Batista Announced for WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2020

Former WWE Champion Batista will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2020, as confirmed by PEOPLE on Monday. “The Animal” had three stints with the WWE 2002 through 2019, racking up four World Heavyweight Championship reigns, two stints as WWE Champion, four tag title reigns and two Royal Rumble victories throughout his impressive career. His last match took place this past April when he faced Triple H at WrestleMania 35 in a No Holds Barred match and lost. Batista, who has since found a successful second career as a Hollywood action star, joins Hollywood Hogan, Sean Waltman, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall (the New World Order) as the first members to be inducted into the Class of 2020.

“I don’t think it’s sunk in,” Batista said in the announcement article. “And I was thinking about it because I mean, it seems like a long journey, but it also feels like yesterday when I started my career. And it also feels … because I’m still working so much, it doesn’t feel like an end of a journey.”

“And 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,” he added. “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.”