Kevin Owens reflects on his match with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, which headlined the first night of WrestleMania 38.
Kevin Owens is the first man in history to have headlined consecutive WrestleMania Saturdays. He was also able to headline WrestleMania 38 by competing against Steve Austin in his first match in 19 years. Owens recently reflected on the experience during an interview with Chris Van Vliet on Insight.
Kevin Owens spoke about being under the impression that Austin declined to wrestle at first and then not being able to get a straight answer from Austin or Vince McMahon as to whether or not a match would be taking place.
"I think Vince wanted him to be on WrestleMania in Dallas, and he wasn't sure in what capacity. I'm not sure how. I think they talked. He said no at first, from what I understand. Then they went back to him, and he's like, Okay, who would it be with? I think that's when they said me, which I think he was good with. Then somehow, was it going to be a talking segment? Was it going to be a match? Was it going to be a Stunner? Literally, up until the day of the show, we had no idea. Me and Steve had talked, I would talk to Steve, ask him, 'What are we going to do?' He goes, 'I don't know, depends on Vince.' So I talked to Vince, and Vince goes, 'Depends on Steve. ' I'm like, 'Can't you guys talk to each other for fuck sake?' But yeah, up until that day, we really didn't know for sure what it was going to be. It turned out to be what it was, and it was pretty great. I'm very lucky to have been a part of it. To this day, it's the craziest thing that I'll ever have done in my career, and I don't think anything will top it."
Kevin Owens even said that the moment he won the WWE Tag Team Championship with Sami Zayn in his second WrestleMania headlining match and all of the stars aligned to create that moment is still more likely than the moment he got to share with Steve Austin.
"Even me and Sami winning the tag titles at WrestleMania was unbelievable. In the main event, which is great now because it's WrestleMania main event night one, there's a lot of people that argue it's not really the main event, but now that Punk’s in it this year, everyone says it is the main event, because you don't want to take that away from him. So now it finally validates that," he said. "Anyway, winning the titles at WrestleMania together was insane. We were talking about this stuff when our dream would be a let's win the Ring of Honor Tag Titles. We're talking about this in like 2004, and then we never even really talked about winning the WWE Tag Titles because we're not going to be in WWE, are we? No, we are. Then, we start talking, 'We got to team and win the tag titles, and then we teamed for a little bit in 2018, but then we went our separate ways. So we're like, 'We didn't even win the tag titles.' We kind of thought, 'Oh, I guess that's it.' Then, the story started to shift with him and The Usos and stuff.
"Anyway, all the pieces fell into place, and we won the Tag Titles at WrestleMania. As incredible and kind of unlikely as that moment was, it still wasn't as unlikely as Stone Cold coming back 19 years later for a match. So to this day, that match with Steve will always be, and like I said, I don't think anything will top it. The craziest night of my career."
At this link, fans can read Steve Austin's assessment of his match with Kevin Owens.
Unfortunately, Kevin Owens will miss WrestleMania this year. He has suffered a neck injury that will require surgery.
