From his role as Drax in "Guardians of the Galaxy," to his part in murder-mystery thriller "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery," Dave Bautista has made a name for himself in Hollywood. Before he hit tinsel town, however, Bautista was known for his time in the squared circle. Bautista signed with WWE in 2000, and rose to popularity after joining the Evolution stable alongside Ric Flair, Triple H, and Randy Orton.
Bautista accomplished everything there is to achieve in WWE. He carried the WWE Championship twice, held the World Heavyweight Championship four times, and had Tag Team Championship runs alongside Flair, Rey Mysterio, and John Cena. He won two Royal Rumble matches and headlined WrestleMania, before leaving the ring behind for Hollywood in 2010. He'd make a few more wrestling appearances over the years, but ultimately retired from the ring in a match against Triple H at WrestleMania 35. Bautista was set to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down, and the world still awaits the right time for him to be honored.
Bautista was trying to get into acting even before his breakout role with Marvel. He appeared in the 2010 action film "Wrong Side of Town," and also as a villain in "The Man with the Iron Fists." During his WWE career, rumors emerged that Bautista had an ego behind the scenes. Whether that's true or not is up for debate, but there were a few wrestlers "The Animal" rubbed the wrong way.
Booker T and Bautista got into a legitimate fist fight during a commercial shoot for SummerSlam 2006. The story goes that Booker was not happy with "The Animal" for some comments he had made about various stars on "WWE SmackDown" when Bautista was also on the blue brand. Some talents, including Booker, thought Bautista had an ego and wasn't appreciative of his spot within the company, as he had quickly risen to the main event scene.
During the commercial shoot, Booker called out Bautista for the comments, and allegedly demanded an apology, which he didn't receive. The fight started as a shouting match, then turned into a brawl, which Booker reportedly won due to his experience with street fights. The fight turned into a storyline, with the incident being reported on WWE.com, and both men telling their sides of the story.Another backstage incident that potentially led to the fist fight between the two involved a case in "Wrestler's Court," where Bautista's then-rumored girlfriend, Melina, was on trial for reportedly acting like too much of a diva. Booker was one of the prosecutors on the backstage case when Melina was convicted, causing further tensions between the stars.
WWE's report cited the backstage brawl between the two men as being brutal. Bautista admitted in his autobiography in 2007 he hadn't greeted Booker, breaking backstage etiquette rule number one: respect. In a 2023 interview, Booker shot down any lingering rumors that he and Bautista have any remaining beef. The Hall of Famer explained the fight was due to a lot of testosterone in the locker room, and said that if he saw Bautista today, he would give him a hug.
A former WWE star and current AEW talent who was rumored to havevery personal issues with Bautista is John Morrison. During his early years in WWE, Bautista was a self-admitted womanizer, dating many "Divas" such as Kelly Kelly, Rosa Mendez, and Morrison's former girlfriend and valet, Melina. Bautista said that he and Melina were close friends, but their relationship didn't turn physical until after she and Morrison had broken up.In his autobiography, Bautista said that his wife at the time thought he was "sleeping with Melina right off the bat," and made him feel guilty about being friends with her. But, Bautista wrote that they got closer and their relationship evolved, which "caused a bit of controversy."
Melina, who was dealing with bullying backstage, called Bautista her "knight" who stuck up for her. Melina has said that the rumors about her and "The Animal" backstage are what contributed to the end of her 11-year relationship with Morrison, but her firing came following aninteraction with Vince McMahon after a Divas Championship #1 Contender's Battle Royal in 2011. Following Gail Kim eliminating herself, Melina said she saw McMahon backstage and knew she had a target on her back, as he appeared to be in a firing mood. She was fired days later.
