5 things we learned from the Batista 'WWE 24' documentary

Former WWE Champion Dave "Batista" Bautista announced his retirement from professional wrestling following his No Holds Barred match against longtime in-ring partner and rival Triple H at WrestleMania 35.

The bout, which featured the former Evolution stablemates pulling out all the stops for one final, violent in-ring encounter, capped Batista's WWE career which spanned nearly two decades.

This past Monday night, WWE Network aired a special WWE 24 documentary covering Batista's road to WrestleMania 35, and taking an in-depth look at how the bout between The Animal and The Game came to fruition, and the intense training Batista put into his final performance in a WWE ring.

In the following piece, we take a look at five things we learned from the fantastic WWE 24 special which is currently available on the WWE Network.

#1 Batista began his wrestling career out of necessity

The WWE 24 Network special takes a very personal look at Batista's troubled childhood, with The Animal himself admitting that as an adolescent he was "goalless" and had no relationship with his father.

Batista furthered that once he became an adult, he found himself broke and unable to feed his children. Batista even admitted to spending time in jail, and revealed it was out of a necessity to provide for his family that he made the decision to enter the world of professional wrestling.

It was truly incredible to see the documentation of Batista's drive throughout his career, and the WWE 24 special takes a close look at his early days as a pro wrestler, and the sense of urgency, drive and work ethic which was fueled by the need to care for his children.

That same drive continued to bleed into Batista's career long after he became a big star in WWE, and carried into his work outside of WWE as his film career continued to flourish.