Stone Cold Steve Austin: Kevin Owens Will End Up In The WWE Hall Of Fame, I Would Have Loved To Have Been Better At WrestleMania 38 For Him

Stone Cold Steve Austin says Kevin Owens will end up in the WWE Hall Of Fame one day.

At WrestleMania 38 night one, Stone Cold and Kevin Owens would meet in the main event of the show after they were originally advertised for a KO Show segment. Austin would end up coming away with the victory in the bout, impressing fans with his performance in the match after over a decade retired from being an active professional wrestler.

While speaking on Insight With Chris Van Vliet in a new interview, Stone Cold Steve Austin was asked why Kevin Owens was the right opponent for the bout.

“It was in Dallas, Texas. Vince flew down here, and we had a conversation, and I thought about it for a minute. I love Kevin Owens, and I think, from a safety standpoint, they picked Kevin. And when they threw out just a couple of names, Kevin was the guy.”

Chris then asked if Owens was picked due to his usage of the Stunner, Austin’s iconic finishing move.

“No, they just hand-picked Kevin because they know how good he is, and he cuts a good promo. I remember meeting Kevin 100 years ago in the airport, him and Sami Zayn, it’s a well-known story. But anyway, I gave him some advice about learning how to promo and talk instead of taking all those bumps, and you know, he’s turned it up. Kevin Owens will end up in the Hall of Fame. So, I mean, why not pick Kevin Owens for Stone Cold Steve Austin’s opponent?”

Finally, Chris asked Austin how it felt to get back in the ring at the event.

“Well, it was interesting, because there were different people that were making comments about that. Triple H says, ‘You never know what you got until you get in there.’ He was right. Hulk Hogan, God rest his soul, says, ‘You’re not calloused up because you haven’t been on the road, you haven’t been taking bumps in the ring.’ He was right. Undertaker says, ‘There’s no way that you can have timing because you haven’t been in the ring over and over every single night.’ And he was right. So on that night, walking to the ring, I remember I couldn’t hear the crowd like I wanted to, just because of the acoustics of that building. And, man, I’m just real in tune with how the crowd responds to anything particularly as anybody would, your entrance, we blew the roof off the place. So anyway, we go into the match, and it was fine. I blew up because I hadn’t had any reps in the ring. But when I look back at that, I rushed through so many things, I wish I would have slowed down more and savored a little bit more and just entertained the crowd a little bit more. And it was what it was, we got away with it because it was anticipated. It was billed as my last match, because Dallas is where I started and Dallas is where I would finish. So for all the right reasons, it was there to have that match, and we pulled it off. But God dang, I could have been better prepared, and I would have loved to have been better that night for Kevin Owens.”

Elsewhere in the same interview, Austin spoke about his cats that have gone viral on several occasions. You can read more about that here.

Thank you to Chris Van Vliet for the quote(s)