Batista recently sat down for an interview and discussed the first time he left WWE and took a chance on himself as an actor. In an attempt to do something he wasn't sure he could do, he went broke before finally getting his big break.

Batista was part of the Denver Pop Culture Con 2019 panel and while talking about how he got his start in Hollywood he said the reason he set out to become an actor in the first place was because he realized he was so bad at it. The drive to improve gave him the itch to pursue the idea of being in movies but WWE wouldn't let him leave his contract to try landing acting roles.

Batista told Vince that if they wouldn't allow him to pursue something he was passionate about, he would leave. They thought he was bluffing, said no, he left wrestling at the top of his game and tried for three years to get movie roles. Batista detailed about losing every penny he'd made in WWE but refused to go back to wrestling until he'd made it as an actor.

"Then I got the role in Guardians," Batista said. "The first call I made after I wrapped was to Vince McMahon and said, 'Hey, I'd really like to come back and wrestle for a bit.'"

What This Means

Long before Cody Rhodes left WWE to take a shot on his own or other wrestlers left the comforts of a very lucrative and reliable WWE career, Batista was one of the first to prove there was life outside of wrestling.

But, it wasn't always smooth sailing. "I got an agent and my agent said, 'I had to fight really hard to get you this audition. They didn't want any pro wrestlers.'. He went and read for Sarah Finn (she does all the Marvel casting) and did the audition. She said, 'Is there any way you could come tomorrow and read for the director?' That's when I knew it was real."

Batista is now officially retired from pro wrestling but really just growing as an actor with some feature films coming out this summer that is sure to make him a big box office draw.

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