Former WWE Champion Batista Shares Rare Family Photo As He Salutes His Filipino Grandpa

We all know Dave Bautista as a tough guy, mainly because of his tenure with the WWE for nearly two decades, bagging championship belts after another. What he posted last night, though, was a different side of him.

On his social media, the 51-year old former wrestler shares a rare family photo that shows a picture of his grandparents, but he particularly expressed his admiration to his grandfather, Alfonso Bautista. “(I) Don’t have many pics of my grandfather but he was everything to me when I was a kid,” he said. “He earned his citizenship by fighting for the USA in World War II and he’s proudly buried in Arlington cemetery.”

In his autobiography published in 2007, he said that the death of his grandpa in 1988 broke his heart. He was only 19 at that time.

“My grandad was a proud Filipino, but he was an even more proud American,” shared the now Hollywood star who is open about his Filipino lineage. In his book, his father is born in Washington DC when his grandpa is already based in the US.

“I only remember growing up sitting in his barber chair and we’d take our routine trips to McDonald’s,” recalled the two-time Royal Rumble winner. “And the people close to me know I always have barber chairs in my home because of those incredible memories.”

He may be busy promoting his new movie “My Spy” with Chloe Coleman and Ken Jeong, ”The Animal” is also in line as one of the inductees for the upcoming WWE Hall Of Fame 2020 during the Wrestlemania week that will happen in Tampa Bay, FL. Other wrestlers that will be part of the WWE history are the members of New World Order (nWo) – Hollywood Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Sean Waltman.

Among the titles that he’s won other than being the winner of the Royal Rumble in 2005 and 2014 are the WWE Championship twice, World Heavyweight Championship three times, a WWE Tag Team Championship, and three World Tag Team Titles.