‘The Animal’ Hypes Up Big Dome ‘Smackdown’

MANILA, Philippines – “The Animal” is back.

But unlike in his last Manila visit, Batista slipped quietly into town, away from adoring fans.

“It’s nice to be back here,” said the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) Fil-Am star, who is David Michael Batista, Jr. in real life, as he spoke to mediamen in a roundtable discussion hosted by JACK TV, a cable channel under Solar Entertainment, in Pasig City yesterday.

The 40-year-old Batista, a former Royal Rumble winner, four-time world heavyweight champion, three-time World Tag Team champion and WWE Tag Team winner, is in town to promote a one-show-only WWE Smackdown event slated July 10 at the Araneta Coliseum.

Batista will have a public appearance at 2:30 p.m. today at the SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City to drum up the upcoming event.

Tickets to the WWE Smackdown, which last held a live show at the Big Dome in October three years ago, will be on sale starting March 7 at all SM TicketNet outlets or online at www.ticketnet.com.ph.

Among the WWE stars appearing in the July event are Triple H, Edge, Umaga and Undertaker.

Batista is still recovering from an operation following a hamstring injury he sustained in WWE’s European Tour last November. He hopes to make it to the Annual Raw draft next month and compete in his best form in the Manila showdown.

“I’m over the hump, it’s been two months,” said Batista. “Physically, I’ll be able to do a comeback maybe in a month’s time. I’m still on Raw. There’s a draft after Wrestlemania so I don’t know.”

“But I hope that I will be here no matter what because of my Filipino heritage. Hope you give the guys at the WWE phone calls, letters,” he said.

Batista only learned of how severe his injury was when Randy Orton struck him in the head and knocked him down in a WWE Raw event last Dec. 15.

After 11 days, Batista, whose father is a Filipino named Dave Bautista, had to undergo surgery to repair the damage and doctors said it would need six to eight months to heal.

Source: philstar.com