WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin teases that he might just have one more match left in him, even after 16 years of retirement. After breaking out as a top star just in time to carry Vince McMahon's company to heights it had never before seen during the Attitude Era, Austin only spent about five years at the top of the pro wrestling mountain before mounting neck problems forced him into an early retirement. Despite this brief reign, Austin remains one of the biggest stars in wrestling history, and one of the few wrestlers even non-fans tend to know.
Austin's last match famously took place at WrestleMania XIX in 2003, and saw him battle arch rival The Rock one last time. As is industry tradition, Austin went out on his back, finally losing to the future Hollywood superstar after emerging victorious in their previous encounters. In the years since, Stone Cold has never truly left WWE, always managing to turn up again even after his longer periods of absence. He's played an onscreen authority figure, been a special referee several times, hosted reality competition series Tough Enough, and of course was inducted into the Hall of Fame back in 2009.
Thanks to the WWE Network offering fans instant access to all his greatest matches and moments, Stone Cold Steve Austin continues to be very relevant to WWE audiences, even when he's not making a cameo on Raw. Despite all the years that have ed, Austin is still regularly asked about the possibility of coming back to the ring for one more big match. Stone Cold decided to tackle that subject head on in his most recent addition of The Steve Austin Show podcast. His remarks are below, but the main thrust seems to be that he could conceivably have another match, although that doesn't mean he ever actually will.
For the last couple of weeks, down there at the RAW reunion in Tampa, down there at the Madison Square Garden show at Monday Night RAW – people always ask me, ‘Hey man, you’re still in really good shape. You got one more match left in you?.’ “And I tell them, ‘Man.’ I say, ‘You know, it’s a tough thing to think about.’ Physically, would I be able to have one more match? Yes, most definitely, and I could make it to that match without being injured. Although the risks are always there, just because I think all of the surgeries, I had… where I had the spinal stenosis, and getting that bone spur taken off my spinal cord – I’m in a good place. Nerves are feeling a lot better than they use to. So, you know, in theory, could I have a match? In theory, yes.
Granted, this isn't the first time Austin has made comments similar to those above, but a possible return has been increasingly on the minds of WWE fans as of late. Austin has had an increased presence on WWE programming recently, thanks to cross-promotional efforts designed to get Raw viewers to tune into Austin's new talk show on USA, Straight Up Steve Austin. As he points out above, Austin is still in tremendous physical shape, and still very much looks like the man fans raising hell and kicking ass, albeit a little older.
While Austin may look great though, he's still 54-years-old, and would still likely be more susceptible to injury either during a match or while training for it. He certainly seems to think he could come out okay though, and he would obviously know his body better than anyone else. If Austin were to have another match though, it would seemingly need to happen soon, as each year that ticks by makes it less and less likely to envision. One assumes Austin would prefer not to wrestle while enjoying Medicare benefits and other perks of being a senior citizen.
Source: The Steve Austin Show