Dave Bautista on “I Will Go F*cking Broke And Be Poor Before I Ever Go Back To Wrestling” & Why Hollywood Feels Like “Luxury” After WWE Grind

W.O.L.F. GYMS held a recent interview with Dave Bautista, former Batista in WWE. One of the topics discussed included Bautista’s thoughts about him walking away from WWE in 2010 and his reasons for his decision to leave.

“I left the company, I left on good terms. I left at the height of my career, but it was for the right reasons. It was hard as fuck to walk away because I walked away and I went broke. It was nice having that check come in every week, man. I walked away because the company was heading in a direction that just wasn’t right for me. It worked out, I was lucky that it worked out. I walked away as champ, I walked away on top.”

Bautista also gave his thoughts about how he would rather go broke and be poor before he ever goes back to wrestling.

“It’s hard to walk away. Most people don’t walk away. It’s almost like a running joke when wrestlers retire because they never retire. They retire like five times. People always thought throughout these years that I would come back, I would come out of retirement. I told them over and over, I had a fucking storybook ending and I won’t shit ok it. I’ll go and do manual labor before I tarnish that. If I go broke again, I know what it’s like to be poor. I don’t like being poor, but I know what it’s like. I will go fucking broke and be poor before I ever go back to wrestling. I will never wrestle again.”

Bautista also gave his thoughts about the physical, mental, and financial toll of pro wrestling back in his day.

“I can’t speak for how it is now, but when I was there you’re just grinding, you’re pulling your own weight and most of the time it’s not only physically very difficult and mentally very difficult, it’s also expensive.

When I was wrestling, they pretty much provided you with airfare, and that was it.

Not food, not cars, not hotels, none of that. So, my first few years of wrestling I was broke. Until 2005 when I became World Champion and started to make some money, I was still borrowing money from people. I was living in a tiny apartment when I was World Champion, ‘cause I had just become world champion, hadn’t started making money yet.

I used to go to those check cashing places and get like a $300 loan. And then you’d come back, pay it and borrow another 300 and do that week after week. That around 2005 is when I didn’t have to do that anymore and I started to make money. But until then I was grinding.”

Bautista also gave his thoughts about how his Hollywood acting career has been a “luxury” compared to his pro wrestling career.

“I always tell everybody coming from wrestling, this is gravy because when I was on wrestling, not only was I grinding and grinding harder and it was in a different spot every night. That’s a luxury about film making. You’re typically in the same place for long periods of time. Whereas wrestling, you’re changing talents every night, every day. You’re moving, moving, hustling. Also nobody’s catering to you. Nobody is setting up stuff for you. You don’t have a trailer. It’s not people there helping you with things and moving you along and making your life easier.”

Bautista last wrestled in a No Holds Barred match against Triple H at WWE WrestleMania 35 in April of 2019.

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com, F4WOnline.com