Dave Bautista Says Nothing Will Make Him Return To WWE
More than a decade into his very lucrative acting career, Dave Bautista says there's nothing that will make him return to the WWE. Bautista wrestled for the WWE under the name "Batista" on and off between 2010 and 2019. During his career, he won the World Heavyweight Championship four different times as he became one of the more popular figures in the sport.
Bautista has parlayed his popularity as a wrestler into a very lucrative acting career. Most famously, in 2014, he took on the role of Drax, a rowdy alien with super strength and not a whole lot of smarts in Guardians of the Galaxy. He's since appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with his next MCU appearance set for Thor: Love and Thunder. He's also appeared in films like Blade Runner: 2049, Hotel Artemis and more. Clearly, Mr. Bautista's movie career is prospering, and it seems like that success would be a reason enough for anyone to leave their former career behind.
Speaking at Zack Snyder's Justice Con recently, Bautista put to rest any notion that he'd ever resume his WWE career. The whole matter started when Justice Con host, Enosh Fee, suggested that a COVID-19 vaccination could get Bautista, who will appear in Snyder's Army of the Dead movie next month, back into wrestling. After dismissing that idea, Bautista elaborated on his reasoning, saying:
It's hard to convince people that I'm actually retired. You have no idea how tough that discussion is. When professional wrestlers retire, they don't really retire. They kind of retire. But, you know, when the paycheck's big enough or the event's big enough, they come out of retirement. It's just not that way with me. I exited the business in such a storybook way, I'd never go back. I would never take away from that. I am just done, man. I really got to finish on my own terms and nothing is going to take away from that.
Considering his own past, Bautista's point is well taken. Back in 2019, five years after he stepped away from the ring, Bautista returned to the WWE and beat down Ric Flair for the wrestling icon's 70th birthday. While that was probably a blast, two years later, it looks like Bautista is all set with that being the end of his wrestling career.
Next up for Bautista is Army of the Dead, a Zack Snyder-directed film that is set to be released through Netflix on May 14. The film is described as a zombie heist action movie about a group of people plotting a major heist as a zombie outbreak explodes in Las Vegas. For the upcoming flick, Bautista plays the role of a man named Scott Ward, who operates as the leader of the mercenary squad. Depending on how it performs, the movie could be another reason for Bautista to focus on his acting career more than anything else.
Source: Justice Con
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