WWE News: Batista Will Be Inducted into 2020 WWE Hall of Fame

Congratulations to Dave Bautista aka Batista on being announced as an inductee for the 2020 Hall of Fame next April in Tampa, Florida. Batista lives in the Tampa area and announced his retirement from wrestling after losing to Triple H at WrestleMania 35 earlier this year. It was Batista’s first match in five years because he wanted to end his career at WrestleMania in a match with Triple H, who helped his career as much as anybody in WWE. The announcement of Batista in WWE’s Hall of Fame was first reported today by People.

It was also announced today that New World Order members Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Sean Waltman will be a part of the WWE Hall of Fame as well. Tickets for the WWE Hall of Fame go on sale this Friday, which is why WWE has announced these big name inductees already.

Batista had an incredible WWE career as one of the top wrestlers in the company in the 2000s. He’s a 6-time WWE World Champion, 4-time WWE Tag Team Champion and he won two Royal Rumbles (2005 and 2014). He also headlined WrestleMania twice at WrestleMania 21 in 2005 and WrestleMania 30 in 2014. Shortly after WrestleMania 30, his movie career took off with a breakout role in “Guardians of the Galaxy” and he has continued to have a lot of success since then.

Batista told People how he found out about the news:

“Vince [McMahon] called me personally to ask me, I was just …I wasn’t surprised, but I was pretty happy. It’s a good feeling, it’s a really great feeling. As soon as I hung up the phone, I was … and excuse my language, I was like, ‘S–t, I gotta give a speech.’ And that is what I’ve been stressing about since.”

Batista also commented about how he’ll always be a part of WWE:

“I said that at WrestleMania last year: It’s the end of my in-ring journey, but it’s not the end of my journey with the WWE. I will always be connected with them, I’ll always be affiliated with them, I hope that I will always have a good relationship with them. So it doesn’t really feel like an ending for me, it feels like, kind of, I’m right in the mix. … All I can say is it feels good, it’s just satisfying. I feel like I accomplished something. I feel like it was all worth it.”

Batista has also been in the wrestling news of late due to publicly flirting with WWE superstar Dana Brooke, which apparently will lead to a date between them in the near future. Perhaps things will go well and Dana will be his date at the Hall of Fame. That’s up to them, of course.

The 2020 WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place on Thursday, April 2. Tickets for the 2020 WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony are available this Friday, December 13 at 12 p.m. EST through all Ticketmaster outlets, http://www.ticketmaster.com or at ReliaQuest Ticket Office at Amalie Arena.

TJR Thoughts: Congrats to Batista on the honor of being in the WWE Hall of Fame. I don’t know if he’s going to go on last or if the NWO will be last, but he’s obviously deserving as a headline act in WWE for many years in the 2000s. He headlined many shows, had a lot of great feuds with the likes of Triple H, The Undertaker and John Cena, so I’m sure it will be fun for him look back on all of that.

I think it’s the right time and place to honor him since he lives in the Tampa area like a lot of wrestlers do. He’s from Washington, D.C., but he’s been a Tampa guy for a long time.