While attending the Denver Pop Culture Comic-Con as a guest panelist, former WWE champion Dave Bautista opened up about the struggles he shared after leaving the company in 2010. Despite pursuing acting he didn’t have an interest in the area and that had the company not granted him the opportunity to pursue the film industry that he would have likely left the company to pursue it. When he left the company he was set financially and was looking to explore other options but that quickly changed.
“And then I starved for three years. I went broke, I lost everything, I couldn’t get a job. And I said that I will never go back to wrestling until I prove what I set out to prove, and that was that I can make it as an actor. And then I got the role on Guardians [of the Galaxy] and when I got the role… I finished the film and the first call I made after I wrapped was to Vince McMahon. I said, ‘Hey man, I’d really like to come back and wrestle for a little bit.'”
He had to be assured that he was going to succeed before he even considered returning to the ring. As time passed and success slowly followed Bautista so did his return to the ring. As part of the triple threat match involving Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan, Bautista was involved in the main event which saw Bryan become the WWE champion at WrestleMania. He remained with the company for a couple of more months before returning to acting.
Madison’s Mindset: Bautista demonstrated perseverance in his pursuit of a successful acting career. Often the film industry can be quite demanding and at times unforgiving based on your past accomplishments. In the case of Bautista, he has been part of a multi-million dollar film franchise as part of MCU’s Guardians of the Galaxy and The Avengers. It says a great deal about someone willing to lose everything and come out the other side better than he did before.
