Stone Cold Steve Austin recently addressed a burning topic among WWE fans, speaking in straight terms during an Insight with Chris Van Vliet interview released on Tuesday (Jan. 6) if he has one more match
in him.
His answer was “probably not,” before adding “you never say never.”
Austin indicated his biggest hesitation about a ring return was the rehabilitation he went through following knee replacement surgery last year. However, fans can hold on to at least a sliver of hope as he added he felt he could still physically perform.
The Texas Rattlesnake’s remarks on a possible return came after Van Vliet commented on how the 61-year-old looked “great.”
“You look like you could still go,” Van Vliet said.
“I could. God dang it,” Austin replied.
The WWE Hall of Famer then reminisced about the rigors of coming out of a 19-year retirement to face Kevin Owens in 2022 at WrestleMania 38.
“[WWE] 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.”
Austin went on to describe the No Holds Barred Match with Owens and “potatoing him so bad because I hadn’t thrown a punch in 19 years, and he never threw a receipt.”
Expressing some regret, Austin said, “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.”
Stone Cold then once again cracked the door slightly open about another potential final match.
“But I could still do it, and I’m not advocating for nothing, so I’m not selling a match here, Chris,” he said. “But you asked me, could I? Yes.”
“Would you?” Van Vliet asked.
“Probably not. I’ll say that, but you never say never,” Austin said. “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.”
Elsewhere in the far-ranging interview, Austin was asked how close he came to having a match with CM Punk. He said that “maybe it was teased, but it just never happened,” and “many things never happened.”
Along those same lines, he also couldn’t explain exactly why a match with Goldberg never came to fruition.
“Goldberg just needed to put some time in WWF before we could go, and then it just never happened,” Austin said, adding, “Bill is a good friend of mine.”
The conversation with Van Vliet wasn’t limited to wrestling, and Austin touched on how he’s become an unlikely internet “cat dad” in recent years.
“People love to see those cats on Instagram, ” he said. “So, you know, I was out there shoveling horse shit, I think it was two years ago, around Christmas, and I just addressed the camera on my iPhone. I said, ‘Hey, man, this is Steve and Pancho, wishing everybody Merry Christmas.’ I didn’t expect anything of it, and just in subsequent posts, not trying to make it a thing. It turned into a thing. So it is what it is.”
