Batista has become a major Hollywood star since leaving WWE. This includes big roles in the movies: Guardians of the Galaxy and Spectre. It appears as if his Hollywood fame has not taken away from his passion of the wrestling business as he displayed on his recent appearance on the Ross Report podcast.
Batista revealed that he has no interest in returning to WWE for a “one off” appearance or for a “cheap pop”. When he returns, he wants to be fully invested:
“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.”
He continued:
“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.”
He also revealed that he still stays in touch with Vince McMahon and has told him that he wants to have a program with Triple H (something that he has mentioned in previous interviews). He says he thinks that program would get him to return:
“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.”
Let us know what you think in the comment section below. [h/t to Cageside Seats]
I want to see Batista work with newer talent