Update On Steve Austin Turning Down WrestleMania 39 Match

The legendary “Stone Cold” Steve Austin was offered a WrestleMania 39 match, but he turned it down despite headlining the event one year earlier.

At WrestleMania 38, one of the highlights of the event was the in-ring return of WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. It had been 19 years since Austin competed in a sanctioned WWE match at WrestleMania 19 in 2003.

Steve Austin was advertised for an appearance on the Kevin Owens Show in the main event of WrestleMania 38 night one. It was heavily rumored that the talk show appearance would lead to a match and of course, that’s what happened.

At 57 years old with a bad neck, bad knees and nearly 20 years without competing in a match, Austin put on a memorable moment and beat Owens clean with a Stone Cold Stunner. The next night at WrestleMania 38 night two, Austin appeared a guy to give one more Stone Cold Stunner to his old rival Vince McMahon, along with Stunners for Austin Theory and Pat McAfee. There were beer bath celebrations too, of course.

Over the past several months, there were plenty of rumors about Austin possibly wrestling at this year’s WrestleMania 39 event at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on April 1st and 2nd. However, Austin turned those offers down.

In this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter (available via subscription), Dave Meltzer reported that Austin did turn down an offer to compete against a former 10-time WWE World Champion.

“There was an attempt for a Lesnar vs. Steve Austin match, as the two have never faced off. While there may have been mentions of Austin with Roman Reigns at one point, it was never anywhere near serious. Those close to Austin said it was Lesnar who he was approached about. Austin turned that down.”

Even though Austin won’t be wrestling at this year’s WrestleMania, he does have a new TV show with A&E coming soon. Austin is still very much a part of the WWE family, so there could be some Stone Cold appearance at WrestleMania 39 this April.