Over the last few years a number of big names have retired including Goldberg, John Cena and AJ Styles. A few years ago former WWE Champion Dave Bautista stepped up to face Triple H at WrestleMania 35, and he later revealed that was his last match. Still a number of fans have been wondering if he could potentially return someday, but it seems that a return just isn’t in the cards.
During a recent interview with Cale Owens, Dave Bautista confirmed that he will never return to the ring. The Animal noted that he doesn’t want to tarnish his storybook ending, and even said that he could go broke before he ever returned to wrestling.
“It’s hard to walk away. Most people don’t. That’s why it’s almost like a running joke when wrestlers retire, because they never retire. They retire like five times. People always thought over the years that I would come back, that I’d come out of retirement. I told them over and over, I won’t. I had a f*****g storybook ending, and I won’t s**t on it.
I’ll go do manual labor before I tarnish that. 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, and I will go f*****g broke and be poor before I ever go back to wrestling. I will never wrestle again.”
Dave Bautista was originally announced for the WWE Hall of Fame class in 2020, but his induction was delayed due to the pandemic. It’s still unclear when he may end up getting officially inducted.