– Batista says that he pitched a WWE return to take place around the release of Guardians of the Galaxy in August 2014, but that the idea was shot down because Triple H and Stephanie McMahon questioned whether the film would even be any good. Batista appeared on Alex Greenfield’s The Writer’s Room podcast and talked about his last WWE run, saying that he wasn’t happy with how it turned out but that he had an idea about coming back for SummerSlam that year.

“I felt so unsatisfied with that return, it just broke my heart because I’d been thinking about it for years, going back,” Batista said. “You know I missed it and I wanted to be there. So I was just starting to hit my stride and I literally had to leave because I had to go start promoting Guardians but when I left – and I haven’t talked to a lot of people about this, and I don’t care if they’re pissed for me saying something – but I wanted to come back and do SummerSlam because… I would have had the opportunity to go back and I talked to Steph and Hunter about it and I think that was… around August, I wanted to come back around the release of the film, around Guardians, and I said wouldn’t it be great if I was back, and I was also in the #1 movie in the world? And they kind of had a snicker and it was, you know, “We don’t even know if the movie’s gonna be good.”

He continued, “And it was one of those moments and I was like okay. And it was a very uncomfortable moment where they were just kind of doubting me and laughing in my face.”

Of course, Guardians of the Galaxy — which was, to be fair, considered to be Marvel’s riskiest movie at the time — became one of their biggest hits. It went on to be a major hit with critics and grossed $773.3 million worldwide and pushed Batista into being a recognized film star, which has led to him having roles in Spectre and the upcoming Blade Runner sequel, as well as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 of course.