Triple H was a mentor to Bautista in WWE.
Even with acting being his full-time occupation longer than wrestling, Dave Bautista has always kept his squared circle origins near and dear to his heart. Prior to his breakout role in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Bautista competed for WWE for over a decade. Billed as “Batista,” the heavyweight quickly ascended from developmental to the main event scene, capturing multiple world titles and headlining both WWE WrestleMania 21 and WWE WrestleMania 30. Bautista had the luxury of getting his televised start alongside some WWE’s greatest minds, as he and fellow rookie Randy Orton debuted in a stable that featured WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair and was led by modern mastermind Triple H.
Bautista especially grew close with Triple H over the course of his WWE career. The Dune star has attributed his success to the WWE Chief Content Officer, noting that Triple H taking a chance on him in the early 2000s opened a number of doors for him later in his career.
Dave Bautista Recalls Memorable Advice From Triple H
Two decades after breaking into the entertainment game, Dave Bautista still holds wise words from his earliest mentor close to him.
Speaking to The School of Hark Knocks, Bautista recalled advice from Triple H from his early wrestling days that he has carried with him throughout his Hollywood career.
“I had a mentor named Triple H and there were a couple of things he said to me that always stuck with me. One of the things was when I first got there, I was so afraid. I didn’t want to tick people off,” Bautista recalled. “It was a hierarchy thing. I was so afraid of being disrespectful. One day he said, ‘Look man, you want to make money or you want to make friends? This is a business. You have to look at it like a business. You’re a business.’ I always thought about myself as my own commodity. I am my brand. Another thing he said, ‘Always imagine that everybody is pointing a gun at your head. It’s up to you how many bullets you give them.”
Bautista ended his wrestling career alongside Triple H, losing to his mentor at WWE WrestleMania 35 in 2019. While he admits that he still dreams about feeling the rush of performing in front of a live WWE crowd, Bautista has emphasized that he will not break his retirement, as he concluded his career exactly the way he envisioned.
