Dave Bautista Recalls Being Told He’d Never Be A Wrestler
Dave Bautista endured a troubled start to his wrestling career.
Despite not deciding to pursue a career in wrestling until he turned 30, by the time his full-time career was over, Dave Bautista was a six-time World Champion having formed part of one of the most famous factions WWE has ever seen.
The man known to WWE fans as Batista joined the company in 2000 and within two years he was already a regular on SmackDown. In early 2003 he joined forces with Ric Flair, Triple H, and Randy Orton in Evolution before finding success as a breakout star in 2005.
Batista all but ended his full-time career in 2010 when he left the company, although he made returns in 2014 and 2018. The now-Hollywood star wrestled his last match against Triple H at WrestleMania 35.
Despite his success, in a February 2024 interview, Batista admitted he struggled significantly with anxiety, revealing he was sick backstage before his early matches.
Dave Bautista Reflects On Miserable WCW Try-Out
During an appearance on the Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon to promote his new movie My Spy The Eternal City, Bautista recalled trying to get his start in pro wrestling. This saw him attend a try-out at the WCW Power Plant in 1999, but it’s fair to say things didn’t go to plan.
“I wanted to just lift weights, and I thought I wanted to bodybuild. And 13 years later, I had nothing to show for it. I was just big and jacked, and I was broke, and I thought, “What am I going to do?” And yeah, professional wrestling…..And I actually failed at that. No, no, my first tryout was miserable. They told me to leave, and I’d never be a pro wrestler.
“That was in Atlanta. Atlanta, Georgia, yeah. It’s a place called the Power Plant, which was WCW at the time. They literally told me to leave. They said, “You’re not gonna make it.”
Despite not getting off to the best of starts, Bautista signed with the then-WWF just a year later, kickstarting a career that would eventually take him to superstardom.
H/t to WrestlingNews.Co