WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin has opened up about “one of the toughest things” he’s ever had to do as he reflects on his legendary career.
Stone Cold Steve Austin simply was the wrestling boom in the late nineties as he led WWE’s Attitude Era in their Monday Night Wars against WCW.
On-screen Steve Austin’s rivalry with former WWE boss Vince McMahon is one of the most legendary wrestling feuds of all time but years in the ring take their toll on any man.
After having his neck broken at SummerSlam 1997 it was a minor miracle that Austin ever returned to the ring never mind capture the WWE Championship just seven months later for the first time at WrestleMania 14. But Austin’s career was always then on borrowed time.
A year out of action as the Millennium dawned halted Steve Austin’s momentum but in 2003 things came to a full stop when he took part in his last match – until meeting Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 38 – at WrestleMania 19 against The Rock.
Speaking to Sportskeeda’s Bill Apter, Steve Austin detailed why having to walk away from wrestling full-time before the age of 40 was such a wrench for him:
“Believe me, retiring at 38 was the toughest, one of the toughest things I’ve ever had to do, walk away from the business that I love so much. This is one of the things that I love more than anything in my life. I have my family, and of course, they are very close to me, but professional wrestling, you want to call it sports entertainment, it’s all the same to me. This is one of my biggest, if not the biggest, passions of my life. So it was very hard for me to walk away at 38 years of age.”
“There is no telling as to what I would have done had everything else played out the same with respect to the development of the character. But you know, things along the way, getting dropped my head forced me to turn into a brawler but god, if I could have had that kind of physicality and you know, that kind of health that I had in my youth. The run would have lasted a lot longer.”