Update On Dave Bautista’s Status For WWE Hall Of Fame 2023
It appears that the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony this year will be missing “The Animal” Dave Bautista and a new report has a good reason why.
When it comes to the WWE Hall of Fame, Dave Bautista aka Batista is a sure-fire lock. After the man that was one of the biggest stars of the Ruthless Aggression Era was a six-time World Champion in WWE that headlined multiple WrestleMania. Bautista was also part of the iconic group called Evolution with Triple H, Randy Orton and Ric Flair, so he probably has two Hall of Fame inductions in his future.
However, if you wanted Batista to get his Hall of Fame induction this year then it looks like it’s not going to happen.
It has been reported by PWInsider Elite that while there were hopes for Dave Bautista to be in the WWE Hall of Fame this year, his movie schedule is keeping him busy. Bautista is expected to be in South Africa to complete filming of the My Spy 2 movie that he’s starring in. The filming will likely keep him busy during WrestleMania weekend on March 31 (Hall of Fame night) and April 1-2 when WrestleMania takes place.
Dave Bautista was initially announced for the WWE Hall of Fame in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March of that year and events with fans, including WWE, were shut down.
There was no WWE Hall of Fame ceremony in 2020. In 2021, WWE decided to do the 2020 and 2021 Hall of Fame classes in the same year. The inductees for those years did speeches in an empty ThunderDome with no fans in attendance.
In March 2021, Dave Bautista announced that he requested to do it another time so that he can properly thanks the fans. It appears as though the wait will continue.
To date, WWE has only officially announced Rey Mysterio and The Great Muta for the 2023 Hall of Fame class. Stacy Keibler is expected to be another inductee while reports have stated there will be less people inducted this year compared to past years.
It was about three weeks ago when Bautista posted this photo from a private plane while mentioning “My Spy 2” in the caption.