uh you're not someone to mess with i'm
the nicest person in this room
but you're also the most um terrifying
yeah i'm not a bully i don't go around
starting fighting i
feel like you were a troublemaker
everybody will look for every reason
they can to be negative while dave was
labeled as a criminal
john cena was america's sweetheart you
were any good at your job you wouldn't
be standing here surrounded by security
he's just one of those suck-up kiss-ass
baby faces you should be fired
i don't care what you think as dave
batista's jealousy pushed him to the
breaking point
everything's going to cena absolutely
living the dream
i'm still out there busting my ass it
should have been me
and you stand up there expecting the
business to be given to you who the hell
you think you are there was nights when
it's like a war zone between you and me
who's better me
why are you so angry when i say i was
desperate i mean i'm not joking i was
desperate this guy who saw so much
violence he wasn't going to amount to
anything
often didn't even have money to eat
three people died on his doorstep before
he turned nine i
fought very hard there was nights when i
thought i was gonna walk out the door
the
night and get shot i was a bouncer from
the time i was 17
until i was about 30 and i was uh broke
and had no future and had two kids and i
was
desperate so i had to go borrow money
from a club owner because i didn't have
money to buy my kids christmas presents
and i was so humiliated and i just
wanted to make a change and i just
didn't know what to do
i don't have an education i don't really
have any training or
job training but i have this great big
huge body there were advertising that
you could come and try out to be a
professional wrestler and you go and you
paid like 300 bucks
i left everything behind when i say i
was desperate i mean i'm not joking i
was desperate i had nothing
i looked like a professional wrestler i
was always bigger than the rest of the
kids
and i borrowed money and start training
as a professional
wrestler it was basically boot camp and
they just
singled me out and ran me into the
ground so i was throwing up the people
you came up with in your class was john
cena
we all really bonded together and we
knew we were going to kind of move up
together
and be the generation of wwe superstars
finally able to feed his kids dave
thought he'd left his tough childhood
behind
and i was very comfortable i was making
a very good living
people who grew up with me were just
shocked to find out that i was
you know a professional wrestler that i
was speaking in front of people
i'm just such an introvert it's physical
theater it's very much a physical
performance it was something i was
very comfortable with as dave continued
wrestling
he decided that he wanted to do more
than just use his body
and i went and did a film as a favor for
a friend i love storytelling
i'm passionate about it that's the way i
wanted the direction of my career to go
my big goal is to be making films i
became obsessed with acting
but someone else got all the
opportunities leaving dave behind
when wwe started doing films and
commercials and i noticed
that everything more and more was going
to cena
he's very well spoken he's good-looking
uh he's educated there's ever just he's
so all-american but he's getting all
these opportunities that i'm not getting
but that just seemed a little unfair to
me i didn't want to be you know feel
like i'm a second-class citizen
dave was heartbroken he'd been put in a
box
i'm out there you know busting my ass on
these shows it should have been
me it's so cool you can't even show up
on time and you stand up there
expecting the business to be given to
you and so i simply asked the question
was
you know is there any opportunity for me
to do films
and they said you know sorry we need you
here we need you on the shows they
wouldn't let me do anything outside the
company i was
stuck within the company wrestling and i
wanted to
more for myself because i was limited
within wwe
dave was forbidden from chasing his
dream
and he said well if you're not going to
let me pursue something that i'm really
passionate about then i'm going to leave
i walked out the door and they didn't
think i was going to and i walked out on
top
i said that i will never go back to
wrestling until i
prove what i set out to prove and that
was that i could make it as an actor and
i didn't leave the wwe because i hated
it
i loved being there but i just i had to
leave or i would have been
i would have been limited for the rest
of my life dave risked it all
to break out of the box not knowing he
was about to face
his biggest challenge in hollywood they
just have a bad perception of
what professional wrestling is and so
those are some of the kind of the walls
that i had to break down those
stereotypes i lost everything because i
took a chance of myself
because i had this passion for acne i
was uh really desperate at the time i
hardly worked in three years i'd gone
broke i'd lost all my money from
wrestling
finally got an agent i wanted to focus
on not so much being an action star and
being
a cliche character that you know people
would expect me to be i worked with my
acting coach a lot of times i just
couldn't even get into audition
but one day he was finally given a
chance
and my agent says you know i really had
to fight you to get you this uh audition
i don't want to get your hopes up did my
audition and she said uh
congratulations mr drex and i literally
just broke down on it i was just a mess
and it was a big deal to me
and i worked and working struggles we
finally got the dream role of a lifetime
dave had proven himself and decided to
make peace with his past
first call i made after i wrapped was i
said hey man i'd really like to come
back and wrestle for a little bit
you're being inducted into the wwe right
the hall of fame
[Applause]
in kind of the mainstream of hollywood
you've got yourself dwayne johnson and
john cena yeah
is there a rivalry no i don't think so
at all he's found a niche in comedy and
he's just
really good at it i love him in comedies
by breaking
out of the box dave made his dreams come
true
inspiring others like him it's always my
goal to like inspire people especially
like poor kids
my story of uh just you know coming from
nothing
and and making a conscious effort to
just not waste my life
by you telling these stories by telling
where you come from
that inspires people i just have a
big picture in my head like i know where
i'm at and i know where i want to be
you just follow your dream even if it's
day by day and you should i want to be
remembered for making the most out of my
life
you