Other backstage versions of the rumored affair were that Morrison was aware of something happening between Melina and Bautista, but did nothing to stop it, in an attempt to avoid damaging his career. But, in doing so, Morrison allegedly lost the respect of the locker room. Morrison has never commented publicly about these rumors, but is now married toTaya Valkyrie, and their act as a couple has gone over well in multiplepromotions. Melina denied cheating on Morrison with Batista in a 2015 interview, but called him a great friend and a "real-life hero."
Shelly Martinez, better known in wrestling history as Ariel, a vampiress alongside Kevin Thorne in WWECW, was a friend of Melina's back in the day, and she was known to have beef with Bautista.Martinez was released from the company in May 2007, and blamed her release on Bautista. The story goes that the former Ariel took exception to Bautista "verbally abusing" her close friend, and the pair got into a heated argument backstage at a WWE live event.Another version says that Bautista developed a feeling of animosity toward the ECW star due to her relationship with Melina, and "The Animal" refused to settle their backstage issues before Martinez's release.
Martinez appeared on "Wrestling Shoot Interviews" to describe the confrontation, and said Bautista told her that she and Melina "had the same mind." Martinez said that she told the now-actor he was being a "d*** to her girlfriend" and it wasn't cool, amongst other things. Martinez said that next thing she knew, she was getting called into then-EVP of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis' office.Martinez called the situation with Bautista the "last nail in her coffin" with the company. After years of reflection, Martinez admitted that she used to believe her firing was entirely about the confrontation, but said that Bautista actually "did her a big favor."
Martinez posted to Twitter back in November 2011 that she and Bautista had buried the hatchet, four years after her WWE release. The pair came face-to-face at a film premiere in Los Angeles, and Martinez posted a photo of herself alongside the former World Heavyweight Champion.
Alberto Del Rio (or Alberto El Patron as he is known these days) has been a controversial figure within the wrestling world for years, and it seemingly started with a confrontation with Bautista long before Del Rio's other issues and legal problems came into the spotlight.The pair never got into a backstage confrontation, but instead took their issues with each other to social media.
During an episode of "WWE Raw," Del Rio declared himself for the 2014 Royal Rumble. Bautista then tweeted, in part, saying "who the hell is Alberto Del Rio?" The then-WWE star responded multiple times, saying things like "really," calling out Bautista's only professional MMA fight, a loss, against Vince Lucero, and finally saying, "Like we say in Mexico, you can buy muscles, but you can't buy huevos."
Bautista shot back, calling Del Rio a "C-level star" in a "B-level star era," and reminded him to not "turn a work into a shoot." Bautista later deleted his posts, and if the pair ever crossed paths either backstage or in the real world, they have apparently never come to blows, but have also never buried the hatchet. With how adamant Bautista is with his political views and fighting for what he believes is right, it doesn't appear like Del Rio would be someone "The Animal" would likely apologize to.
One WWE Hall of Famer who had problems with Bautista as he was coming up alongside Randy Orton in Evolution was Bully Ray, known then as Bubba Ray Dudley. On an episode of "WWE Ruthless Aggression," chronicling the era of WWE history, it was revealed that when the Dudley Boyz faced off against Orton and Bautista in a house show tag team match, both teams walked away with multiple injuries and hard feelings, with all four believing the other team had worked stiff.
Bautista believed that Bubba wasn't a fan of him or Orton because of jealousy "to begin with."Bautista said in the WWE Network series that Bubba was "always a d***" to him and Orton, back when Evolution first formed. During the match, Bautista suffered a triceps injury and Orton's ankle was broken during a double-team move by the Dudley Boyz. Bubba's back was hurt in the match as well.Bautista's injury was so severe that WWE considered replacing him in the stable, and Orton's injury caused him to miss four months.
In the episode, Bully said that all three men involved in the double-team move made mistakes, causing Orton to be injured. He called it a "bad night at the office."Bully later revealed on an episode of "Busted Open Radio" that he and Orton had buried the hatchet before The Dudley Boyz' WWE comeback after SummerSlam 2015, but there is no official word from either Bully Ray or Dave Bautista's side on if they have resolved their issues.
