Today, Dave Bautista is on his way to being - if not already - a household name, having appeared in major motion pictures like Guardians of the Galaxy, Glass Onion, and Blade Runner.
But it was a difficult climb to the top for the actor, who lost everything after ditching his WWE career.
Dave Bautista signed on to WWE in 2000 - at first just to make some extra money for his family - and it soon took off.
Going by the ring name 'Batista', he quickly became a six-time world champion, and was on-par with John Cena for a good chunk of his wrestling career.
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In the hopes of following in the footsteps of Cena and The Rock, Dave tried to negotiate with WWE to take a stab at Hollywood, but they couldn't seem to come to an agreement.
As a result, the actor decided to ditch WWE in 2010 to pursue acting - not because he had a particular passion for it, but just to prove that he could.
At first, though, the bold move didn't exactly work out in Dave's favour.
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The actor told GQ that he burned through his wrestling money pretty quickly, and had to sell off whatever he could to make ends meet.
"I lost everything. I had to start all over," he confessed.
Dave had to start from the very beginning, hiring an acting coach with what money he had left and signing up for a few sub-par straight-to-DVD films.
He recalled trying his best to be 'picky and choosy' about the films he appeared in, despite being pretty stuck for options.
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Eventually, the former wrestler managed to snag roles in films like The Man with the Iron Fist and Riddick, before he landed his big break - the part of Drax the Destroyer in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy.
Recalling the moment he found out he had gotten the job, Dave said: "I had to pull over because I was crying so hard," - he had been in his car on the way to the gym at the time.
"I turned right back around and walked into my house shaking to tell my wife I had gotten the role, and we were both standing there freaking out."
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It was all uphill from there for Dave, who quickly became a high-profile name as a result of his Marvel appearance.
Dave has briefly returned to WWE once or twice since ditching the profession in 2010, but his success in the film industry has given him a brand new passion - acting.
"I’m obsessed with it," he said. "It’s this puzzle that I can’t figure out.
"You don’t know if it’s right, but sometimes it feels right. I don’t get those moments a lot, but every once in a while I do. And f***, to me, there’s nothing like it. It’s a natural high. It’s an addiction.”
Topics: Dave Bautista, Celebrity, Film and TV, WWE
Ali Condon