Former WWE star and current actor Dave Bautista was interviewed by Heather Wixson at The Daily Dead to promote the upcoming release at the Sundance Film Fesitval of his movie, “Bushwick” and was asked a series of questions about his last run with WWE in 2014.
The following are excerpts from the interview:
Why didn’t his last run with WWE work:
“It was the company, man. They really just screwed me over. I was banging my head against the wall every day. It’s one of those things, I wish people knew how hard I fought to be there and how hard I fought to just give them the best matches and performances that I could. But it was an everyday struggle dealing with the company. It was such a f***ing nightmare.”
On originally being slated to wrestle Daniel Bryan in his last PPV match with WWE and getting it changed:
“What most fans don’t realize is that I stayed an extra month. The reason I had to leave was because I had to go and do press for Marvel for Guardians of the Galaxy. They were actually nice enough to let me stay an extra month. They wanted me to stay that extra month and work with Daniel Bryan at another pay-per-view, but I just thought that didn’t even make sense. We were just starting the Evolution thing, so why couldn’t we run with that instead of me putting Daniel over again, which I just did at WrestleMania? We’re not going to have a better match there than we did at Mania. Let’s just work more with Evolution and build these guys up. So we did. Then right after we built the hell out of them and they were so strong as a unit, they broke them all up. I said, “What is wrong with you guys?” But that was my struggle. I also think a lot of people thought that I really quit, that I really walked out, when in reality, I really stayed an extra month more than I was obligated to do just because I really wanted to be there. I felt like I finally hit my stride and I was so happy to be there again.”
Being blown off by Triple H and Stephanie McMahon for wanting to return at SummerSlam 2014 during the time “Guardians of the Galaxy” was released:
“I said to them, because I wanted to come back for SummerSlam, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if I came back right when I’m also in the biggest film in the world?’ Literally, it was Hunter [Triple H] and Stephanie [McMahon] who laughed at me, and Hunter goes, ‘We don’t even know if it’s going to be any good.’ I swear to God. But I wanted to go back for SummerSlam, and they didn’t want me to come back. I think because they thought it was such a failure, that run, and it wasn’t a failure because of me. Sorry, I’m venting now.”