The Advice Steve Austin Gave Kevin Owens In Bizarre First Meeting

The first meeting between Steve Austin and Kevin Owens was a little unorthodox.

Kevin Owens arrived in WWE with a lofty reputation after starring on the independent scene for the likes of Ring of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. As is the life of a wrestler, this meant lots of time spent in the airport, sleeping on floors, and just generally struggling to survive making it from town to town.

It was during one of these long, stressful days that Owens first crossed paths with Stone Cold Steve Austin. Little did he know at the time, but the pair would later share the ring in the main event of night one of WrestleMania 38.

During the new documentary Stone Cold”: A&E Biography: Legends — “Stone Cold’s” Last Match, Owens looked back at this chance first meeting in an airport.

Owens, who was traveling with Sami Zayn at the time, initially didn’t realise he was standing across from the WWE legend, but when he did, he knew he had to get Zayn and go and talk to him. This saw KO wake up a startled Zayn who was asleep on the floor, naturally, Zayn thought he was about to be thrown into a fight, not a meeting with wrestling royalty.

Owens: “We were in the middle of one of those travel days and we were about to board our third flight and we were really dead tired. I just remember walking toward the water fountain, I looked to my left and my first thought was that guy looks like Steve Austin. Oh, that is Steve Austin.”

Zayn: “I am on the ground sleeping and I am so out of it. I get woken up in a panic by Kevin. He goes ‘Dude, come on, we gotta go, right now!’ I’m so in a haze that for some reason I’m under the understanding that he has got into some kind of altercation and now he needs me for backup. We are about to go have a fistfight.”

Owens: “As we are walking towards Austin he [Zayn] goes ‘Who are we fighting?’ I’m like what? He thought I was asking him to come fight some guys. Which to his credit he was coming, he was like ok, we are going to fight guys at an airport. That’s a good plan. But then I am like we are going to see “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Sami looks up and sees him and he says ‘That not Austin, oh sh*t it is!’”

After chatting for a few minutes, Owens asked Austin for one piece of advice, and it’s something that stuck with him from that day forward.

Owens: “We told him we were independent wrestlers, then he started talking to us about wrestling, what we were doing, how things are going. We probably ended up talking to him for a good 10 minutes. Then it was time to board, they called first class which obviously he was on and we weren’t. Right before we went I was like ‘Hey, if you have one piece of advice for me, what is it?’”

Austin: “I said kid, you need to learn how to run your mouth, need to learn how to talk.”

Owens: “I took that advice to heart. It’s an understatement when I say that advice helped me get where I am today, for sure.”

Will Steve Austin Wrestle Again?

Ever since that match between Stone Cold and Kevin Owens, there have been rumours the Hall of Famer might not be quite done. In fact, there have been several pitches made to get Austin back in the ring since that night in Dallas, but to date, he’s turned them all down.

At the end of the documentary, Steve Austin addressed the possibility of another comeback and made sure to stop short of fully ruling it out. But the Texas Rattlesnake said that he’s now “walked away,” adding he’s got nothing to prove.

Steve Austin had been scheduled to appear at WrestleMania 40 in the main event between Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns. However, his place was reportedly taken by The Undertaker after he was unable to “reach a financial agreement” with the company.

H/t to ITRWrestling