WrestleMania 39 will go down in the WWE history books for a number of reasons. It could have been an even bigger two-night event if WWE had been able to convince Stone Cold Steve Austin to return to the ring for the second year in a row. There were a number of reports claiming WWE had spoke with Austin regarding another return match, and The Texas Rattlesnake has now confirmed those talks really did happen.
Committing To WrestleMania 39
“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,” Austin confirmed to Sports Illustrated. “I said, 'Guys, I'm just fixing 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.'.”
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Sure enough, Austin added that there were technical issues when putting together the new show which would have affected his WrestleMania plans if he had any. What the Hall of Famer didn't divulge is what exactly WWE offered him in terms of a potential WrestleMania opponent. According to those previous reports, Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar, and LA Knight were all thrown out there as people Austin could have faced.
Austin Has Likely Wrestled His Last Match
It seems likely WWE kept coming back with updated offers even after multiple rejections as it took a few bites of the cherry to convince Austin to come back the year before. Stone Cold returned for his first match in 19 years to face Kevin Owens in the main event of night one at WrestleMania 38. Apparently, it took a number of conversations to convince Austin he was still capable of putting on a great match, and turns out whoever convinced him of that was absolutely right.
Until now, it was assumed the leading reason Austin didn't return for another WrestleMania match this year was because he had the perfect return 12 months earlier. Something not everyone from his era has been lucky enough to have. Shawn Michaels came back for one more match and it was a disaster, and The Undertaker got trapped in a cycle of having one more match, it not going well, and feeling compelled to rectify that in another match. If Austin never wrestles again, he can rest assured his one return match after almost two decades was a good one.
