“Stone Cold” Steve Austin had a number of potential opponents rumored for WrestleMania 39 earlier this month. One of them was LA Knight, a rising star on the SmackDown roster who inexplicably played no role in the two-night event despite it taking place in LA. But, in a new interview with Bleacher Report’s Graham Matthews, “The Texas Rattlesnake” gave a glowing endorsement to the former Million Dollar Champion.ย
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“I said, ‘hey man, just make sure your cardio is supreme’ and I said ‘just go do you’. So that guy can talk a blue streak. He’s a great worker. He’s got a good look, got good energy. So I think he’s doing great. I think he can ascend to a higher level, and I think he will. So I think the guy’s doing awesome,” Austin said (h/t WrestlingNews.co).
Austin also talked about why the WrestleMania match never materialized โ “Originally, the show was going to take, I think give or take three months to shoot it, but it took close to five. It chewed up a lot of time. The weather threw some monkey wrenches at us too, but it lasted a lot longer than I thought it would. So yeah, man, I mean, from just interviewing people for the podcast, as far as people say, ‘Hey, Man, why don’t you do Mania?’ You know, they asked me to be a part of it.ย
“But as I told them and I’m telling everybody today if you ask me, I didn’t know what my life was gonna look like until I finished filming the show. I finished filming the show about four days before WrestleMania. I drove every single mile in that RV. I took dumbbells with me on the road, a sandbag, and a kettlebell. That’s how I got my workout in. I was a decent shape for the show. When they greenlit the show, before I started getting ready, I hired a nutrition coach. I got down to 7% body fat. I got in the best shape I’ve ever been in and then it didn’t pay off because the whole time we were in 10 degree weather. I got about 10 layers on. So I got into shape in my lifetime to be all covered up. So if it goes into another season or whatever, it’ll be in warm weather, and I’ll be jacked,” he added.