WWE News: Batista reveals original plan for his WWE return in 2018
What's the story?
Speaking in an interview with Pro Wrestling Sheet’s Ryan Satin, Batista has revealed the original plan for his WWE return in October 2018.
In case you didn't know…
Two months after he main-evented WrestleMania 30 against Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan, Batista’s short-term deal with WWE came to an end in June 2014 and he left the company again following back-to-back pay-per-view defeats against Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose at Extreme Rules and Payback.
Four years later, he made his long-awaited WWE return in his hometown of Washington, DC in October 2018 at SmackDown 1000, where he reunited with Evolution and planted the seeds for a possible match against former Evolution colleague Triple H.
In February 2019, Batista attacked Ric Flair during his 70th birthday celebration on Raw, setting up a rivalry with Triple H which culminated in “The Game” winning a 25-minute match between the two men at WrestleMania 35.
The following day, Batista officially confirmed his retirement as an in-ring competitor.
The heart of the matter
Batista, Ric Flair, Triple H and Randy Orton’s promo about their days as the Evolution faction took place inside the ring on the 1000th episode of SmackDown.
However, “The Animal” has revealed that WWE originally wanted the four men to talk from the stage area, but he convinced Vince McMahon to let them do it from the ring.
He said:
“Originally they wanted us to do the promo from the stage. I was like, ‘Are you crazy? Can’t it be in the ring?’, so Hunter was the one who was like, ‘I agree, man, go ask Vince’ … Vince has always been good to me – we’ve had our differences – but Vince has always been good to me. Anyway, he let me do that and we did our thing, we teased it and it went over great.”
What's next?
Batista’s next movie, Stuber, will be released next month, so expect to hear more from the WWE legend during media interviews over the next few weeks.