Steve Austin Shares Honest Thoughts About WWE WrestleMania Match

WWE

Stone Cold Steve Austin has revealed he was disappointed by aspects of his WWE WrestleMania 38 match in April 2022.

The last match to date for the Texas Rattlesnake saw Austin beat Kevin Owens on night one of the WWE PLE under No Holds Barred rules.

It would mark the first match in Austin’s career since WWE WrestleMania 19 in March 2003 which saw him lose to The Rock.

Speaking to The Takedown on SI, Austin looked back at the match with a sense of regret, revealing that he suffered from a lack of timing.

Stating that he didn’t get a ring sent to him by WWE to work off the rust after nineteen years, Steve Austin explained:

“I was happy in a moment, but, you know, they (the WWE) didn’t send me a ring down. I didn’t have any timing.

“I think they interviewed Triple H, The Undertaker, and Hogan. Each one of them said something that was so true.

“Paul said, you can come back, but you don’t know what you have, because you haven’t been out there. Undertaker said, you’re not going to have any timing. He was right. I didn’t have any timing. Hell, I hadn’t hit a set of ropes in 19 years. Hadn’t thrown a punch in 19 years (since his last WWE match).

“Hogan says you’re just not calloused up. Your body is not as hard as it used to be. He was right, because when you when you take off, people talk about ring rust, that’s timing. So, I had no timing. Hogan was talking about being calloused up … those ropes hurt. Those bumps hurt.

“If you make a long comeback, it takes you two or three months to get those callouses back, so that your body doesn’t hurt after every single match. You build up an immunity to it, so they each made valid points.

“Like Paul said, you don’t know what you got until you get out there, because you can think you got it, but you don’t. When I went out there, I think I couldn’t hear the crowd as much as I wanted to.

“When I watched it back, the crowd was into it. It was very, very loud, yes, but I wish I would have taken more time, savored more moments, and worked the people a little bit more than I did.

“I think I was in a space of not knowing what I had and trying to be a little too frantic. I could have slowed down drastically and made that better. I wish that I would have. I haven’t told too many people that, but I told you.”

With WrestleMania 41 on April 19 & 20, 2025, Austin has previously stated that he hasn’t had a conversation about the upcoming WWE PLE.

In January 2025, Steve Austin revealed he had been able to return to the gym after undergoing total knee replacement surgery.

Transcript from si.com.

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• Steve Austin
• stone cold steve austin
• WrestleMania
• wwe

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