It definitely appears that the WWE and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin had a plan to put him in a marquee matchup against one of its top stars. And, while this didn’t come to fruition, Stone Cold is still open to such up in the future.
Stone Cold confirmed this in an interview with BleacherReport ahead of the premiere of “Stone Cold Takes on America” on A&E on April 30, Sunday.
Here’s what Stone Cold said about what the WWE pitched him for WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles:
The concrete idea was a match.
It was a match with one of the top guys in the business, period. I’ll let everybody speculate about that, but yeah, it was a match and I just didn’t think I could get ready for it in time because I didn’t know my schedule, which is what I told them. ‘I don’t know what my life looks like until I finish this show.’
At the time, the Texas Rattlesnake was filming the aforementioned series. Stone Cold explained that the original plan was to spend three months filming the show, but, as per the WWE Hall of Famer, “it took close to five and it chewed up a lot of time.
Apparently, Stone Cold didn’t wrap up filming the show until “four days before WrestleMania”, which explains why he didn’t appear at this year’s Show of Shows, among other important WWE events.
A match between Reigns and Austin is in line with the rumors we heard earlier this year. If it happened, the WWE wouldn’t look like what it is right now, with Cody Rhodes set to take on Brock Lesnar at WWE Backlash on May 6 after his surprising loss to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39. But, if his planned match wasn’t against Reigns, the 58-year-old has a plethora of “top guys” that would have loved to put on a show against him.
Among them, Brock Lesnar, Seth Rollins, Bobby Lashley, and even Cody Rhodes, all make sense and would’ve been huge draws albeit not as much as seeing The Bionic Redneck take on The Tribal Chief.
Hopefully, Stone Cold will clear his schedule in the months leading up to WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia. This way, if the WWE comes calling, he’ll have time to answer the call.
As for whether or not he’s ready and primed to go, Stone Cold brought up his match against Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 38 in the same interview. At the time, Stone Cold mentioned that he didn’t have enough time to prepare for the match. The three-time Royal Rumble winner even teased that he’d love to show fans how much better he could perform if he’d gotten the heads up and gotten the work in before his appearance.
Who knows? Maybe that dream match between Brock Lesnar and Stone Cold can finally happen next year.
Lest we forget, Stone Cold still regrets not being able to square up against the Beast Incarnate in his prime before his neck injury forced him to retire from in-ring action.
