It's WrestleMania season, which often means it's rumor season in WWE. Those rumors sometimes include big names coming back to wrestle at the company's biggest show of the year, many times those rumors include Stone Cold Steve Austin's name. This year is no different, as Fightful Select is reporting that an overture has been made to Steve Austin to get him to wrestle at WrestleMania 38. @WrestleVotes seems to have also picked up on the story, tweeting, "If what I'm hearing is true..."
What's interesting about this is that the report states they want him for a match. This isn't just about an appearance at the show -- something Austin has done before and would likely have no issue doing again -- but this is to compete. In a 2015 interview with Paul Heyman on the Stone Cold podcast, Austin said he’d consider returning against Lesnar in a Texas Death Match and rumors are that if it isn't Lesnar, it could be Kevin Owens.
Considering Austin has been retired for some time and due to career-ending injuries, this is a big deal. It's been 19 years since he last wrestled a match and performers like Edge, Bryan Danielson, Sting, Christian, among others have all come back from what many believed were career-ending injuries. It's hard to rule out Austin making a comeback in some capacity after seeing what others have done.
The question really becomes, would he want to? This year's WrestleMania takes place in Austin's home state of Texas, and he has actually said before that he could probably hop in the ring again. At the same time, it's a lot of work to prepare for a match, and one of his bigger concerns is that he might get the itch again only to realize all he can do is one more match. It's a ton of work to get ring ready and not look out of shape and the last thing Austin probably wants to do is damage his legacy.
Some Are Suggesting WWE Is Struggling
The news also has fans suggesting this is merely WWE trying to come up with ideas that would generate more buzz for the show. A lack of early ticket sales and little buzz in terms of the huge drawing power in a big match has insiders a little concerned this year's show could fall flat. If so, Austin wrestling would easily draw fans to the event.
Is WWE really considering this? Is Austin? The next few weeks might offer a better indication as to where both parties are at with this.