This year's WrestleMania was light on legend cameos, with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin ultimately among those not appearing despite speculation he might somehow be involved in WWE's annual marquee event.
It worked out OK for WWE, as WrestleMania 39 drew mostly rave reviews for an action-packed, two-night spectacle in which wrestling's current top stars thrived at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. Still, the question remained: Why didn't Austin show up, in some capacity?
Well, now we know, as the Texas Rattlesnake pulled back the curtain in a recent interview with Sports Illustrated's Justin Barrasso.
"I haven't spoken to this, but I'll give you the story," Austin told Barrasso in a piece published Wednesday on SI.com. "I met with some people from WWE. 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.
"But to do a proper match, I'd have to be in off-the-charts shape. I told them, and this is the exact truth, 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. I had two 30-pound dumbbells, a 45-pound sandbag, and a 25-pound kettlebell. 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."
Austin, 58, has made occasional one-off appearances on WWE programming in recent years, but it had been nearly two decades since his last match before stepping into the squared circle last April against Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 38. The crowd at AT&T Stadium loved every minute of Austin's 2022 return, and his solid performance left the WWE Universe clamoring for more as WrestleMania 39 approached, with potential matches against Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar floated in rumors. But it just wasn't in the cards, for the reasons Austin mentioned.
Does that mean Austin's in-ring career is over? Who knows. He's undeniably one of the most popular superstars in professional wrestling history, though, so it's probably fair to assume WWE has an open-door policy for him to return if and/or when his schedule lightens up.
