Steve Austin On Why He Didn’t Appear At WrestleMania 40

Steve Austin didn’t appear at WrestleMania 40 despite speculation otherwise at the time, and he recently explained why it didn’t happen. WrestleMania 40 took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Austin was rumored to appear. He previously confirmed that WWE reached out, but the appearance didn’t happen.

Austin was asked about the matter during his appearance on Insight With Chris Van Vliet. He confirmed that there was a possibility of his having shown up, but said that he had “other things going on” that were set up far in advance. You can see the highlights below:

On How Close He Was To Doing WrestleMania 40:

“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.”

On If It Was Ever Possible:

“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.”