It was good but it was kind of slow in a lot of areas. I think the only reason I finished it is because I LOVE Batista. Normally, if books are this slow and this much of a struggle, I wouldn't finish it...Its rare that I do unless there is something just drawing me in & keeps me reading...Thats how this book was for me...plus, like I said, I L O V E Batista & WWE.. ( )

It was good but it was kind of slow in a lot of areas. I think the only reason I finished it is because I LOVE Batista. Normally, if books are this slow and this much of a struggle, I wouldn't finish it...Its rare that I do unless there is something just drawing me in & keeps me reading...Thats how this book was for me...plus, like I said, I L O V E Batista & WWE.. ( )

It was good but it was kind of slow in a lot of areas. I think the only reason I finished it is because I LOVE Batista. Normally, if books are this slow and this much of a struggle, I wouldn't finish it...Its rare that I do unless there is something just drawing me in & keeps me reading...Thats how this book was for me...plus, like I said, I L O V E Batista & WWE.. ( )

I hated this book.

It now has the distinction of being the first book that I've ever started, that I could not bring myself to finish. Oh GOD, I hated this. If I had anything else on my shelf that I could have picked up to read before my next splurge of reading material, I would have. I probably should have read the phone book.

This man is a grade-A douchebag. He is such an asshole in the first 75 pages that I wanted to punch this book in the face. I've never, EVER, read anything so self-centered and offensive in my life. I am a massive, MASSIVE fan of the "sport" of pro-wrestling reading my fair share of autobiographies over the years and I can't say that anything comes CLOSE to being this terrible.

Awful. Just awful. ( )

It was good but it was kind of slow in a lot of areas. I think the only reason I finished it is because I LOVE Batista. Normally, if books are this slow and this much of a struggle, I wouldn't finish it...Its rare that I do unless there is something just drawing me in & keeps me reading...Thats how this book was for me...plus, like I said, I L O V E Batista & WWE.. ( )

Dear Dave,
I am contacting you in regards to your biography that I read a little while back. Had your book been an item of food I would have returned it to the place it was purchased and demanded a refund due to it being stale, lifeless and stomach-churning. As it happens my local bookstore refuses refunds, or an exchange, based on the fact that a book is stale, lifeless and stomach-churning. Perhaps the laws regarding food should apply to books also? After all we do digest both.
Standing at 6ft 6in tall and being 290lb of muscle, natural or otherwise, you are indeed an impressive looking specimen. The fact that your biography is damn near constant bragging about female sexual conquests isn't so impressive. You claim to be a reformed sex addict but then revel in the fact that you can get beautiful women at the drop of a hat and continue to do so. I wonder who these revelations are aimed at? I know, as a male, I don't wish to keep reading how good looking you are and how easy it is for you to hop from one woman to the other. Is that jealousy on my part...perhaps. I would guess the female audience doesn't appreciate it either as very few women wish to be viewed as pieces of meat that you can conquest at will. I would suggest, Dave, that your abrasive gloating is aimed at yourself and although I am no psychologist I would theorize that although you never have to stroke your manhood yourself you very much have to stroke your own ego to make you feel like a man. Strangely though, for someone who is all too willing to speak about his sexual life, your biography never covered your alleged groping of former WWE diva Shelly Martinez against her wishes or the time you posted nude pics of WWE diva Mickie James all over the locker room to embarrass her. Yet you did give us this wonderful insight into the human you are...

"Now, don't get me wrong, my ex-wife is the love of my life and I would never knowingly hurt her. However, while I was busting my butt on the road like a dog, she would sit around the house and do nothing. I mean, yeah, she had cancer, but she couldn't vacuum? And since the chemo made her "not in the mood", I had no choice but to have threesomes on the road. I mean, she's talented and I hated to see her waste her life like that when she could be a dancer, or maybe a nurse. But she's not a bad person and I take full responsibility for my actions, even though it was her fault."

