i TV Pinoy

Source: Dennis Gasgonia, abs-cbnnews.com

-- Wrestling giant Dave “The Animal” Batista makes his return to the country to help a Pinoy company launch its brand new product.

The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) superstar, known as David Michael Bautista in real life, made an appearance at the Crown Plaza Galleria in Ortigas Saturday afternoon to endorse “Xplode” Energy Drink.

“I am honored and excited to represent Xplode,” said Batista, a half Pinoy-half Greek. “I look forward to working with Xplode team on their new campaign.”

Batista, already on his fifth visit to the Philippines, also spent time chatting with the media people as he shared how proud he is to be Pinoy.

“I get asked a lot what trait I have that most represents Filipinos, I would say it’s my work ethic,” said Batista. “I go back to my grandfather… he’s always had like three or four jobs. He was the hardest working person I knew.”

The 6’6” wrestler, who started out in WWE as “Deacon Batista”, said that this same trait is also typical among Filipino fighters, especially Manny Pacquiao.

“People around the world has started to take notice how a great athlete he (Pacquiao) is,” said Batista.

“Filipino fighters like Manny Pacquiao and [mixed martial artist] Brandon Vera are making their way around the world. I think they probably have a lot of traits that I have as well… they have good work ethic,” he added.

Edwin Totanes, general manager for beverages of Universal Robina Corp., said Batista is the perfect endorser for their new product.

“Dave is a world class athlete. He epitomizes the image of the brand we’re trying to project. As we all know, Dave also has Filipino roots and Xplode is a Filipino product, so we saw the match,” said Totanes.