CM Punk vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin. The Dream Match that never was. A true “Once In A Lifetime” clash that never happened. As legends of their respective eras, fans always wondered if the match would ever happen. Unfortunately, it never did, although there were a couple of times when the match may have become a reality and it may have been closer than anybody ever thought possible.
Punk And Austin Had Some Small Segments Together
CM Punk and Stone Cold Steve Austin would first interact in a backstage segment when Austin was “hosting” an episode of Raw in 2011. It was a rather comical segment overall but the tension between the two was palpable and the segment would have one particularly ominous line from CM Punk, "You gave me a match with John Cena and I want to thank you because you just set in motion something that is going to change the landscape of the WWE forever." That is exactly what happened, as Punk would beat Cena in that match, kicking off the infamous Summer of Punk.
Their second interaction happened during a promotional interview for the WWE '13 video game. As CM Punk and Stone Cold Steve Austin were being interviewed by Jim Ross, Punk notes that it seems like Austin is looking at CM Punk’s WWE Championship with envy. Austin says if he wanted that belt, it would already be sitting in his lap. Afterward, Punk said the interview was supposed to be out of character, but if you watch the video, Austin is definitely in “Stone Cold” mode and Punk is definitely in “Best in the World” mode.
Austin Was A Fan Of Punk
CM Punk shared a story on Inside the Ropes about Austin, saying he was a fan of CM Punk. “I remember 2010, maybe, I remember being in, I think, San Diego, and Austin was in San Diego, and he was just strictly there, and I can’t remember why he was there, and I just remember looking at him and being like, ‘You know what, f— it.’ And I walked up to him and I go, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ And he was like, ‘What do you mean?’ And I was like, ‘Well, you’re here,’ I go, ‘I gotta work a dark match after this,’ I go, ‘Do you mind coming out and giving me a Stunner? How else are we going to send these people home, you know what I mean?’ He was like, ‘Goddamn, yeah, alright kid.’ And you know, here’s the guy, he literally was like, ‘I been back here I don’t know how many times and ain’t nobody ever asked me that before.’ And I was like, ‘Well why the f— hasn’t anybody asked this guy,’ because I was like, I’m out the door, I might as well be able to say I took a Stunner."
Fightful’s Twitter posted a gif of the stunner in question.
In the same interview with Inside The Ropes, CM Punk suggests the dream match between the two legends was actually on the cards, if only for a “sliver of time.” Punk said, “I think that’s kinda where Steve kind of took a liking to me. Because again if you never ask, the answer is always no, and dude just kind of, would always be backstage sitting around, I guess, I don’t know if he was waiting for somebody to ask, so that’s when I started prodding and being like, let’s work this match, motherf—, let’s go. And there was a sliver in time where it was gonna happen, and then the next minute, it didn’t.”
During a Twitter Q&A in February 2021, CM Punk joked about how the dream match with Austin would have gone. He said, “Would’ve been short. GTS, 1 2 3.”
Stone Cold Steve Austin, however, had a different idea for how the match would go. After seeing Punk’s tweet, he replied, “I see. @CMPunk You did say that. Damn. Complete delusion. I had us at a 60 minute time limit match at the Rosemont Horizon. Right there in Chicago. Chi Town. The Windy City. Helluva match. Caught you with a Stunner at 59:56. You did not kick out. Bottom line.”
It seems a brief Twitter battle is the best we can hope for these days. Punk is active again and Austin has always said he is technically capable of the fabled “one more match.” But it would never actually happen.
Right?