Dave Bautista on Misses Wrestling But Won’t Tarnish His “Storybook Ending” By Coming Out of Retirement

A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast featured former WWE wrestler Dave Bautista, also known as Batista, as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Bautista’s thoughts about if he had known that his match against Triple H at WrestleMania 35 in 2019 would be the last match of his wrestling career and not wanting to tarnish his “storybook ending” by coming out of retirement.

“I did, I just didn’t tell anybody else because I didn’t want it to be a big ordeal. I didn’t want to go out and do the tour and give a speech. I wanted to have my match, and I wanted to call it a career, so I wanted to go out on my own terms. It was great. I was really proud of it. It was the way I wanted to go out. This was like a dream for me. It’s so perfect. It’s such a romantic way. Wrestlers don’t get to choose the way they go out. I did. I went out on my own terms, the way I wanted, with the guy I wanted to go out with. I will never tarnish that. It’s not that I don’t miss it. I miss the crowd, I miss the energy of the crowd. I dream about walking out and hearing my entrance music, but I know if I do that, I would just tarnish my storybook ending, and I’m just not willing to do it.”

Bautista also gave his thoughts about if he has ever come close to wanting to wrestle again.

“There’s always temptation because I miss it, and every time I hear my music, I want that feeling again. It’s like a drug. It just fires me up. It’s pure adrenaline. I will never get that anywhere else. I just have to come to terms that my time has passed.”

Bautista also gave his thoughts about if there are still plans for him to be inducted into WWE’s Hall of Fame.

“Eventually, I will. I want to and there was a good opportunity for me to go in a couple of years ago and I agreed to do it. Hunter asked me to do it.

It was here in LA and I thought it was storybook because I won my first title here in LA and we just couldn’t figure it out. I was working on a film, I was in South Africa, so logistically, we just couldn’t make it happen but I’m still open to it and one day I would like to.”

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