Stone Cold Steve Austin On Possibly Wrestling Again: Probably Not, But You Never Say Never

Stone Cold Steve Austin comments on the possibility of stepping into the ring one more time.

At WrestleMania 38, Stone Cold would return to the ring for the first time in a decade and a half, taking on Kevin Owens in the main event of night one of the Premium Live Event. Austin would go on to win the match, and his performance sparked a new wave of fans wanting to see Austin compete again but as of this writing, Austin has remained outside of the ring.

While speaking to Insight with Chris Van Vliet in a new interview, Stone Cold Steve Austin was asked if he could possibly get back in the ring one more time, with Austin remarking that he could.

“I could. God dang it. Just saying that takes me back to when we did that WrestleMania match with Kevin Owens in Dallas, Texas, and they didn’t send a ring down for me to work out in to get any kind of timing or hit the ropes. I remember going down there, and I was running the ropes and taking a couple of flat back bumps before we got into the ring, but you can’t get your timing or any kind of anything back, much less your wind. I was over here in my gym doing all kinds of cardio, because when that glass breaks, or whoever’s music hits, and you start walking to the ring, man, just the buzz of the crowd. I’ve seen people blow up walking to the ring, because that’s just what a crowd can do to you. So just going there with Kevin Owens and trying to have that match with him, where we didn’t bill it as a match, but it was going to be a match, so to speak. I remember telling Kevin, and I was knocking the sh*t out of him. I was potatoing him so bad because I hadn’t thrown a punch in 19 years, and he never threw a receipt. I told him, because we keep in touch with each other every now and then. I just wish that he could have been in the ring with me when I was really going, you know, full speed and had my timing, because he’s a great worker, and I really like him a lot. I wish he would have got a chance to experience me when I was in my prime, because that would have been a great contest. But I could still do it, and I’m not advocating for nothing, so I’m not selling a match here, Chris. But you asked me, could I? Yes.” 

Austin was then asked would he return to the ring, with ‘The Texas Rattlesnake’ noting that he probably wouldn’t come back to the ring, citing his knee replacement surgery that he had last year.

“Probably not. I’ll say that, but you (never) say never. But with the knee replacement I had last year? God dang, I was limping around so bad, and I didn’t know I was limping, and people would ask me, ‘What’s wrong?’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ [They said] ‘You’re limping.’ F*ck, I didn’t know, because I don’t watch myself walk, and then finally, after everybody kept pointing it out to me, I could feel it, no doubt that’s why I was limping and then it just started getting really bad because of all the arthritis in there. Finally, last year, I had it replaced. I was thinking why didn’t I do this sooner to get out of so much pain? I’ve always wondered what arthritis felt like. Man, I found out firsthand and it’s an it’s chronically over time, years and years and years of it. It’ll change your personality. It just puts you in a state of mind where you just want some relief, so to get that relief and come out on the other side and still be active.” 

Elsewhere in an interview late last year, Cody Rhodes recalled Stone Cold’s abilities as a babysitter. You can read more about that here.

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