Steve Austin has no plans for a return to the ring, he told Pat McAfee on Friday.
Austin’s match with Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13 will be inducted as an “Immortal Moment” at the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday night.
Appearing on the Pat McAfee show, he was asked by the host:
There’s been rumors, basically, every single big PLE, “Hey, Steve Austin, Steve Austin.” Because of how popular you are, everybody wants that to happen. How much do you think about that at this stage of life?
You’re in great shape. I know you’re doing four-wheeling at a very high level. How much do you think about wrestling still? Do you ever get in there and see if the old ass could take another drop-down stunner?
Austin replied:
No, I don’t think about anything like that. I’ve kind of moved on down the road. Don’t get me wrong, the competitive side of me, which kind of transfers into the racing that I’m doing now that you spoke of, I want to be the best at everything that I do.
You still go back and you watch these guys and the gals in the ring in the WWE, and you think, “Hey, man, I could have gave Kevin Owens a little bit more than what I had.” And sometimes you think about it.
But, hey, man, I think the time right now for the people in the ring, it’s for the younger generation. It’s for the young men and women that are out there on the road. I leave it to them. And they’ve taken it to a great place. The business has grown to something that I never would have imagined.
Elsewhere in the interview, Austin was asked his opinion on John Cena’s heel turn. He said:
John’s had a hell of a damn run. So, for me to be inside the business as long as I was, I didn’t have the longest career in the world, but to see what John’s doing and where he’s going right now, to me, I love it. Because, you know, he just means so much to all of these people here, whether you boo him or you cheer him.
To see him as a heel is a breath of fresh air for me. So, I dig it the most.
Michael Cole was also on the panel and said to Austin, “Steve, you went through it. You were so popular, you turned heel as well.”
Austin responded, “I tried to turn heel. That was something that wasn’t… That didn’t need to happen. We tried to force that, and it didn’t fit. I think the way John did it, you know, I think it fits.”
