Bautista took a chance on himself.
"The Animal" and former 6-time WWE World Champion Dave Bautista officially announced that he was retiring from the squared circle after he had the opportunity to wrestle his longtime friend Triple H this past April at WrestleMania 35. Bautista had been speaking about having a singles match with Triple H for years and he returned to WWE this year and that match finally happened.
Bautista has had three runs in the company with his first concluding in 2010. He departed from the company because he was interested in pursuing a career in acting. He wanted to prove to himself that he could make it in acting and wanted to initially pursue that under the company banner but WWE needed him on their shows and for their reasons, could not let him pursue that. Bautista made the decision to exit the company and went on to become successful in Hollywood. During his panel at the Denver Pop Culture Con, "The Animal" recalled going broke after leaving WWE in 2010 and discussed wanting to prove to himself that he could do something he felt he was not so good at initially.
“I was with WWE at the time, and I went and did a film. I had zero interest in acting. All I wanted to do was wrestle. I loved wrestling. I was obsessed with wrestling, and I went and did a film as a favor for a friend and I realized I was horrible, I was a horrendous actor. I was so mortified that I wanted to prove I could be better and the company, they wouldn’t let me do anything outside the company. I was stuck within the company wrestling and I wanted to pursue acting and they said, ‘Sorry, we need you here. We need you on the shows’, and I said, ‘Well, if you’re not gonna let me pursue something I’m really passionate about, then I’m gonna leave’, and so about eight months later I walked out the door and they didn’t think I was going to and I walked out on top and I was very comfortable." He continued, "I was making a good living and I walked out and then I starved for three years, I went broke, I lost everything, I couldn’t get a job and I said that I will never go back to wrestling until I prove what I set out to prove and that was that I could make it as an actor and then I got the role in Guardians and when I got the role in Guardians I finished the film and the first call I made after I wrapped was to Vince McMahon. I said, ‘Hey man, I’d really like to come back and wrestle for a little bit.’” He shared.
Dave Bautista lost his WrestleMania 35 match against Triple H via an assist from two-time WWE Hall Of Famer Ric Flair. Flair recently had a health scare and during an interview he spoke about how that health scare came about and provided an update on how he's feeling. To check out Fightful's published article about Flair's comments, click here.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit the Denver Pop Culture Con YouTube page with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.
