In a recent interview with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin revealed that he was in talks to wrestle at WrestleMania 39 earlier this month, but could not commit to it.

“I haven’t spoken to this, but I’ll give you the story, I met with some people from WWE, we talked about the possibility of me wrestling at WrestleMania 39. The biggest thing in my mind was the presentation, and what kind of match it was going to be. Going back to 38, the way the KO thing was presented, I love KO, I turned that down three, four, five times until the creative finally came to what it ended up being. I didn’t want it constructed as a real match, per se, I needed something that could turn into one, and it did, but I think that’s why we got away with it.

The Dallas crowd was very receptive, I hadn’t been around, so the timing was right, but to do a proper match, I’d have to be in off-the-charts shape. I told them, and this is the exact truth, I said guys I’m just fixing to go into production on this show, Stone Cold Takes On America, and until we start production, I don’t know what my life looks like, I can’t commit. Sure enough, there were technical issues before we finished, I was supposed to finish a month before we did, there’s no way with the schedule I was doing, driving an RV all over Go’s creation, doing all that I was doing, that I would be ready.

I had two 30 pound dumbbells, a 45 pound sandbag, and a 25 pound kettlebell. Working for 15 hours a day, then getting in a 30 or 40 minute workout, that doesn’t get you ready for WrestleMania. I was really protected at WrestleMania 38, but this time, that wasn’t going to be the case, that was a true statement, until this show was over, I couldn’t commit.”

The full interview is available at this link.