Dave Bautista’s pro wrestling career led to him winning six WWE world championships as “The Animal” Batista. Many of those title reigns started with him nailing his signature move, The Batista Bomb. And while Bautista hasn’t wrestled since his retirement match with Triple H at WrestleMania 35, he proved in a recent TikTok video that he can still nail the move. Former UFC fighter Matt Arroyo posted a TikTok alongside Bautista this week, claiming he knew the proper technique to counter the move. He started to explain what to do, only for Bautista to shout, “Nope!” and hoist Arroyo up for the powerbomb.
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“There’s no defense to the Batisa Bomb,” a defeated Arroyo said as “Big Dave” laughed in the background. Since leaving pro wrestling, Bautista has found ample success in the acting world in films like the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, Blade Runner 2049 and Dune.
Dave Bautista on Leaving Pro Wrestling for Acting
“I’m not trying to separate myself from professional wrestling because I’m embarrassed or anything like that,” he said in an interview with Men’s Health in 2021 regarding why he separated himself from pro wrestling in order to be taken more seriously as an actor. “It’s just, I needed to make a name for myself and start all over and kind of just get people to see me in a different light. Because if people always see me as a pro wrestler turned actor, then they’re going to put me in a box for roles.”
“I found out in wrestling that I like being the bad guy,” he said. “And I don’t know why this happens, but there’s something about me that people like as a bad guy.”
He has also made it clear in interviews that he doesn’t want to work alongside other former WWE stars in his film projects like John Cena or Dwyane “The Rock” Johnson.
“I’m super sad about that because Dave Bautista is an unbelievably gifted actor,” Cena said in an Esquire interview in response to Bautista’s comments. “He’s done some amazing work. But I think when someone makes a statement like that, I think the important thing is to try to look at things from their perspective. Dave has worked so hard on his craft and he is so dedicated to his characters and really wants to put forth a body of work that gives him his own identity. I 100 percent understand that.”
He continued, “Dave is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet and one of the most generous guys you’ll ever meet. I don’t have any beef with Dave and I really genuinely think Dave doesn’t have any beef with me. He really just wants to be identified and recognized for his work. And I cannot fault him for that. I applaud him for it. To be brave enough to say something like that kind of allows him to go forth on his own and I appreciate that.”
