Stone Cold Steve Austin: WWE Hall of Famer reveals reasons behind WrestleMania return

Austin will act as guest in the segment with Kevin Owens on WrestleMania Saturday in Dallas, in what is expected to more of physical altercation than we’ve seen from The Rattlesnake since his retirement in 2003. In accepting the invitation from Owens, he promised to ‘open up one last can of whoop-ass’ and has said he have upped his training in preparation for the event

During an appearance on the Rich Eisen Show, the WWE Hall of Famer revealed why he agreed to be part of this year’s WrestleMania, explaining it felt like the right time and that he was doing it for one person only.

“This opportunity comes up, Kevin Owens starts running me down and gets my attention. It was a thing where, I kind of said, ‘I’m never going to get in the ring again.’ In this business, never say never. I said I would never get in, but prompted by the right person at the right time, hell, I wish he would have pissed me off a little sooner than he did to give me more time to prep.

Once you step into the ring, it’s like stepping onto a football field, that’s where business happens. We don’t know what it’s going to escalate to. I’ve been working on my conditioning. Had it been anywhere else other than Jerry’s Place….it’s a two-night event, WrestleMania is biggest show of the year, to be part of that is really special to me.”

I’m doing this for me. I’m going out there to have a damn blast. I’m gonna have fun and I’m gonna wear these two fists out on Kevin Owens. I’m sure he’s going to get some to because he’s had an amazing career. I’m glad he pissed me off when he did.

Owens, who has been trash talking in the direction of Austin’s homestate of Texas for weeks in the build to their WrestleMania meeting, is a long-time Stone Cold fan. The the 57-year-old reflected on a meeting with the former Universal Champion and Sami Zayn at an airport many years ago, where he passed on some advice to the young novice.

“A long time ago, when I was still active in the ring, I was on the road somewhere, about to get on a plane. This kid come up from behind me, it was Kevin Owens, him and another guy. He said, ‘Hey Stone Cold, I’m Kevin Owens, I’ve been in the business a couple of years, can you give me any advice?’ He started telling me about all the offensive moves he was doing and all the crazy stuff and I said, ‘Kid, you need to stop learning how to do all those crazy moves and start learning how to run your mouth. You need to learn how to cut a promo.

Kevin Owens is a student of the game and now he cuts one of the best promos in the business and now he got my attention with one of his promos. He’s a guy who has had a career that many would love to have. He’s been in the business for over 20 years, longer than I have. It’s going to be an interesting challenge.

In my documentary, I said, ‘As an active performer, you never want to come off the road because you come off the road and you get soft.’ An NFL football player will tell you the same thing. You have to get calloused up and ready to go. He’s ready to go. I have my work cut out for me. I’m gonna be there whipping some ass.”

Austin was forced to call time on his legendary WWE career following the defeat to The Rock at WrestleMania XIX. He has since made sporadic appearances during promo segments in WWE, but has done nothing more physical than dish out a couple of Stone Cold Stunners since his retirement nineteen years ago.