“Stone Cold” Steve Austin hasn’t stepped inside the squared circle for a wrestling match since his bout with The Rock at WrestleMania XIX in 2003. Over the years fans have pleaded and begged for “The Texas Rattlesnake” to lace up his boots one last time, but every time Austin has shut down the idea. The WWE Hall of Famer had to retire due to a string of injuries, primarily the broken neck he suffered in a match against Owen Hart at the 1997 SummerSlam and the complications that followed.
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However on the latest episode of The Steve Austin Show Austin admitted that, if he absolutely had to, he would be able to wrestle one more time and avoid aggravating any old injuries.
“For the last couple of weeks, down there at the RAW reunion in Tampa, down there at the Madison Square Garden show at Monday Night Raw , people always ask me, ‘Hey man, you’re still in really good shape. You got one more match left in you?’ And I tell them, ‘Man.’ I say, ‘You know, it’s a tough thing to think about.’ Physically, would I be able to have one more match? Yes, most definitely, and I could make it to that match without being injured,” Austin said (h/t Fightful for transcription). “Although the risks are always there, just because I think all of the surgeries, I had… where I had the spinal stenosis, and getting that bone spur taken off my spinal cord, I’m in a good place. Nerves are feeling a lot better than they use to.
“So, you know, in theory, could I have a match? In theory, yes,” he added.
Austin would continue to work as an onscreen character for WWE up until 2004 before stepping away from the company. In recent months he’s made a number of televised appearances, including the Raw Reunion special in June and Raw’s return to Madison Square Garden in early September. He’s currently advertised to appear on SmackDown’s premiere episode on FOX on Oct. 4.
The former WWF Champion also had the first season of his USA Network interview show, Straight Up Steve Austin, wrap up earlier this week. Austin admitted in a recent interview with ComicBook.com that he had a blast working on the new project and hopes for a Season 2.
“… I told everybody, I said, ‘Listen, the way I see this show, if we’re not having a blast filming it, we’re doing it wrong,’” Austin said. “And they looked at me and they said, ‘You’re exactly right.’
“… I’m having a blast filming this damn show,” he added. “And it’s like I tell everybody, man, I laugh my ass off almost the entire show. And now there’s serious moments, but there’s so many fun things that we do, and I get a chance to meet so many interesting people, some of who I already knew. But yeah, man, I’m like a kid in a candy store.”
