Jim Ross On Steve Austin WrestleMania Return: ‘He Didn’t Sound Overwhelmingly Enthusiastic’

WWE

While it’s yet to be confirmed whether he’ll actually be having his first match in 19 years at WrestleMania 38, we do at least know that Stone Cold Steve Austin will be appearing at the show.

Kevin Owens called out the WWE legend on Raw this past week, and Austin responded with an excellent social media promo, accepting Owens’ offer of being on the Kevin Owens show.

It could be that this appearance will turn into a match, but it seems another WWE legend, AEW commentator Jim Ross, doesn’t think Austin really wants to be there.

Speaking on the latest episode of the Grilling JR podcast, Ross said:

“It looks like Austin is not going to do anything at WrestleMania as far as wrestling in the ring. He and I have talked, but at the time we talked, he didn’t know what he was going to do and he didn’t sound overwhelmingly enthusiastic about it.

“People have to understand that Steve is a perfectionist. Even though he stays in great shape and he looks wonderful, especially for a guy his age, he looks great. He can do a photoshoot and it looks like that can be Steve from any era, but that’s the athlete in him. He likes to train, eat right, and all those things.

“If he was going to wrestle at WrestleMania, and this is just me talking, I would suggest that it should have been decided six months ago, not only to build a story to that crescendo in Dallas at WrestleMania, but to give him time to train better and have more peace of mind. You know he’s going to handpick his opponent.

“Why wouldn’t you let him handpick his opponent? If you’re the promoter, all you do is you want him on the card so he will sell tickets or pay-per-views. I don’t have a lot of optimism for it. I don’t want to be a negative Nelly, but he’s not going to do it unless he thinks he can pull it off as something perfect, and I don’t know that he can do that even in my mind or his mind with only a few weeks to prepare for it.

“It all can change by the time people hear this. It could be the biggest announcement of the day, the trending news of the day, I have no idea, but I know him, and he doesn’t like surprises. He likes to prepare, and if anything, over prepare because he always wants to give the fans their money’s worth. He’s got a legacy that he’s built around the Stone Cold brand that he’s not going to purposely, or by his own hand, make himself look bad, and I don’t blame him.”

Dave Meltzer appeared to suggest WWE had failed to convince Austin to have an actual match at the show, but there’s no doubt his appearance at a Texas WrestleMania will draw in a lot of interest.

Credit to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.

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• jim ross
• Steve Austin
• KEVIN OWENS
• wwe

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