Dave Bautista On Why His Name Was Batista In WWE, ‘Horrible’ Early Storyline, What Terrified Him In WWE

During an interview with UPROXX, Dave “Batista” Bautista, revealed why he went under the name Batista in WWE.

When asked how he chose the name, Bautista replied, “I actually didn’t.”

He continued, “All right, here’s the funny thing about that, because when I was …when I went up when I was called up from OVW, which was our training facility, they changed my name and changed it to ‘Batista.’ I didn’t realize they changed the spelling of it. Well, I was told the reason they did that was so people would be able to pronounce it easier, and then I was told later by another wrestler, he said, ‘No, you dummy. They did that so they could own it. They just can’t own your name. They changed the spelling, now they own it.’ Which was true. I left WWE without my wrestling name, went back to my real name, and started over.”

Bautista also talked about his start in WWE as Deacon Batista, a villainous enforcer for Reverend D’Von (aka D-Von Dudley). He thinks it was horrible.

Bautista said, “When I first came up, I did this character called Deacon Batista, so it was the same last name, but I was working with this guy named D-Von Dudley and he was doing this televangelist preacher type deal where he was collecting money and I held this big, goofy box and I was a security guard of his money box. So ridiculous. It was horrible.”

When asked if WWE helped prepare him for his role as Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy, Bautista said, “I don’t know if it did.”

He continued, “I think as far as comedic timing whatever, I think that all comes from me really just being a fan of movies, being a fan of comedians, and not being afraid to embarrass myself. Not being afraid to make fun of myself. I think that’s where that comes from. As far as wrestling, it’s weird because it’s such a big, I don’t know, physical type performance. It’s hard to compare it to actual film acting. Yeah. Yeah, maybe. I mean, I never really thought about it as far as that kind of timing goes because when I was with the WWE the last thing I wanted to do was get on a microphone and actually speak because it would just terrify me.”

You can read the full interview by here