Batista says he ‘could never’ do a WWE retirement tour like John Cena
Batista says he would never want to go on a retirement tour like John Cena.
The 50-year-old has been doing media rounds to promote his new film The Killer’s Game, which premiered last night at the Toronto International Film Festival. During a discussion with Chris Van Vliet, Batista said that he ended his career the way he wanted to, which was very different than the route Cena is going.
“I get along with John. I respect John a lot, a lot more than people think I do for some reason. I think the internet and I think fans have built this rivalry between us, which there really isn’t, but this is how we’re different,” he said. “I would never do this [retirement tour]. I wouldn’t, I couldn’t. It would feel disingenuous to me to go around and I just couldn’t.”
“He wants to go around and he wants to personally thank all the fans, but there’s just something in me where I just couldn’t do it. It would feel uncomfortable to me, accolades feel uncomfortable to me. I could never be the type of babyface who was saying good stuff because I wanted to get the crowd to cheer for me. I couldn’t be that guy.”
“So I love and respect what he’s doing with his whole tour to say thank you to the fans, but we’re just different that way. I couldn’t do it. I went out the way I wanted. I retired the way I wanted. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. I announced my retirement on Instagram and I knew I was going to do it. I just didn’t want to tell anybody I was going to do it because I didn’t want anybody to say, no, no, you got to come in, you got to give a speech, you know, the fans. I don’t know, just something about it would have felt false to me. I couldn’t do it.”
Several wrestling personalities were on hand for The Killer’s Game festival debut in Toronto last night including Mercedes Mone and Bayley:
As was Cathy Kelley:
The Killer’s Game releases in theaters on September 13. Batista plays the role of Joe Flood in the film.
“A veteran assassin is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and authorizes a kill on himself. After ordering the kill, an army of former colleagues pounce and a new piece of information comes to light. Insanity ensues,” reads IMDB’s description of the movie. Drew McIntyre also plays the role of Rory McKenzie.
Batista’s full interview with Chris Van Vliet is below: