Kevin Owens Recalls How Steve Austin Match At WrestleMania Happened
Kevin Owens has revealed how much he knew about his WrestleMania 38 match with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.
In the main event of WrestleMania 38 in 2022, Kevin Owens faced his wrestling idol “Stone Cold” Steve Austin in what was Austin’s first match in 19 years.
What made that match so interesting is that WWE never advertised it as a wrestling match. It was only actually advertised for about two weeks before WrestleMania and the company told the fans that it would be Owens interviewing Austin on the “Kevin Owens Show” at WrestleMania.
The reason it turned into a match is because Austin felt healthy enough to do it. Austin retired in 2003 at the age of 38 due to serious neck issues, so the fact that he was able to wrestle at the age of 57 was pretty remarkable. Austin hit his patented Stone Cold Stunner on Owens to pick up the victory.
While speaking to James Williams on YouTube, Kevin Owens revealed that he knew around the Royal Rumble that he would be doing something with Austin at that WrestleMania.
“So Vince McMahon told me at the Royal Rumble that year, which was a few months before, that I would be involved with Stone Cold at WrestleMania. We didn’t know what it was going to be. We certainly didn’t know it was going to be a match.”
“We just had a loose plan of we are going to have a ‘Kevin Owens’ Show with Steve Austin and go from there, and that’s what it stayed for a long time until a couple of days before.”
When Did Kevin Owens Find Out It Would Be A Match?
As he continued, Kevin Owens spoke about how it turned into a match just because of how Austin felt a few days before the show.
“When we got to Dallas, and you know, Steve felt a certain way and felt pretty good, looked pretty good, and we just started talking about what if it turned to this, what if it turns into that, and it all came together the way people watched it.”
On the December 1st episode of Smackdown, Kevin Owens picked up a victory over Grayson Waller while selling a right hand injury. WWE announced that Owens “fractured his 4th and 5th metacarpal” although it’s believed it is just a storyline injury.