Like Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and John Cena before him, Dave Bautista has made a huge impact in Hollywood. He's become an A-Lister thanks to the Guardians of the Galaxy and Dune franchises and officially "retired" from WWE in 2019.
At WrestleMania 35, he battled Triple H in a memorable "No Holds Barred" match; the former WWE Champion requested to put his former Evolution partner over and has now confirmed he won't ever step back into the ring for one more match.
Asked if he knew that the 2019 bout would be it for him, Bautista replied, "I did. I just didn’t tell anybody. I didn’t want it to be a big ordeal. I didn’t want to, you know, 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 in New York."
"I lost. You got to go out on your back. This is like a dream for me. This is why 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 a crowd. I miss the energy of the crowd."
He added, "I dream about walking out and hearing my entrance music, but I know if I do that, I will just tarnish my storybook ending, and I’m just not willing. It’s always a temptation because I miss it, and every time I hear my music, I want that feeling again. It’s like a drug. I just have to come to terms with my time has passed."
Before the pandemic, the plan was for Bautista - who some of you will know better by his in-ring name "Batista" - to be inducted into the 2020 WWE Hall of Fame. Hollywood commitments closed the door on it taking place in later years, but he remains keen for it to happen..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. And I said, ‘Yeah, of course.’ And but it was here in LA, and I thought it was perfect," he explained. "It was storybook, because I won my first title here in LA."
"We couldn’t figure it out because I was working on a film I was in South Africa, so logistically, we just couldn’t make it happen. But, yeah, I’m still open to it. One day I would like to."
You can check out the full interview in the player below.