Jim Ross Refutes Steve Austin Rumors; Explains Austin’s “Comeback”

Through the past couple of weeks, there have been many rumors of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin returning to WWE in an on-screen role, leading to at least one more match for the “Texas Rattlesnake.” Rumors began upon WWE promoting Austin’s podcast on “Monday Night Raw,” in addition to subsequent reports that WWE was producing a lot more of Austin’s merchandise to sell.

Austin’s own words would eventually fuel the rumors, as in an episode of his podcast, “The Steve Austin Show,” he revealed that he was “training for a comeback.”  In turn, wrestling insiders would report that WWE and Austin were in heavy discussions to have “Stone Cold” have a more increased role in working for WWE.

However, Jim Ross has doused the fiery rumor in a recent blog post on his website, JRsBarBq.com. Ross recently spoke to Austin, and would state that Austin does not have an immediate goal to return to WWE for one more match. Even further, Ross explained what Austin meant by a “comeback” in his recent podcast episode. According to Ross, Austin was talking about training to prepare to return to Gold’s Gym in Venice, California.

Below are Ross’ words regarding the subject:

“Talked with Steve Austin, whose podcasts on @PodcastOne are killing it, on Monday night and was kidding him about him ‘training for a comeback,’ which most fans thought meant Steve was returning to the ring, and, subsequently, ‘taking a bigger role within WWE in 2015.’ I jokingly asked Austin that if he was going to be taking a bigger role if he could get a brother some work because a man’s got to eat!

Bottom line is that Steve was talking to a man who used to train with ‘Arnold’ back in the day at the Gold’s Gym in Venice and Steve said he was training to prepare to return to Gold’s Gym to train. They were talking about training, not wrestling, and how working out at Gold’s in Venice wasn’t for everyone. When the fans heard Austin say that he was “training for a comeback” they assumed that he meant to the ring which in turn means WrestleMania 31.

While Steve always keeps an open mind on returning to the ring for one last match, that’s not an immediate goal of his or even on the back burner. If many factors involved in that process were in place, I could theoretically see Steve doing it but the chance that all the stars aligning to his satisfaction are slim plus the window of opportunity as it relates to Father Time is beginning to close as well.

Austin would never return to the ring to go through the motions and he would likely need a solid four months of in ring work/training to be in the condition that he would demand of himself to headline a major event like WrestleMania. If I were WWE, I’d more likely look at WM32 in Dallas and begin discussing that sooner than later for the Texas Rattlesnake. That’s merely my personal opinion but selling 100,000 tickets in his home state might interest Steve the most if the money, the opponent and the creative were all on point.

Austin just finished another season of Redneck Island for CMT and is getting ready to tape another run of the Broken Skull Challenge for CMT in a few weeks. After that it might be challenging to find him unless you can make your way to South Texas where the deer grow large on the Broken Skull Ranch.”

Editor’s Note

Very insightful and needed report from Jim Ross. It’s so easy for a rumor to get out of hand based on what one fan heard on a podcast.