Dave Bautista ended his career on his own terms, defeating Triple H in his retirement bout at WrestleMania 35 in 2019.
The future WWE Hall of Famer wanted to do the honors out of respect for Triple H, given everything he has accomplished in his career. The former WWE star has made it clear that he will not return from retirement for another match.
During an interview with Chris Van Vliet to promote his “Killer’s Game” film, Bautista discussed John Cena’s retirement tour and why he didn’t announce WrestleMania 35 would be his final match before it.
Bautista said, “I get along with John. I respect John a lot. A lot more than people think I do for some reason. I think the internet and fans have built this rivalry between us, which, there, really isn’t, but this is how we’re different. I would never do this. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t feel it would feel disingenuous to me to go around, but where 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 couldn’t do it. I would feel uncomfortable to me, like accolades feel uncomfortable to me, like I could never be the type of babyface who was saying good stuff because I wanted to get the crowd to cheer for me, Like I couldn’t be that guy. And I love and respect what he’s doing with his whole tour, to say, you know, thank you to the fans, but we’re just different that way, like I couldn’t do it. I went out the way I wanted. I retired the way I wanted. I don’t want to make a big deal out of it. I announced my retirement on Instagram, you know, and I knew I was going to do it. I just didn’t want to tell anybody I was going to do it because I didn’t want anybody to say, no, no, you got to come in. You have to give a speech, you know, to the fans, and I don’t know, just something about it would have felt false to me. And I couldn’t do it. “
You can check out the complete interview below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
