“Stone Cold” Steve Austin shockingly came out of retirement back at WrestleMania 38, beating Kevin Owens in an impromptu 14-minute No Holds Barred Match. Both the match itself and Austin’s performance were incredibly well-received, marking the first time “The Texas Rattlesnake” had laced up hits boots since WrestleMania XIX back in 2003. Rumors of Austin wrestling again at WrestleMania 39 circulated online for months and the WWE Hall of Famer outright confirmed WWE approached him during a recent interview with Sports Illustrated.
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“I met with some people from WWE. We talked about the possibility of me wrestling at WrestleMania 39,” Austin explained. “The biggest thing in my mind was the presentation and what kind of match it was going to be. Going back to 38, the way the KO thing was presented–I love KO–I turned that down three, four, five times until the creative finally came to what it ended up being. I didn’t want it constructed as a real match, per se. I needed something that could turn into one, and it did, but I think that’s why we got away with it. The Dallas crowd was very receptive. I hadn’t been around, so the timing was right.
“But to do a proper match, I’d have to be in off-the-charts shape,” he continued. “I told them, and this is the exact truth, I said, ‘Guys, I’m just fixin’ to go into production on this show, Stone Cold Takes on America, and until we start production, I don’t know what my life looks like. I can’t commit.’ Sure enough, there were technical issues before we finished. I was supposed to finish a month before we did. There’s no way, with the schedule I was doing–driving an RV all over God’s creation, doing all I was doing–that I would be ready. I had two 30-pound dumbbells, a 45-pound sandbag, and a 25-pound kettlebell. Working 15 hours a day, then getting in a 30- or 40-minute workout, that doesn’t get you ready for WrestleMania. And I was really protected at WrestleMania 38. This time, that wasn’t going to be the case. That was a true statement: Until this show was over, I couldn’t commit.”
Austin echoed a lot of those talking points in a new interview with WESH2 this week. But he also left the door open for a future match at the end (h/t Fightful) — “In the future, I’m not saying I will get back in the ring, but like I said at 38, if the stars align, anything could happen.”
