WWE News: Stone Cold’s ‘WrestleMania 32’ Appearance ‘Might Have Been The Last Time’

One of the highlights from WrestleMania 32 came when “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, and Mick Foley made their collective appearances at the conclusion of the match between The New Day and the League of Nations. The League winning came as a bit of a shock, but it had been reported that it was booked that way in order for the three legends’ run-in to make sense. King Barrett took the microphone and claimed that no three men could ever beat Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio, and Rusev, and out came the Hall-of-Famers to answer the challenge.

Batista was also originally offered a spot in the segment, which may have allowed for a more sensible four-on-four collision, but Stone Cold, HBK, and the Hardcore Legend handled things just fine anyway. What made Stone Cold’s showing even more impressive was that he had torn his rotator cuff prior to the event. Austin re-injured the shoulder on the first punch he threw at Rusev, which incidentally connected and bloodied the Bulgarian Brute. Shortly after WrestleMania, Stone Cold admitted that the injury hampered his beer-catching and beer-drinking skills, but he managed nonetheless.

Austin is still talking about the big show from AT&T Stadium, and the Texas Rattlesnake revealed on You’re Welcome with Chael Sonnen that that may have been the last time we’ll ever see him in a WWE ring again.

Wrestling Inc provided a transcription of the interview.

“It was good to go down there [to Dallas, TX for WrestleMania 32]. The situation could have been a little cooler. It was fun to do business with those guys, but the crowd was outstanding. I hope everybody had a good time. I don’t know when the next time I’ll ever hit a WWE ring will ever be again. That might have been the last time. And I wanted to be there in Dallas, TX at [WrestleMania] 32. Minor capacity because I never announced my retirement, but I kind of consider myself retired. So to go out in front of 97,000 or 101,000 people, however many [WWE] said that it was, that’s the city I started my [professional] wrestling career in, wrestling at the world famous Sportatorium, so it was a great time.”

It’s true. Stone Cold never officially retired from the business, but very few wrestlers are lucky enough to get the type of send-off that Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels received. Retirement tours are just not done that often. But the WWE Universe has become accustomed to surprise appearances from Austin, and for him to say that he might never do it again comes as a bit of a shock. Much like the news of the Undertaker telling Vince McMahon that he is retired, WWE would certainly want to capitalize on a final appearance from “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.

Stone Cold also expressed hesitation towards the idea of dancing with The New Day during the celebration portion of their segment. Austin finally made the concession to do some variation of what was originally posed and we were treated to a little tease, followed by the final stunner to Xavier Woods.

“And so, we were talking about doing the dance scene because he was going to be one of the guys to take a Stunner. And they were selling me this and I was thinking, ‘okay, well, ‘Stone Cold’ don’t dance’. I could sit there and just look at him the way ‘Stone Cold’ does that look or that I could just bait him in a little bit by saying, ‘okay, yeah, I get it, I get it’. So actually, they were pitching me this. I was going to shoot it down, but then I said, ‘you know what? It’s WrestleMania. It’s going to make the pop bigger if I let him get me into it and they think ‘okay’ because [the fans] know what’s coming. They know what’s coming. And so, you expand the ‘Stone Cold’ character to another level. It goes with a basic one-step, two-step kind of a thing, which is about all I’m capable of for a shoot and then you hit him with a Stunner after he does a spin. It was the icing on the cake.”

Who would have guessed in a million years that Xavier Woods might be the answer to this trivia question: Who did “Stone Cold” Steve Austin give his final stunner to?

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