WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin recently opened up about what he wished he had done differently in his WrestleMania 38 return match. Austin had wrestled his last match against The Rock at WrestleMania 19 in 2003 before announcing his retirement. In 2022, he stepped back into a WWE ring after almost two decades to face Kevin Owens.
At WrestleMania 38, Austin appeared on The Kevin Owens Show, which quickly escalated into a match after Owens issued a challenge. Austin accepted, marking his first WWE match in nearly two decades. Both superstars put on a hard-hitting battle, but Austin sealed the victory with a Stunner.
He shocked fans by returning for one night in his home state of Texas. Looking back on the match, Austin admitted he had one major regret—he rushed his performance and wished he had taken more time to engage with the crowd and savor the moment.
Stone Cold on his last match: ‘I didn’t have any timing’
Speaking on The Takedown podcast, Stone Cold Steve Austin reflected on his WrestleMania 38 match against Kevin Owens, admitting that some aspects of the bout fell short of his expectations.
He recalled advice from wrestling legends like Triple H, The Undertaker, and Hulk Hogan, who warned him about the challenges of returning to the ring.
“Paul (Triple H) said, ‘You can come back, but you don’t know what you have because you haven’t been out there.’ Undertaker said, ‘You’re not going to have any timing.’ He was right—I didn’t have any timing. Hell, I hadn’t hit a set of ropes in 19 years. Hadn’t thrown a punch in 19 years.”
He continued, “Hogan said, ‘You’re just not calloused up. Your body is not as hard as it used to be.’ He was right because when you take time off, people talk about ring rust—that’s timing. So, I had no timing. Hogan was talking about being calloused up … those ropes hurt. Those bumps hurt. If you make a long comeback, it takes you two or three months to get those callouses back so that your body doesn’t hurt after every single match. You build up an immunity to it. So, they each made valid points.”
Looking back, Austin wished he had slowed down, savored the experience, and interacted with the audience more. However, the match remains one of the most memorable moments in recent history, as a new generation of fans witnessed him wrestle for the first time.
