Last year at WrestleMania 38, Steve Austin shocked the world when he returned to the ring and he managed to pick up a huge win over Kevin Owens. On the road to WrestleMania 39 it was rumored that WWE was trying to get Steve Austin for the Show of Shows, but ultimately things didn’t work out.
Austin has since confirmed that he had talks with WWE about competing at WrestleMania 39 and he told Chris Van Vliet that WWE was trying to put him in a big position. While The Texas Rattlesnake didn’t step into the ring at WrestleMania 39 he is leaving the door open for a return at WrestleMania 40.
“I could. I’m not necessarily going to lobby for one, because that would be silly. That’s a year away, but a year away in this business is like that [clicks fingers]. They asked me to be a part of 39, they really did, but I couldn’t do it, just because there is no way.
I knew what my life was going to look like due to the filming schedule of the show. We had some internal stopdowns where the show took about 5 months to film, that’s a long time. We finished filming about 5 to 7 days before WrestleMania 39. And the position that they were going to put me in, which was a big one, you can’t prepare for WrestleMania and do yourself justice or do that crowd justice.
Dallas was set up for a Stone Cold return, and the way we framed that with KO, who I love, was perfect for the time and setting. For this match to play out, I needed to perform at a high level. I didn’t work out before 38, I haven’t thrown a working punch in 19 years. I was killing KO right there, I truly was, ask him.
When we got to the back I said, Man I can’t believe you didn’t throw a receipt. And he just laughed because his job was to just take care of me. So anyway, in the future, I am not lobbying for it, but could anything happen? Yes. Because I say never say never.”
Who do you want to see Steve Austin face if he returns to the ring at WrestleMania 40? Sound off in the comments below.
