldana is also dyslexic, and Dyslexic Advantage has praised both stars for publicly
speaking out about their struggles. Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Grunge videos about your favorite
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