Stone Chilly Steve Austin to return for Kevin Owens faceoff at WrestleMania

The Texas Rattlesnake is probably going lacing his boots up another time. For the primary time in 19 years, Stone Chilly Steve Austin will hear glass shatter, stroll out onto the doorway technique to an ovation that will make Robert Plant jealous, and get his shtick to reverberate by way of a crowd prefer it’s 1998 for an official match, versus his sporadic non-combative appearances.

For the primary time since his WrestleMania 19 loss to The Rock in 2003, Austin’s commercial as a part of the primary evening of WrestleMania 38’s festivities from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, house of the Dallas Cowboys, on April 1, ought to flip from a run-of-the-mill Austin look with a pair “Hell Yeahs!” and “Whats?” blended with quite a few beers, center fingers and Stunners, to wrestling in an official match for the corporate that he helped launch previous Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling to win the Monday Evening Wars.

In his house state of Texas, the 57-year-old Austin — now labeled on Google as an “American tv host” — would grapple with Kevin Owens, because the Canadian has been on a tirade of his hatred for the Lone Star State, along with his endgame being the decision out of Austin on Monday’s version of Uncooked. Austin is at present being marketed as a visitor on the “KO Present” section, which extra resembles Jerry Springer than a wrestling match.

Scary Austin at WWE’s Tremendous Bowl possible turns right into a match through the showcase. Austin’s legendary standing locations him as considered one of just a few at absolute top-tier high quality, and WWE CEO Vince McMahon is aware of Austin’s capacity to place butts in seats in Texas is unmatched. McMahon and firm are producing the primary WrestleMania with out attendance restrictions in three years, since WrestleMania 35 was held almost two months earlier than All Elite Wrestling’s first official present. Now, AEW has clear momentum as a promotion that WWE hasn’t in a very long time.

It’s a sensible and sort-of determined transfer for the WWE to usher in Austin for the occasion. Is McMahon not assured sufficient in his gaggle of full-timers to fill each seat in Jerry World? Then once more, Austin is a needle-mover not like anybody else in firm historical past, greater than John Cena or Hulk Hogan at their prime — arguably even greater than The Rock. There’s precedent for the Rattlesnake’s providers being needed for earlier Mania occasions going down in Texas. The latest Mania to ​​emanate from the land of barbeque and George Bush was in 2016. Austin confirmed up alongside fellow Texan WWE Corridor of Famer Shawn Michaels, in addition to Mick Foley, to beat up 4 full-timers, solely considered one of whom, Sheamus, remains to be employed with the corporate.

At WrestleMania 25 in 2009, Austin was the headliner for WWE’s Corridor of Fame class, driving across the ring in an ATV and ingesting beer after his introduction. His first Texas WrestleMania as a full-time wrestler was in 2001, successful in the primary occasion of WM17 over The Rock, notorious for his heel flip, becoming a member of forces with McMahon, a long-time rival, and successful the match with 16 metal chair pictures to The Individuals’s Champ. A couple of different essential occasions to Austin’s profession have taken place in his house state, together with his 1997 Royal Rumble victory at San Antonio’s Alamodome.

Austin’s admiration for Owens as a performer predates his WWE ring id — gushing over Kevin Steen, his unbiased wrestling moniker and real-life identify — since his run as Ring of Honor’s world champion in 2012-13. Austin stated he appreciated his old-school type again in 2015 on a WWE Community look with McMahon. To placed on wrestling trunks for the primary time since he was 38, there’s no higher possibility than Owens for Austin to wrestle.

We’ve seen WWE’s nonexistent senior division go horribly over time. Triple H and Michaels vs. Undertaker and Kane? Gross. Undertaker vs. Goldberg? Terrible. Getting Austin to work with a performer at his peak that wrestles lots of of instances a yr is the right associate ought to he open that door for what I’m certain is an incredible payday. If Floyd Mayweather earned $20 million in 2008 for his program with The Massive Present, what sort of sum is Austin hauling in over the subsequent month?

Each wrestling fan ought to go into Austin’s possible return to the ring with an open thoughts. The Tremendous Bowl offered pure nostalgia for therefore many. This could evoke the identical pleasure. He’ll stomp a mudhole and stroll it dry, do his signature swing and miss clothesline became a Thesz Press and the remainder of his best hits. It’ll be a deal with and a one-night repair to WWE’s issues of getting contemporary matchups and content material. Possibly Owens might use a victory over Austin and promote it a lot the identical approach old-rival Chris Jericho did along with his wins over The Rock and Austin throughout the identical present in 2001.