Fresh off his Broken Skull Sessions episode with Chris Jericho, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin appeared on the latest episode of Talk Is Jericho. The WWE Hall of Famer was asked to reflect on his own and how he stands out from the rest of the wrestling community as someone who legitimately stayed retired following his last match at WrestleMania XIX. Austin confirmed that Vince McMahon attempted to write him a comeback story on multiple occasions, but he always said no.
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“I think Vince [McMahon] tried talking me to coming back a couple times, but you know Chris, I love the business so much,” Austin said (h/t Wrestling Inc.). “I love it more than anybody else. I can only speak for myself, but I love the damn business, and it hurt me so much to leave it. And to me, going back for one match, man, why? What am I proving? What are they going to remember? It ain’t about the money. It took me a long time, damn near three years to get over the fact that I left the business.
“If you’re really going to make a comeback, let’s say it was gonna be high-profile match at WrestleMania,” he continued. “Taker, when I talked to him, he trained all year or recovered from having surgery, and then write trained for a three or four month camp to get ready for one match. I would really have to undergo a three or four month camp. I’m one of those guys where I don’t have an addictive personality, but I’m addicted to the wrestling business. All of a sudden, I’m putting in all the hard work and get back to being around the ring, being around the business, that is my number one passions in my life.”
Austin, who has openly talked about struggling with his retirement in the past, said having one last match would almost be “anti-climactic.”
“To get hooked on it again just for one match and to me, it would have been so anti-climactic,” Austin said. “Go out there and do it, and then whatever the finish was. And then the people go home, but what does it all mean in the big picture? Stone Cold had a comeback, and the match was a three and a half Meltzer five star rating. ‘It ain’t great enough,’ and even if I crushed it, what would it mean? I just had to say, man, stay away, and I’ve stayed away.”
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