WWE News: Batista Interested In Returning To WWE, Wants To Wrestle The Rock
Ex-WWE World Heavyweight Champion Batista, who has been away from WWE for over a year now, spoke with Chris Van Vliet while promoting the upcoming release of the movie Spectre, which opened last week, and in the interview, he spoke candidly about his 2014 WWE run, and he also expressed a desire to return to WWE at some point in the future.
However, while Batista does have a desire to return to the ring, he did admit that his main focus right now is his acting career, which is going extremely well at the moment.
Over the weekend, Batista did an interview with WWE.com, where he was asked if he would ever go face-to-face with WWE legend The Rock, either in a movie, or in the ring. “The Animal” was also asked if he would consider returning to WWE at any point in the near future.
“At this point, you’re more likely to see [The Rock and I] in the ring together. If you flash back to WrestleMania XX, that would be the only time. I don’t have any plans right now to return to the ring or to do a film with Dwayne, but I would jump at the chance for either opportunity.”
“I miss [wrestling] so much. What I really thought was so interesting is the way that Chris Jericho went back and did Live Events. Live Events are fun, man. It’s really just all about you and the audience. I always just loved that. I’m passionate about it. I’m proud to be a pro wrestler because I love it.”
Going back to his interview with Van Vliet last week, Batista said that if WWE made him an offer where he would only work the non-televised, WWE live events, he’d do it in a heartbeat. The reason why: because, in his words, the live events have fewer boundaries, and you don’t have to deal with the creative team. You just go out there, you wrestle, and you entertain the people. At this point, that sounds way more appealing to him than being on WWE television.
Batista points to his 2014 WWE run as an example of how difficult it can be to work with the WWE creative team, as they wouldn’t allow him to do most of the things he wanted to do. Last summer, Batista went into detail about how difficult the WWE creative team is during his appearance on fellow WWE legend Chris Jericho’s podcast, Talk is Jericho.
If Batista were to wrestle The Rock, it would likely be a huge deal. Not just because the two of them have never had a one-on-one match before, but also because the two of them have been able to go outside of WWE and make names for themselves. Of course The Rock is the more successful of the two, as he is one of the highest grossing actors in Hollywood at the moment.
In the past, Batista has expressed his desire to have another match with his friend and mentor, Triple H. But he would like that match to be the final match of his WWE career.
Batista, who is 46, may not have that many matches left in him. So his next match could very well end up being his retirement match.
As previously stated, Batista is fully focused on his acting career right now, so he probably won’t be returning to WWE unless he has an opening in his schedule, which is when the man he wants to wrestle, The Rock, makes his sporadic WWE returns. But, with WWE trying to make WrestleMania 32 the biggest wrestling event of all-time, who knows: maybe we’ll see Batista and The Rock in the ring with each other as early as next spring.
[Image via Anthony Harvey / Getty Images]
