In an interview with grplgme, an online wrestling clothes brand, Batista stated that he is not finished in the ring – far from it. The short interview manages to hit a few very big questions. Batista notes that he won’t be facing John Cena at WrestleMania – a relief to those who are looking forward to the much hyped undertaker match we are expecting.

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Batista claims that the fact that he hasn’t been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as of yet is due to the fact he doesn’t feel his in-ring career is over, claiming he has turned down a nomination as he thinks he could do more in the ring.

So far, Goldberg, The Dudley Boyz, Ivory, Jeff Jarrett, and Hillbilly Jim have been announced for the wrestlers wing of the Hall of Fame class of 2018, with Jarrius ‘JJ’ Robertson to receive the Warrior award and Kid Rock to be inducted into the celebrity wing.

The process for Hall of Fame nominations has never been openly discussed by WWE, however we have had insight from former WWE personnel such as Bruce Prichard who told Stone Cold on his podcast last year:

“Well, early on, we would submit, to certain people in the company, the writers, the TV folks that have been around for awhile, magazine people back in the day, send a list of some people that you think would be Hall Of Fame worthy. And I think we would limit it to 10 or 20 people, but everyone would submit their lists and we would whittle it down from there. But then, it would kind of go into no man’s land. And by ‘no man’s land’, Vince [McMahon] would come in and say, ‘alright, pal, this year in the Hall Of Fame, we’re going to do…’ and he would read out his list. And sometimes we would debate it. Sometimes, we wouldn’t.”

However, we have to note that this process may well have changed in the years since Prichard left WWE.

Interestingly, Batista made it clear that he believes that the Hall of Fame is the end of the road for his wrestling career – although Kurt Angle has perhaps shown this does not have to be the case.

Batista cites scheduling and creative issues as the main reason he hasn’t returned. His last run, in 2014, caused a lot of creative issues for WWE, who were pitching Batista in a role that the WWE Universe wouldn’t accept.

As the winner of the 2014 Royal Rumble (his return match), he was immediately placed in the Wrestlemania main event. I’m sure both parties will be very vocal about his creative direction if and when he does return.

Since last leaving the WWE in 2014 Batista has become a worldwide star having appeared in the critically acclaimed Guardians of the Galaxy, both the first film and the sequel as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and will feature in next months Avengers: Infinity War; so a potential return to WWE in the future could be a great opportunity to gain some new members of the WWE Universe.

 

 

• hall of fame
• Batista
• 2018
• WrestleMania
• Interview
• Return
• wwe

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