Former WWE and World Heavyweight Champion Batista has been in the wrestling business since debuting in 2002 as Reverend Devon's heavy, Deacon Batista. While Batista is currently an actor starring in the popular Guardians of the Galaxy movies and more recently, Blade Runner 2049, he still longs to be in that squared circle.
The former champ sat down with hall of famer Jim Ross and discussed a potential return to the WWE:
"I've never burnt that bridge because I still love wrestling and everybody in the WWE has 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. I don't really have any reason to. I didn't leave there under bad circumstances, I left just 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. I did business the right way. I'm really thankful that I did. The short answer to that 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 and I love it. The one off thing, the cheap pop thing, it doesn't do anything for me.
So now it's a matter of scheduling if I can go back and if I happen to get injured is it going to affect something else? ... It took me a few months the last time I went back, it took me three months to really get in a groove and get people to react the way I thought they were going to react. I'm just not a cheap pop guy. It just doesn't work for me. It's not appealing to me at all, it actually turns me off."
However, according to Batista, he's still in contact with Vince McMahon:
"But I stay in touch, man, I've talked to Vince (McMahon) recently and he knows what I want. I've made it very clear that I wanted to go back and run a program with Hunter. I've been very public about it and I think that's the thing that would get me back."