Dave Bautista, better known to WWE fans as Batista, has found enormous success in the acting world in the past few years.
Some of his acting credits include starring in two Guardians of the Galaxy films (which raked in a combined $1.63 billion at the worldwide box office) and a role in Avengers: Infinity War ($2.02 billion) as Drax the Destroyer, Hinx in Spectre, Sapper Morton in Blade Runner: 2049 and most recently Everest in the action film Hotel Artemis. He also has four films in post production and is currently filming a fifth, an action comedy titled Stuber.
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And yet for all his success in some of Hollywood’s biggest franchises, there’s been no sign of Batista in the WWE since his last stint in 2014.
According to PWInsider’s Mike Johnson, that doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon. On Saturday, Johnson wrote that for, whatever reason, WWE hasn’t made a Batista comeback a priority.
The former world champion has stated in multiple interviews over the past year that he’s interested in some sort of return to the company in the near future. He said in an interview back in April that it almost became a reality at WrestleMania 34, with him slated to team with Ronda Rousey to take on Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in a mixed tag match.
“But they reached out to me earlier this year to possibly come back and do that thing with Ronda [Rousey],” Batista said. “And I said that I would be willing to do it only if we teased something for me and Hunter to go to Mania next year. And they said, ‘Yeah, that would be great. I love that idea.’ And I said, ‘Well, that’s great. I’ll come back a few times during the year, and we’ll tease it, and we’ll work it and we’ll milk it. And we’ll go to Mania, me and Hunter, next year.’ Oh, I love that idea. Let’s do it!”
But, as we all know now, that match never came to be. Rousey ended up teaming with Raw general manager Kurt Angle instead. Batista said he was never told the plans were scrapped, only that the conversation stopped.
“I sent a text to Hunter. I was like, ‘Hey man, I don’t know if you put any more thought into what’s going on. I’m really excited about the possibilities.’ And I literally never heard back from them. They just stopped talking to me about it. Man, I don’t know what else I can do to try to … I want to end my career the right way. I’m faithful and loyal to the WWE. I’m proud of being from there and I want to do good business with them, but they just don’t make it easy. You know, they just don’t.”
Wrestling Observer‘s Dave Meltzer said in late April that Batista’s pitched WrestleMania 35 match is still a possibility.
Debuting in 2002, Batista wrestled in the WWE up through 2010, then came back for a six-month run in 2014. His accomplishments include six world championship reigns (four World Heavyweight, two WWE), four tag team championship reigns and two Royal Rumble victories.
