Stone Cold Steve Austin shares why he decided to turn down a match at WrestleMania 39.
While there were many rumors about Austin possibly wrestling a match at the show, Austin would not be present on the show of shows, and now we know why.
Speaking with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, Austin addressed his absence from WrestleMania 39 and noted why he decided against competing at the event.
“I haven’t spoken to this, but I’ll give you the story, 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. 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 Steve Austin
Austin of course last wrestled at WrestleMania 38, defeating Kevin Owens in a No Holds Barred match in the main event of night one.
It will remain to be seen if Austin will end up wrestling once again for WWE, but it will certainly be a can’t miss event.
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