Batista Explains Why He Won’t Return to the Ring

During an appearance on Talk is Jericho, Batista discussed the final match of his career at WrestleMania 35 against Triple H. Speaking with Chris Jericho, Batista explained why the match was his retirement match for sure and why it had to be a match against Triple H. The actor/wrestler, of course, announced his retirement after the match in a post to his social media accounts.

Highlights from the discussion are below, plus the full audio:

On his retirement being legit: “I’m done, yeah. My in-ring career is over. I would go back if they invited me on the show to go back and be a personality, or just to go back and say hi to the fans, cut a really bad promo [laughs]. I would do it, because you know, I just love it. I love professional wrestling. But I will never, I will not go back [to wrestle]. I will not disrespect myself or my career and wrestle. I just won’t do it. And I wanted to retire the way I did because I didn’t want to make a big stink out of it. I didn’t want to give some speech that some writer has written out for me. It wasn’t like, you know, it was just for me. It was just a way for me to personally say [goodbye]. And that’s why I did it over my social media, because I’m speaking to my fans. Because nobody else other than my fans give a s**t. I wanted to let them know that I just enjoyed everything, I enjoyed the ride, thank you for everything. I’m done, I’m just so done.”

On if he knew it would be the last match beforehand: “Oh yeah, yeah. One way or another, whether it was horrible or not. That’s why I was like, when it was over I was so relieved. I was so relieved, because it couldn’t have been — that match could have been disastrous. I mean, it could have been a horror show, but I think it — you know, we accomplished, two old guys got in there and we put it on the line. And I think we gave them our money’s worth. And I think we both proved a point to the fans and to ourselves that we deserved to be on that card.”

On wanting to face Triple H for a long time: “It was the way I wanted to go out. That’s why I tell people it was a story book ending for me, it really was. I envisioned this for years, it was the way I wanted to go out. It was my storybook ending, and it happened. But I had to make it happen. Like, I had to scratch and claw and fight for this to happen, and it happened, and it was just — it couldn’t have gone better for me.”

On why it had to be Triple H: “I needed it to be Hunter because I couldn’t see myself closing out my career with anybody else, because he just made my career, you know? I mean, literally he put me over when he was at the height of his career, put me over three times clean, never got it back, just so I could go on within the company and be a star. And that was what started everything for me was the whole — my whole career took off after that, and it just wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t done that for me. And that says a lot. He worked really hard, it was three clean matches where he put me over, like right in the middle of the ring, just to build me.”