WWE legend Batista says he had to keep several inhalers around the ring so he could wrestle despite asthma

Dave Bautista is an accomplished star in Hollywood now, but he rose to fame as a WWE superstar.

The Animal was set to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame earlier this year before the coronavirus pandemic took hold of the world and postponed the ceremony.

Still, the six-time former world champion had a top-tier career in WWE and is still going strong on the silver screen.

What most people don’t realise is that the 51 year old has asthma.

It’s something that plagued him throughout his career and he explained to a fan on Twitter recently that he used to keep several inhalers around ringside in order to combat his asthma.

“I hid inhalers under the ring and with people working around the ring. I’m not kidding. The cold venues were my nightmare.”

In Batista’s early career, he was a dominant competitor who had short matches for the most part, but as he rose to main event fame following his 2005 Royal Rumble win and subsequent departure from Evolution, he had some classics that spanned over half an hour.

The fact that hardly anyone knows about Batista’s struggle is testament to how the man handled it!

Batista won the Royal Rumble twice and on top of his world title wins, he was a tag team champion alongside greats like Ric Flair and John Cena, too.

His career came to a fairytale end at WrestleMania 35 after he lost to Triple H, the man that helped build his career as the leader of Evolution and the man that put him over so well during their 2005 feud.

The Animal had long said he wanted to finish up his career with Triple H and despite pleading with WWE to match the match on several occasions, it never happened.

Then at SmackDown 1000 with a Evolution reunion – despite the group having never been on SmackDown! – the wheels finally got in motion.