The last time Batista wrestled in WWE was in 2014 following a six month run that including his only Royal Rumble win and being a part of the WrestleMania 30 main event. Following a loss with his Evolution buddies Triple H and Randy Orton against The Shield at Payback 2014, Batista quit WWE — at least in storyline — because his movie career was about to take off. Since that happened, he has talked about how mad he was that he didn’t get to work more with Daniel Bryan did an amazing wave and hasn’t been a part of WWE since then.
It’s not like Batista is sitting at home doing nothing. Since he left WWE, his movie career has taken off with major roles in Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and 2, Spectre, Blade Runner 2049, Avengers: Infinity War and more. Needless to say, the man who uses his real name Dave Bautista in movies has been really busy and things aren’t slowing down for the 48-year-old former six-time WWE Champion.
Batista recently appeared on Jim Ross’ podcast for a two-part episode. Part one covered a lot of his wrestling career, including his belief he should have main evented WrestleMania 23, and in part two, Ross asked the man he once recruited to WWE if he wanted to return to WWE one day. Batista explained he wanted to return, but there are some conditions.
“I still love wrestling and everybody in WWE has always been really good to me. I have my gripes with the company, which I’m sure everybody does, but at the same time I don’t ever disrespect the company intentionally and I don’t have any reason to. I left because I wanted to pursue other things. I didn’t walk out on them. I let my contract run out. They knew I was going to be leaving [in 2014], so I did business the right way, and I’m really thankful that I did.”
“The short answer is yes, I would love to go back, but the reason I have not gone back is because I don’t want to do a one off. I want to go and I want to wrestle. I want to do some house shows. I want to be a part of the program. The one-off thing doesn’t do anything for me. Now it’s a matter of the schedule, and if I get injured, it might affect something else.”
Batista expounded on the point he made about not being a one off guy meaning not wanting to show up for one match at a WrestleMania and then leaving.
“It took me a good three months to get into a groove the last time I went back, and to get people to react the way I thought they would react. I’m just not a cheap pop guy. It’s not appealing to me at all; it just turns me off.”
When Ross asked for more of what Batista was looking for, he mentioned talking to WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon recently as well as who he wants to work with.
“I talked to Vince recently and he knows what I want. I’ve made it very clear that want I want to run a program with Hunter. I’ve been public about it. That’s the thing that would get me back. There’s so much history there, so it’s an easy story to tell, so it wouldn’t take much time to tell me the story. Also, if I’m rusty … to me Hunter is the best there’s ever been ,so I can allow him to make up for my weaknesses [laughs].”
This isn’t the first time Batista has talked about wanting one more match with Triple H. When he appeared on Chris Jericho’s podcast in May, he said he wanted a program with Triple H and they didn’t want it. Six months later, it appears as though nothing has changed.
There are a lot of issues in terms of a Batista comeback with the big one being his schedule. A quick look at his IMDb page shows that he’s a very busy man with several more movie roles and he mentioned to Ross he’s finishing up an Avengers movie. Age is also a factor because he’s 48 years old with a lot of injuries in his past. As he mentioned, which is the same issue for The Rock wanting to wrestle again, there are movie companies that won’t allow him to do so because if he got hurt wrestling it may slow up production.
What we can all agree on is that Batista is a bigger star today than he was when he last left WWE because of his success in movies. It would make sense for WWE to want to use him because of the name value he brings. For now, all we know is Batista is willing to come back, but it’s a complicated situation … like most everything in the wrestling business.
