As noted, former WWE Superstar Dave Bautista recently appeared as a guest on Jim Ross’ weekly podcast, The Ross Report for an in-depth interview. Below are some additional highlights from the conversation.
On WWE not knowing what to do with him at times during his most recent WWE run and Dolph Ziggler calling him out on Twitter: “The last time I went back [to WWE], there were certain weeks that they just had no idea what they wanted to do with me. I was just back [and] they didn’t have a plan. They actually had Diggler, Ziggler, tweet out something, like, calling me out one night and that was how they built the program, which I was not happy about. We threw together a match, but that was such a waste of time. You’re not telling a story. That’s what I mean, but that’s how the business has changed, I guess.”
On being willing to go back to WWE but his schedule not permitting it, and his recent contact with Vince McMahon: “That has been the issue for me, man, because I’ve never burnt that bridge, man. It really is because I still love wrestling and everybody in WWE has always been really good to me. I have my gripes with the company, but I’m sure everybody else does. At the same time, I don’t ever disrespect the company intentionally. I don’t have any reason to. But also because I didn’t leave there under bad circumstances. I just left because I wanted to pursue other things. I didn’t walk out on them. I let my contract run out. They knew I was going to be leaving, so I did business the right way and I’m really thankful that I did. But the short answer to that is, yes, I would love to go back, but the reason I have not gone back is because I don’t want to do a one-off. I want to go and I want to wrestle. I want to do some house shows. I want to be a part of the program. And the one-off thing, the cheap pop thing, man, it doesn’t do anything for me. So now, it’s a matter of scheduling if I can go back and if I get injured is it going to affect something else? Yeah. I’m just not a cheap pop guy, man. It just doesn’t work for me. It’s not appealing to me at all. Actually, it turns me off. Yeah, but no. I stay in touch [with WWE] and I’ve talked to Vince recently and he knows what I want.”
On wanting to return to do a program with Triple H: “I’ve made it very clear that I want to go back and wrestle Hunter. I’ve been very public about it and I think that’s the thing that would get me back. Yeah, and I just think, for one, there’d be so much history there [that] it’d be an easy story to tell, so we wouldn’t have to spend that much time telling that story and we could get right back in the flow. And also, if I am a little rusty or a lot rusty, Hunter’s just… to me, Hunter’s the best there has ever been, so I could just fall into his groove and allow him to make up for my weaknesses. And he’s great. He’s great, man.”
Check out the complete Batista interview at PodcastOne.com.
