Steve Austin on Potential of Wrestling One More Match, Reasons Why He Did Not Appear at WrestleMania 40, His Chemistry with Bret Hart & Vince McMahon, & John Cena’s Heel Run in 2025

A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast featured WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Austin’s thoughts about Vliet’s comments about him looking like he can still go in the ring.

“I could, God dang it. And just saying that takes me back to when we did that WrestleMania match with Kevin Owens in Dallas, Texas.

I just wish that he could have been in the ring with me when I was really going full speed and had my timing because he’s a great worker and I really like him a lot. I wish he would have got a chance to experience me when I was in my prime because that would have been a great contest.

I could still do it.And I’m not advocating for nothing. So I’m not selling a match here. But you asked me, could I? Yes.”

Austin gave his thoughts about if he would wrestle again for one more match

“Probably not. I’ll say that, but you say never say never.”

Austin also gave his thoughts about the rumors of him making an appearance at WrestleMania 40 in 2024 and the reasons why he did not attend the event.

“Things just didn’t line up. I had other things going on. You know, I remember when they pitched that to me. I said, ‘Dude, I got some things going on. I don’t see myself being there.’ That was way in advance. Was it pitched to me, or did they want me there? Yeah, but I wasn’t in a position to go.

There was a possibility that I could have been there, had I chose to go there. I had other sh*t going on. Sometimes, you know, WWE is this multi-billion dollar corporation. I got a metal shop that we’re sitting in. So, sometimes the multi-billion dollar company has an idea that the dude that has the metal shop — it just don’t work. It didn’t work. I’m over here in my metal shop. I like to do as much as I can with WWE. When it works for them, when it works for me, and when it’s going to be fun. In saying that, not everything lines up on a timeline basis. I had other sh*t going on.”

Austin also gave his thoughts about working with WWE Hall of Famer Bret “The Hitman” Hart and praised the chemistry he had with Hart in the ring in WWE.

“Bret, I loved working with that guy. We just had instant chemistry. He was a student of the game and a student of other promotions. And he had seen what I was doing in WCW as Stunning Steve Austin. He knew his style and my style would work well together — and it did. Just the trash-talking heel that I was, and he was that steady workaholic working babyface, blue collar if you will, [from] Canada, wearing the pink. Just two styles that would work really, really well together — and it did. I’m very thankful to that guy, because he meant a lot to my career.”

Austin also gave his thoughts about working with Vince McMahon and praised the chemistry they had together for their iconic rivalry in WWE.

“Vince, great chemistry. That was a feud that transcended the wrestling business. Even if you weren’t like a wrestling fan per se, you were interested in being entertained, so you put it on to see what this m*therfucker from South Texas is terrorizing his boss from New York City — of course, Vince is from North Carolina — but you know what I’m saying. He’s the guy with all the money. And here’s this guy that he’s trying to give a hard time to and make everything hard for him. And he’s outsmarting him and he’s kicking his ass. At some point in anybody’s life, they’d like to punch their boss in the mouth.”

Austin also gave his thoughts about John Cena’s heel turn and run as part of his retirement tour in 2025.

“Everybody — not everybody — a lot of people wanted to see at least one John Cena heel turn in his run. It was okay. It was okay, you know? I like him better as a babyface. I wanted to see him as a heel at some point during his career. The way that it was done — and I’m not knocking booking — just like, man, this far in? Forget about it. Just let him do his thing, f*cking kids love that guy.”

Austin also gave his thoughts about his own heel turn moment at WrestleMania 17 and handshake with his arch-rival McMahon.

“Nobody wanted me to turn heel, but I was just set on turning heel because I’ve always liked working heel so much. It didn’t work. It wasn’t successful. We got a chance to, you know, push the character in different directions and different dimensions. But I don’t think we were really ringing up the box office doing that.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com 1, 2, 3, & 4