Steve Austin: Match With Hogan?, One More Match?, Retirement

In an interview with WWE Magazine’s special 2010 WrestleMania 26 Almanac, WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin says he still has no interest in fighting Hulk Hogan, despite WWE’s repeated attempts to make the match happen at the past few WrestleManias.

“After I retired, for two or three years, they asked me, ‘Do you want to wrestle Hogan this year? Do you want to wrestle Hogan? And the answer is: No, I don’t. “I don’t care to wrestle Hulk Hogan. I don’t think it would live up to fans’s expectations.”

Austin says his match with Dwayne “The Rock” Dwayne Johnson at WrestleMania 19 in 2003 was his “retirement match.” Austin isn’t looking for one last rematch, because he doesn’t think it could be as good as their past classics.

“That was my last match, and I’m not looking for a re-match. I don’t it would be as good as what we’ve done before because we’ve both been out of the ring for some time. Could it be done? Of course. But there’s no use talking about it. … I definitely do not have any interest in delivering anything that would be second-best to what I’ve done before.”

When asked about his favorite WrestleMania match, Austin his WrestleMania 17 main event match against The Rock, but admits that turning heel and aligning himself with Mr. McMahon that night was a bad idea looking back.

“Looking back, it wasn’t the best thing we ever did,” Austin said. “Now, if I could go back, as soon as that match ended, when Vince walked up to me, I would have shaken his hand and said, ‘Watch the Stunner,’ and dropped him right there in the middle of the ring. That’s hindsight being 20/20!”

Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon At WrestleMania (Special Guest Ref: Steve Austin!)