The only thing that comes close to your sexual bragging is your tendency to mouth off about how tough you are and how many guys you have beaten up outside of the wrestling ring. Being a former bouncer gave you the opportunity to do this and if it can be considered tough for someone 6ft 6in and 290lb to intimidate and brutalize 'normal' sized guys at will then so be it. However, and I don't recall you mentioning this in your biography, when you tried such tactics on fellow wrestler Booker T, a guy who is 6ft 3in and weighs 250lb, in a legitimate backstage confrontation he kicked your ass. Just saying.
Ultimately I found your biography distasteful, shallow and a complete waste of a good tree. If only the paper used in your book had been softer I would have used the pages to wipe my ass with but as it happens at least some good came out of 'Batista unleashed' when I had it recycled.
Sincerely,
BookMarc Blogpants ( )

People around the world know Dave Batista as World Wrestling Entertainment's 'the Animal,' the rope-shaking, spine-busting World Heavyweight Champion, one of the most popular Superstars in recent years. The crowd turned Batista from heel to babyface after they were electified by his awesome physique and physical wrestling style.

Few fans, however, know that Batista didn't join the profession until he was thirty years old-an age at which many wrestlers are thinking about hanging up their boots. Nor do most fans know the tremendous toll the climb to the top has taken on Batista's personal life. While successfully staying away from thard drugs and-usually-liquor, he found sex too tempting to resist.

'Women were my drug of choice,' the Animal confesses. That addiction cost him his marriage, destroying a relationship that had helped him climb from poverty to the pinnacle of sports entertainment in less than two years.

Now, in Batista Unleashed, the WWE Superstar comes clean about the choices he made and the devasting effects they had on his famiy. He talks about the injury that stripped him of his title-an injury he blames on Mark Henry's carelessness. While being sidelined cost Batista untold hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost income, it also set the stage for a tremendous comeback that cemented the Animal's reputation as a true champion.

Batista talks about growing up in the worst part of Washington, D.C., where three murders occurred in his front yard before he was nine. He speaks lovingly about his mother-a lesbian-and how hard she worked to keep the family not just together but alive. He talks candidly about his own criminal past: a conviction on a drug charge and another, since overturned, on assault. He speaks of his days as a bouncer and a lifeguard, and tells how bodybuilding may have saved his life.

Once he made it to the WWE, Batista realized he wasn't really ready for the big time. His career seemed headed for a fall until Fit Finlay took him under his wing. But his real education came when he joined Evolution and rode with Triple H and Ric Flair, two of sports entertainments's all-time greats. Batista talks about what they taught him, and details some of their wild times on the road.

But the champ also reveals a kinder, gentler side. While his soft-spoken manner in the locker room has sometimes been misinterpeted as arrogance, in truth Batista's always been somewhat shy and quiet. Emotional by nature, he reveals for the first time that the tears fans saw at WrestleMania 21, when he won the World Heavyweight Championship for the first time, were very real. And he speaks movingly about his problems with his ex-wives and teenage daughters, and how it felt to become a grandfather.

While his straight-shooting mouth has occasionally gotten him into trouble-most notably in a backstage confrotnation with Undertaker after some remarks about SmackDown!-Batista is his own harshest critic. He explains his early limitations as a wreslter and the work he has done to overcome them. Interspearsing his memoir with accounts from life on the road, Batista lightens the narrative with a surprising sense of humor. An Animal in the ring, he reveals himself as an honest and even humble man in everyday life.

Jeremy Roberts has written on a variety of subjects. He last worked on the New York TimesBestseller Controversy Creates Cash with Eric Bischoff.

Contents

Chapter One Dead men-On the road' Leaving St. Louis
Chapter Two Weights-On the Road: Carbondale
Chapter Threee Dues-On the road: Somewhere in Illinois
Chapter Four Evolution-On the road: Urbana
Chapter Five Champion-On the road: Flashback-WreslteMania 21
Chapter Six The love of my life-On the road: Chicago, Bnd for Omaha
Chapter Seven Smackdown!-On the road: Halfway to Sioux City
Chapter Eight Collateral damage-On the road: Sioux City
Chapter Nine Back on top-On the road: Omaha
Chapter Ten Road stories-On the road: Omaha
On the road: Omaha