Dave Bautista is not coming back to WWE. Not for one more match, not for a massive payday, and not even if his bank account hits zero.
During an appearance on the Live Fierce podcast with W.O.L.F Gyms co-owner Cale Owen, Bautista shut down the comeback talk again and made it clear that protecting his retirement matters more than money.
“People always thought throughout these years that I would come back, that I would come out of retirement. I told them over and over, I won’t. I had a fcking storybook ending, and I won’t sht on it. I will not. I’ll go and do manual labor before I tarnish that.”
Bautista knows what it feels like to struggle financially, and he says he would go through it again before stepping back into the ring.
“If I go broke again, I know what it’s like to be poor. I don’t like being poor, but I know what it’s like. I will go fcking broke and be poor before I ever go back to wrestling. I will never wrestle again.”*
For Bautista, there is nothing left to fix. He ended his career against Triple H at WrestleMania 35, facing the opponent he wanted in the kind of match he wanted.
“I went out the way I wanted, with a guy I wanted to go out with. It’s never going to be that good again, and I just won’t tarnish it.”
“I feel so good about it. I’m so proud of the way I went out. I won’t sht on it.”*
Bautista also knows wrestling retirements have become a running joke because so many stars keep coming back for another match.
“It’s hard to walk away. Most people don’t walk away. This is why it’s almost like a running joke when wrestlers retire, because they never retire. They retire like five times.”
Bautista lost to Triple H in a No Holds Barred match at WrestleMania 35 in April 2019 and announced his retirement hours later. He left as a six-time world champion and has refused to mess with that ending ever since.
Plenty of wrestlers say they are finished before the right offer pulls them back in. Bautista says there is no offer big enough—and he would rather pick up a manual labor job than ruin the final chapter he already wrote.
Do you believe Dave Bautista will stay retired for good, or could WWE eventually find an offer that changes his mind? Leave your thoughts and feedback in the comments.
