Batista wants nothing to do with AEW’s ‘biggest scoop ever’

Shortly after Batista’s babyface return to WWE bombed in early 2014, he turned heel and put over Daniel Bryan and The Shield before calling it quits in early June. He’s had something of an awkward and tense relationship with WWE since then, but they managed to work out one final return for his retirement story against Triple H at WrestleMania 35 in 2019. Batista officially retired after that match was over. He got the closure he was seeking and was very happy putting his in-ring career behind him.

But “retired” is a dirty word in professional wrestling. In the world of scripted entertainment, there is often plenty of room for older stars from the past to come back just for one final run, at least until their next final run. For example, Sting was retired from the ring after a brief run with WWE in 2015, but he signed with AEW in December 2020, and will wrestle in his comeback match this Sunday (Mar. 7) at Revolution.

So when Paul Wight debuted on AEW with the “biggest scoop ever” about a Hall of Fame worthy star signing a contract with AEW, many fans tried to figure out who the mystery person will end up being. You know how this goes when it comes to identifying patterns that don’t exist - Wight slipped up during his promo and said the name of the pay-per-view was “Evolution” rather than “Revolution.” But what if the expert worker did that on purpose, and was signaling that Evolution member Batista was on his way to becoming All Elite?

Batista tried his best to put that speculation to rest with the following response on Twitter:

“They’re going to have to come up with another word thats used specifically for professional wrestlers who actually mean it when they say they’re retired. Currently the word ‘retired’ has zero credibility by professional wrestling standards.”

It’s really hard to argue with Big Dave’s point about wrestling retirements. I definitely believe Batista when he implies that he is not the “huge, huge star” who will be signing a multi-year contract with AEW on Sunday at Revolution. After all, Batista is a huge, huge Hollywood star who has more attractive options at this stage in life than taking bumps in a wrestling ring.

Is Batista’s response enough for you to cross him off the list for Revolution?