Steve Austin Turned Down In-Ring Return Several Times Before WWE WrestleMania 38

After years of fantasy booking, rumours, and speculation, the legendary Stone Cold Steve Austin made his return to a WWE ring at WrestleMania 38, taking on Kevin Owens in his first match since retiring at WrestleMania 19.

The Texas Rattlesnake’s return was a long time coming, but as he revealed to Ryan Satin on Out of Character, Austin turned down several approaches from WWE before agreeing to the Mania bout:

“I turned them down several times until they kept coming back with different creative. KO was always in the conversation, I was down with that cause I love that guy, he's awesome,” said Austin. “On the inside, I was knocking his head-off so many times because I hadn't thrown a punch in 19 years. I told him when we got finished, I said, 'Dude, I cannot believe you didn't give me a receipt out there.' That's the good-natured heart of KO. I think he was thrilled to be out there and I was thrilled to be with him. It took some talking, we got everything lined up, you saw what happened.”

Since then, Austin’s name has been continuously linked with a possible match at this year’s upcoming WrestleMania 39 event. The WWE Hall of Fame has said his days in the ring are done, however.

H/T: F4W Online