Steve Austin once again comments on a potential return to the ring.
Austin competed in his first match in nearly two decades at WrestleMania 38 when he faced Kevin Owens in a bout that was initially billed as a confrontation. Austin has admitted in recent interviews that he was contacted for WrestleMania 39, but didn't feel he could get himself ready for the proper match that WWE was looking for.
Speaking to Chris Van Vliet on Insight, Austin was asked about possibly working WrestleMania 40.
"I could," he said when asked about having another match. "I'm not going to sit here and lobby for one, because that'd be silly, that's a year away. A year in that business is like that [finger snap]. They asked me to be part of (WrestleMania) 39, they really did, and I couldn't do it because there was no way...I knew what my life was going to look like due to the filming schedule of the show. We had some internal stop-downs where the show took five months to film. That's a long time. We finished filming about five to seven days before WrestleMania 39. In a position they were going to put me in, which was going to be 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, the way we framed that with KO [Kevin Owens], who I love, was perfect for the time and setting. For this match to play out, I really needed to perform at a high level. I didn't work out before 38. I hadn't thrown a working punch in 19 years. I was killing KO out there. I truly was. Ask him. I told him when we got to the back, 'Man, I can't believe you didn't throw a receipt.' He just laughed because his job was to take care of me. In the future, I'm not lobbying for it, but could anything happen? Yes. They always say, never say never," he said.
It is unknown who Austin was asked to face at WrestleMania 39.
Fightful Select had a report back in January 2023 noting that Steve Austin was approached for a match with the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, Roman Reigns. Reigns went on to defend his championship against Cody Rhodes at the event instead.
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