His big action-comedy with Kumail Nanjiani, Stuber, comes out today, and that means we’re getting lots of press coverage of Dave Bautista. The man WWE fans know as Batista never minces words, which makes it very hard to find a dull interview with The Animal.
Tom Philip’s chat with Bautista for GQ is an especially good one. Philip is well-versed on Dave’s career - including when the conversation turns to pro wrestling. They discuss his match with Triple H at WrestleMania 35, which Bautista was really happy with. He also swears it was his last one; he says he’ll come back and “be a personality on the show” for WWE, but never to wrestle.
It’s that vow which gets them on the topic of WWE’s use of older stars, and guys who come back “for the wrong reasons”. From there, since Super ShowDown gave us the crown jewel (pun very much intended) of matches that shouldn’t have happened, it was time to talk last month’s Undertaker vs. Goldberg encounter from Jeddah.
Bautista even says he reached out to the Phenom ahead of the show to try and dissuade him:
“I called, man. I called ‘Taker and said, ‘Is there any way I could change your mind?’ He laughed, and I knew I couldn’t change his mind. He said ‘it sounded good when we first started talking about it’. I only saw highlights which were, you know, low lights. it was not good. It’s just bad circumstances all the way around. I feel like Taker’s there for the right reasons. I think he’s there because he still loves it. But I wish that they would utilize him in the right way. I think a novelty match with Goldberg is the wrong way. I just don’t think it’s good for anybody and especially it’s not good for the fans. I wouldn’t have gone to Saudi at all. I don’t care who they would’ve booked me with. I just would not have gone.”
That’s the kind of honesty we expect from the Animal. Maybe the next time Dave calls him up, the Dead Man will listen.
Check out the rest of Bautista’s great interview with Philip at GQ’s website here.