About Me
He made his Ohio Valley Wrestling debut in 2000, joining forces with Synn. During his tenure in OVW he was called Leviathan. As a member of the Disciples of Synn stable he would go undefeated until being beaten at an OVW supercard, Christmas Chaos by WWF's Kane (with help from Stone Cold Steve Austin). He would later go on to win the OVW Heavyweight Championship from 'The Machine' Doug Basham. After losing the belt to The Prototype, Synn felt Batista was getting too independent and "sold" him to Reverend D-Von to begin his WWE (then still WWF) career.He began his WWE career on the May 9, 2002 episode of SmackDown! as Deacon Bautista, a heel enforcer for Reverend D-Von on the SmackDown! franchise. Batista made his WWE match debut in a tag match teaming with D-Von against Randy Orton and Faarooq with Batista pinning Orton after using his spinebuster. Over a sequence of weeks, Orton would try to beat D-Von and Batista with different partners, but ultimately losing each time to Batista's spinebuster. Batista suffered his first loss in a match against Rikishi after D-Von accidentally struck him with a punch allowing Rikishi to take advantage and pin Batista for the win. After this both partners started to argue over the weeks. Batista eventually turned on D-Von. After splitting with D-Von (and defeating D-Von after a Demon Bomb), he went to RAW and was rebranded as Dave Batista (or simply Batista).In January 2003, Batista joined with Triple H, Ric Flair, and Randy Orton to form the stable Evolution. However, Batista was sidelined for much of 2003 after he tore his right triceps at a house show in a tag team match against the Dudley Boyz that saw his tag team partner, Randy Orton break his foot as well. During his recuperation after surgery to reattach his tricep, Dave was out jogging with his wife running wind sprints (which he learned from his fellow wrestler and friend Brock Lesnar) he slipped while slowing down and instinctively used his right arm to break his fall, retearing his tricep. He faced another setback when after his second surgery to reattach his tricep he suffered an infection that required a third surgery to clean out the infection. He made his return on the October 20, 2003 episode of RAW, interfering in a match between Goldberg and Shawn Michaels and "shattering" Goldberg's ankle by inserting it in a folding chair and then jumping off the second rope on to the chair. After the interference, Evolution came out and Triple H rewarded Batista with a guaranteed payment of $100,000. On the November 10, 2003 episode of RAW, Goldberg defeated Batista by disqualification when Triple H interfered and attempted to hit him with a sledgehammer.At Armageddon 2003, Batista took part in two matches, losing to Shawn Michaels in a singles match but winning a tag team turmoil match along with Ric Flair, eliminating the Dudley Boyz to become one-half of the World Tag Team Champions. By the end of the PPV, all four members of Evolution held championships on RAW, with Triple H winning the World Heavyweight Championship and Randy Orton winning the WWE Intercontinental Championship.On the December 2, 2005 edition of Friday Night SmackDown!, Batista saved Rey Mysterio from a double team attack by RAW 's reigning World Tag Team Champions The Big Show and Kane. It was later announced that Mysterio would team with Batista to face Big Show and Kane at Armageddon 2005, a SmackDown! exclusive pay-per-view.On January 9, 2006, WWE.com announced that Batista had torn his right tricep following a match with Mark Henry at a live event on January 8, 2006 in Verona, New York. The following day, WWE.com announced that, due to his injury, Batista was forced to vacate the World Heavyweight Championship at the SmackDown! tapings in Philadelphia on January 10, 2006, two days after surpassing Triple H's previous mark of 280 days for longest reigning champion. Later that night, Kurt Angle won a battle royal to become the new World Heavyweight Champion. (These events were aired on the January 13, 2006 edition of SmackDown!.) Dave went on to have successful surgery on his arm on January 12, 2006.
