Several weeks ago, a report surfaced noting that WWE was planning for Stone Cold Steve Austin to return to the ring at WrestleMania 38 to face Kevin Owens. The match would be Austin’s first in 19 years.
In a new update, those plans appear to be in jeopardy. According to a new report from the Wrestling Observer, Austin is indeed scheduled to be at the show, but as of right now, it won’t be a match that he will be participating in. Austin is scheduled to have some kind of in-ring confrontation with Owens instead.
According to the report, WWE would indeed like to have Austin participate in a match at WrestleMania, but Austin has not signed on for a match as of this moment.
“They will have a confrontation but it is not clear if that will be a match or not anymore,” Dave Meltzer said. “It’s essentially up to Austin at this point. They want the match, they thought they had the match and Steve…there’s a reason he hasn’t wrestled in 19 years. I just know that as of Friday, he had not agreed to do the match even though it was on the books. Now, it’s on the books as a confrontation.”
Viewers have seen Owens run down the state of Texas in recent weeks, the site of WrestleMania as well as Austin’s home state, and the purpose of this is for the eventual confrontation with Austin.
Austin has not been publicly announced for the show in any capacity. When the location of the event was announced last year, Austin was featured in the early commercials for the show.
WrestleMania 38 will take place over two nights, April 2nd and April 3rd, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas (suburban Dallas). The event is not sold out, and WWE has even run two-for-one ticket deals in an effort to move the thousands of tickets which remain. There’s no doubt that announcing Austin in an official capacity would speed up ticket sales.
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