Awesome / Batista

• When he turned against Triple H during his contract signing for WrestleMania 21.
  • Nearly a decade later when Triple H recreated Evolution (sans Flair) to deal with The Shield, Batista turned on him yet again after Triple H told him that his shot at the title wouldn’t come until his fulfilled his obligation to help destroy the Shield. Barista’s betrayal was a simple “I understand… and I quit” before casually exiting the ring and going straight back to Hollywood while Triple H impotently screamed for Dave to come back. Only Dave Batista could turn quitting into a CMOA.
• Giving Alberto Del Rio a Batista Bomb after weeks of trash talk, the first since his return to the company.
• His 2014 return to in ring action, specifically the Royal Rumble match…and WINNING the match. Sure, see-through booking decision, right? Fans wanted somebody else? Well, instead of forcing the proverbial square peg of his face role into the circular hole that was the disapproving WWE Universe, Batista pretty much rounded on them and told them that they can cheer or boo him all they want, bottom line is, he's there to win championships, not popularity contests, DEAL WITH IT. He knew all along that he was never going to be cheered, so he intentionally acted like as much of a prick as possible to fans until WWE actually gave up and let him be a heel.
  • And when WWE finally saw the writing on the wall and gave Daniel Bryan his shining moment at Wrestlemania 30, it was Batista who did the honours of putting him over, tapping out to the Yes Lock.
• When Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) co-star Chris Pratt challenged Batista to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Batista proclaimed that ice isn't a problem for wrestlers…Then the camera zoomed out to reveal him bathing in ice water, with a big trash bin of more water closeby. After the cameraman dumped it on him, he didn't flinch.
• Wrestlers making a foray into acting can have mixed results at best, but Batista is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe AND a James Bond villain. If that doesn't qualify as awesome… Even moreso, in a film hailed as one of the best in the MCU, Batista's performance as Drax the Destroyer was highlighted as one of the best parts.
• He was casted into the sequel of a Cult Classic like Blade Runner! Can you find any other wrestler-turned-actor with that on their resume?
• His utterly fearless defense of James Gunn after he was unceremoniously fired due to years-old Tweets that everyone knows Disney already knew about when they hired him. To put this in full context, he has perhaps the lowest acting profile of the whole cast and clearly knows full well he's putting his whole career at risk to do this, but he's willing to take that risk to stand up for his own moral standards and in defense of who he sees as a good man who doesn't deserve what he got. It's worth remembering that Bautista busted his ass getting the role of Drax. Despite that, after Gunn's firing, he said outright that if he wasn't contractually obliged to star in more movies as the character, he would have walked away from the MCU without a second thought. Just to make it sweeter, Bautista and the rest of the Guardians cast were vindicated when Gunn was rehired in early 2019.
• As his acting career has proceeded, it's pretty much confirmed now that Batista is the second most successful wrestler-turned-actor in history, second only to THE highest-grossing actor in history, Dwayne Johnson himself.
• SmackDown 1,000. Evolution (Ric Flair, Randy Orton, Triple H, and Batista) get together in the ring to toast to their own accomplishments and celebrate their accolades. Each member sings undying praises for all the others, including Batista, who cites that the fourteen-time world champion Triple H has done everything there is to do in professional wrestling... before coolly adding "Except beat me." ^note At that point, Batista was undefeated one-on-one against Triple H in three matches, which might be something that no wrestler in history could ever say. Alas, Batista did lose in the one-on-one match at WrestleMania that resulted, in part, from this slight The crowd lost it, the normally stoic Orton was visibly taken aback, and Flair had to step in to keep things from boiling over too badly. The moment was so epic that the official YouTube video of the segment has 12 million views as of this writing.