According to a report from Fightful, WWE has made a “significant overture” to have Steve Austin make his official in-ring return at WrestleMania 38 in Dallas, Texas. The company is very interested in having him work a match at the event and there are some rumors that it’ll be against Kevin Owens based off the current storyline where Owens isn’t a fan of the state of Texas.
While WWE is refusing to comment on the rumors as you’d expect, WWE officials and talent have had a “range of responses” with some refusing to comment while others are assuming that the match will indeed be taking place.
At the very least, Austin is expected to have a “physical role” at WrestleMania 38. It remains to be seen whether he will be facing a potential opponent or if he is on board with the idea of an actual match happening.
Steve Austin’s last match for WWE was at WrestleMania 19 in 2003, losing against The Rock. During an appearance on Chris Jericho’s “Talk is Jericho” podcast, Austin noted that Vince McMahon has tried to talk him into coming back “a couple of time” but it’s never happened because he has his doubts about how well he’ll be able to perform. He said,
“I think Vince [McMahon] tried talking me into coming back a couple of times. But you know Chris, I love the business so much – I can’t say I love it more than anybody else, I can only speak for myself. But I just love the damn business, and it hurt me so much to leave it. And to me, going back for one match, being like man, why? What am I proving? What are they going to remember? It ain’t about the money. It took me a long time, damn near three years to get over the fact that I left the business.”
Austin also revealed in a TikTok fan Q&A that if he ever did have one more match, he’d want it to be against Brock Lesnar. Of course, Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns has already been confirmed for WrestleMania 38.
When WrestleMania 32 took place in Dallas, TX back in 2016, Austin appeared during a segment with Mick Foley and Shawn Michaels to clear the ring of the League of Nations following their win over The New Day.
Stay tuned to eWrestlingNews.com for more updates on this developing story.
