Bautista explains why he could not do a wrestling retirement tour.
In December 2025, John Cena will have his final match in pro wrestling. He revealed that his retirement tour officially starts at the beginning of 2025 and he’ll be a part of the Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania.
That was brought up to Dave Bautista during his appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet. He said he could not do a wrestling retirement tour because it feels ‘disingenuine’ and ‘uncomfortable’ to him. He understands where Cena is coming from and why he wants to do it. Bautista added that he did not want to make a big deal out of his retirement.
I get along with John (Cena). I respect John a lot. A lot more than people think I do. I think the internet and I think fans have built this rivalry between us which it really isn’t. But this is how we’re different. I would never do this. I wouldn’t, I couldn’t. It would feel disingenuine to me to go around and — but I see his point where he wants to go around and he wants to personally thank all the fans. But there’s just something in me where I just couldn’t do it. It wouldn’t feel comfortable to me. Accolades feel uncomfortable to me. I could never be the type of babyface who is saying good stuff because I wanted to get the crowd to cheer for me. I couldn’t be that guy. I love and respect what he’s doing with his whole tour to say thank you to the fans. But we’re just different that way. I couldn’t do it. I went out the way I wanted out. I retired the way I wanted. I didn’t wanna make a big deal out of it. I announced my retirement on Instagram and I knew I was gonna do it. I just didn’t wanna tell anybody I was gonna do it because I didn’t want anybody to say, nah! Nah! You gotta come and you gotta give a speech! With fans and you know, I don’t know. It’s just something about it just would have felt false to me. I couldn’t do it.
Further speaking about the topic of the WWE Hall of Fame, Bautista said he sometimes felt like his wrestling career is not worthy of an induction.
Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque told him he accomplished a lot in a short amount of time and even if Bautista does believe that, what he’s done outside of wrestling warrants the induction.
No (I don’t think I made it to the top of wrestling). I think if I had stayed longer, I might have. There’s a part of me that always thinks, you know, right guy, right time. I don’t know what I would have achieved if I would have been like a John Cena or a Randy Orton. Been there 13, 14 — 20-time World Champion. I don’t know. But I think what I did in the short period of time that I was actually there, kind of my run between 2005 and 2010, I’m proud of. I can say that I’m proud of it. I’ve had the conversation with Hunter about going into the Hall of Fame and it was always a part of me that makes me feel like my career’s not worthy of going into the Hall of Fame, and he said this to me and it makes sense, and he said, ‘With what you accomplished, you know –’ he said, ‘You accomplished a lot in a short period of time you were there. I think it’s worthy.’ He said, ‘But if you don’t feel like it’s worthy, look at it this way, what you’ve accomplished outside of the company makes you a Hall of Fame WWE wrestler,’ and I would tend to agree with that. I think I’ve accomplished a lot and I’ve never turned my back on my roots. I’ve always been very proud of it, been very open about being a WWE superstar. I think I’m a good ambassador for the company and I think on those merits, if they wanna put me on the Hall of Fame, I’d be proud to accept.
He is currently on a media tour to promote The Killer’s Game film that also stars WWE’s Drew McIntyre. He opened up about recommending McIntyre for the film.
Bautista spoke highly of how Paul Levesque has changed the inner workings of WWE as far as allowing talents to easily venture into other spaces. He said the reason he left WWE is he could not explore other options.
Really just pointing everybody towards Drew (McIntyre for the role in Killer’s Game), because I was having a conversation with J.J. (Perry) and he said, ‘I need a great big guy, a good big guy who’s almost intimidating to you. A guy who would be — kind of dwarf you, he’d be bigger than you.’ He said, ‘And I also need him to be able to pull off a Scottish accent’ and he was like, ‘Do you know anybody?’ I was like, ‘Man, I got the perfect guy.’ I immediately thought of Drew and I love Drew, I’ve always gotten along with Drew and I’ve known Drew probably since he was a teenager. I think he was 18, 19 when I met him. I pointed him in this direction. I sent him a bunch of pictures, some reference stuff and I was like, ‘This is the guy. Don’t even look any further,’ and he said, ‘Oh! I love him! I love him!’ So immediately, I hit up Drew. I say, ‘Hey man, would you be interested?’ He said, ‘Absolutely.’ I said, ‘Check with Hunter and make sure you’re cool.’ I think Hunter — because film stuff changes a lot. I think Hunter’s changed the company in a lot of great ways, but he’s very open-minded to letting people do stuff outside of the company because he really understands that the bigger star they become, the more attention it’ll bring back to WWE which is a great thing, and I think in the past, it was just kind of the opposite. Wanted to keep everything contained, in-house, which was why I ended up leaving the company because I wasn’t afforded the opportunity to do stuff outside of the company. But now, the way things are now and their structure, Hunter’s like, ‘Yes. We want you to do this. Bring us more eyes onto the WWE.’
Dave Bautista was supposed to be inducted into the Hall of Fame when WrestleMania emanated from California in 2023. Due to filming commitments, they were not able to lock it in.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Insight with Chris Van Vliet with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
