Following his match with The Rock at WrestleMania 19, Steve Austin quietly retired from professional wrestling, and fans were left to wonder if there was any chance of an in-ring return.
Eventually the unthinkable happened when Stone Cold Steve Austin returned to the ring to face Kevin Owens in the night one main event of WrestleMania 38. Austin has not returned to the ring since then, and he’s given no indication that he’s looking to step into the squared circle again.
Recently during an appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Steve Austin talked about his match with Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 38, and he said while he’s not looking to sell a match, he could still go.
“I could. God dang it. And just saying that takes me back to when we did that WrestleMania match with Kevin Owens in Dallas, Texas, and they didn’t send a ring down for me to work out in to get any kind of timing or hit the ropes. I remember going down there, and I was running the ropes and taking a couple of flat back bumps before we got into the ring, but you can’t get your timing or any kind of anything back, much less your wind. I was over here in my gym doing all kinds of cardio, because when that glass breaks, or whoever’s music hits, and you start walking to the ring, man, just the buzz of the crowd. I’ve seen people blow up walking to the ring, because that’s just what a crowd can do to you. So just going there with Kevin Owens and trying to have that match with him, where we didn’t bill it as a match, but it was going to be a match, so to speak. I remember telling Kevin, and I was knocking the sh*t out of him. I was potatoing him so bad because I hadn’t thrown a punch in 19 years, and he never threw a receipt. I told him, because we keep in touch with each other every now and then. I just wish that he could have been in the ring with me when I was really going, you know, full speed and had my timing, because he’s a great worker, and I really like him a lot. I wish he would have got a chance to experience me when I was in my prime, because that would have been a great contest. But I could still do it, and I’m not advocating for nothing, so I’m not selling a match here, Chris. But you asked me, could I? Yes.”
However, while Austin said that he could still get in the ring, he indicated that it’s probably not going to happen when he was asked if he would return for another match.
“Probably not. I’ll say that, but you say never. But with the knee replacement I had last year? God dang, I was limping around so bad, and I didn’t know I was limping, and people would ask me, ‘What’s wrong?’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ [They said] ‘You’re limping.’ F***, I didn’t know, because I don’t watch myself walk. And then finally, after everybody kept pointing it out to me, I could feel it, no doubt that’s why I was limping. And then it just started getting really bad because of all the arthritis in there. And finally, last year, I had it replaced. I was thinking why didn’t I do this sooner to get out of so much pain? And I’ve always wondered what arthritis felt like. Man, I found out firsthand. And it’s an it’s chronically over time, years and years and years of it. It’ll change your personality. It just puts you in a state of mind where you just want some relief, so to get that relief and come out on the other side and still be active.”
If Steve Austin did return to the ring for one more match who would you want to see him face? Sound off in the comments below.