Stone Cold Steve Austin spent months denying that he was working on anything for WrestleMania 39, and he did indeed skip both nights of the big event in Los Angeles, but that doesn't mean the Texas Rattlesnake wasn't entertaining the idea of a return. Austin recently revealed that he did talk to the WWE about a match and shared why it didn't happen.
There were many rumors about Stone Cold Steve Austin talking about a match at WrestleMania 39, and it turns out those are true. The wrestler revealed in an interview with Sports Illustrated that he did sit down for conversations with the WWE about having a match at WrestleMania, likely due to the warm reception of his match against Kevin Owens the year prior:
We talked about the possibility of me wrestling at WrestleMania 39. The biggest thing in my mind was the presentation and what kind of match it was going to be. Going back to 38, the way the KO thing was presented—I love KO—I turned that down three, four, five times until the creative finally came to what it ended up being. I didn’t want it constructed as a real match, per se. I needed something that could turn into one, and it did, but I think that’s why we got away with it. The Dallas crowd was very receptive. I hadn’t been around, so the timing was right.
Stone Cold Steve Austin is right in the sense that WrestleMania 38 really felt like a moment when the stars aligned for his return. Seeing Stone Cold return and break a decades-long retirement to wrestle in his home state of Texas was a mic drop moment that the WWE will struggle to replicate going forward. Bringing him back for a match the following year certainly wouldn't have had as great of an impact, but I'm sure many fans still would've loved it.
Despite this, Stone Cold Steve Austin felt like he couldn't commit to the idea in good faith. Austin explained that he needed a lot of time to get in shape for any type of proper match, and that wasn't going to be possible thanks to an A&E series he had already committed to:
I said, ‘Guys, I’m just fixin’ to go into production on this show, Stone Cold Takes on America, and until we start production, I don’t know what my life looks like. I can’t commit.’ Sure enough, there were technical issues before we finished. I was supposed to finish a month before we did. There’s no way, with the schedule I was doing—driving an RV all over God’s creation, doing all I was doing—that I would be ready...Working 15 hours a day, then getting in a 30- or 40-minute workout, that doesn’t get you ready for WrestleMania. And I was really protected at WrestleMania 38. This time, that wasn’t going to be the case. That was a true statement: Until this show was over, I couldn’t commit.
Stone Cold Takes on America prevented the WWE legend from the training required to put on a match at the level wanted. That last bit is surprising to hear, as it sounds like the WWE was pitching Steve Austin having a match that was, somehow, more demanding than what he did with Kevin Owens the year prior. Who would've been granted the honor of having a legitimate match with The Texas Rattlesnake?
Based on rumors, it seems that L.A. Knight was one of the names floated for a match with Stone Cold at WrestleMania 39. It's not incredibly hard to imagine, given that L.A. Knight seems to be a crowd favorite, and part of his character feels inspired by the Stone Cold character. Mainly, it's the fact that he wears vests, and the whole "Yeah" chant has the potential to be just as iconic as the "What?" chant.
While it's disappointing that Stone Cold Steve Austin couldn't commit to a match at WrestleMania 39, it is encouraging to hear that he at least entertained the possibility. Whether or not that means he'll be available for a match at the iconic 40th WrestleMania is still unknown, but I feel better about it now after reading his comments than I did prior. Hopefully, we'll get another chance to see him wrestle at some point, at WrestleMania or some other upcoming WWE event.
Stone Cold Takes On America premieres on A&E on Sunday, April 30th at 10:00 p.m. ET. Anyone who has a Peacock Premium subscription can watch some of Stone Cold's greatest matches right now and see why so many want to see him step into a ring again all these years later.
