Stone Cold Steve Austin shocked the world when he finally stepped back into the ring at WrestleMania 38, and that went down so well, it's hardly a surprise that fans hoped the Texas Rattlesnake would do the same again earlier this month.
Despite rumours WWE had big plans for Austin at WrestleMania 39, he was nowhere to be seen in SoFi Stadium.
Talking to Sports Illustrated, the former WWE Champion revealed whether there was any truth to those reports. "I met with some people from WWE. We talked about the possibility of me wrestling at WrestleMania 39," Austin confirmed. "The biggest thing in my mind was the presentation and what kind of match it was going to be."
"Going back to 38, the way the KO thing was presented - I love KO - I turned that down three, four, five times until the creative finally came to what it ended up being. I didn’t want it constructed as a real match, per se. I needed something that could turn into one, and it did, but I think that’s why we got away with it. The Dallas crowd was very receptive."
"To do a proper match, I’d have to be in off-the-charts shape," the WWE Hall of Famer continued. "I told them, and this is the exact truth, I said, ‘Guys, I’m just fixin’ to go into production on this show, Stone Cold Takes on America, and until we start production, I don’t know what my life looks like. I can’t commit.’"
Austin wrapped up his answer by admitting, "I was really protected at WrestleMania 38. This time, that wasn’t going to be the case. That was a true statement: Until this show was over, I couldn’t commit."
It's a shame things didn't pan out, and we still don't know who Austin was likely going to square off with. Roman Reigns and LA Knight were among the names to be mentioned online at various points, though we're guessing discussions never got any further than the ideas stage.
As for whether we'll see Austin wrestle again, that currently remains to be seen.