Steve Austin has elaborated on his absence from WrestleMania 40 following heavy speculation that he might factor into the main event of night 2.
The final match of the 2024 show saw Cody Rhodes challenge Roman Reigns for the Undisputed Championship in a Bloodline Rules match, which saw run-ins take place throughout the bout. The American Nightmare had Jey Uso, John Cena, Seth Rollins and The Undertaker on his side, while Reigns had Jimmy Uso, Solo Sikoa and The Rock.
Even though it was The Undertaker who neutralised The Rock in the main event, many expected to see Austin make a surprise appearance given his legendary rivalry with The Final Boss, which included a trilogy of matches at WrestleMania. However, Austin did not make an appearance during the match or over the whole weekend.
“Things Just Didn’t Line Up”: Steve Austin On WrestleMania 40 Absence
While speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Austin was asked how close he came to being a part of the show, to which The Texas Rattlesnake stated that an appearance was pitched, but he had other plans:
“Things just didn’t line up. I had other things going on. I remember when they pitched that to me. I said, dude, I got some things going on. I don’t see myself being there. That was way in advance. Was it pitched to me, or did they want me there? Yeah. But I wasn’t in a position to go.”
Austin was then asked if it was never a possibility, to which the Hall of Famer said that it was possible, but not everything lined up with his schedule to make it possible to travel to Philadelphia for the show:
“No, there was a possibility that I could have been there had I chose to go there. I had other sh*t going on. WWE is this multi-billion dollar corporation. I got a metal shop that we’re sitting in. So sometimes the multi-billion dollar company has an idea that the dude that has the metal shop [should make an appearance], it just don’t work. So it didn’t work. I’m over here in my metal shop. I like to do as much as I can with WWE when it works, when it works for them, when it works for me, and when it’s going to be fun. But in that and saying that not everything lines up on a timeline basis, I had other sh*t going on.”
Also in the interview, Austin was asked why a match between himself and Goldberg never happened:
“I don’t know. I think we pitched it when he first came in, but he wasn’t at the level that he needed to be. He had just come into WWF, and he needed to get going or get over first. He was certainly over from his WCW days. I think a little bit of time had elapsed, but I watched him down there in Atlanta, but we were all on the road at the time, and that was during the Monday Night Wars. If you set your DVR to record back in the day, you kind of knew what was going on. I watched Dallas Page kind of go down a parallel path as me too as far as this timeline of getting over. But yeah, you know, Goldberg just needed to put some time in WWF before we could go, and then it just never happened. Bill is a good friend of mine.”
Another dream match that many hoped would come to fruition was between Austin and CM Punk, especially as the two had a back-and-forth on an episode of Raw back in 2013. When asked why this match never happened, Austin noted that like him vs. Hogan, not every dream match was a possibility:
“It was teased at one time, we were promoting a video game, and I think I just had an ACL, PCL [surgery]. Maybe it was teased, but it just never happened, just like me and Hogan never [happened]. Many things never happened. There’s so much good sh*t that did happen. Not everything can happen.”
Featured image: WWE
