A few years back, WWE published an autobiography of David Bautista (or Batista as he more commonly known). Now, the story of “The Animal” is available in DVD form, with the release of I Walk Alone.
The timing of the release may surprise some. After all, one would be tempted to make the assumption that both retellings of Batista’s upbringing would debut around the same time. This wasn’t the case in this instance, however — Batista Unleashed was released in 2007.
The separation in time, however, appears to be beneficial for his fans.
“I am glad the DVD is finally out,” Batista told SLAM! Wrestling in an exclusive interview, conducted via email. “There are a few stories in there that you do not get with the book.”
The DVD chronicles Batista’s life growing up in Washington, DC, and follows him throughout his journey to WWE stardom, giving rare glimpses into the life of one of WWE’s most intimidating big men. The interviews are fairly extensive, as family and friends give their thoughts alongside WWE’s superstars. The choices for these testaments, as Batista points out, were completely done by the WWE Home Video staff.
“The producers at WWE did all of the work on that front,” he said.
Along with the documentary are the other DVD standards — top matches from Batista’s run in WWE, which dates back to 2002, as well as a rarely-seen match from Ohio Valley Wrestling. The bouts run the full gamut of Batista’s opponents, from Triple H to Chris Jericho to Randy Orton. There’s one superstar, however, that Batista wishes there could’ve been more footage with.
“I really enjoyed the long stretch of matches that I had with Edge through a good portion of 2007. I wish we could have included a few more of those,” he remarked.
Perhaps those bouts and others will make it onto a sequel. Batista certainly hopes so.
“There are other matches that I would have liked to seen make the DVD but the list is too long to include here. Maybe you’ll see them on the next Batista DVD…”
Before the time comes for a second Batista offering, the man at times referred to as “Big Dave” is assuredly going to continue building his portfolio of highlight reel matches.
In fact, that moniker, or simply “Dave” has become more often used on WWE TV. It’s not quite as intimidating a name as “Batista”, but it doesn’t bother the big man, who knows that it is his actions that dictate the wrestler that he is, not what he called by announcers.
“Everybody calls me Dave and knows me as Dave outside the ring. It doesn’t really bother me when people use it on the show,” Batista said. “I’m still The Animal regardless of what you choose to call me.”
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