During an appearance on the Talk is Jericho podcast, Steve Austin talked about why he didn’t come out of retirement:
“I think Vince [McMahon] tried talking me into coming back a couple of times. But you know Chris, I love the business so much – I can’t say I love it more than anybody else, I can only speak for myself. But I just love the damn business, and it hurt me so much to leave it. And to me, going back for one match, being like man, why? What am I proving? What are they going to remember? It ain’t about the money. It took me a long time, damn near three years to get over the fact that I left the business.”
“If you’re really going to make a comeback, let’s say it was gonna be high-profile match at WrestleMania. Taker, when I talked to him, he trained all year or recovered from having surgery, and then trained for a three or four-month camp to get ready for one match. So, I would really have to undergo a three or four-month camp. I’m one of those guys where I don’t have an addictive personality, but I’m addicted to the wrestling business. All of a sudden, if I’m gonna put in all that hard work and get back to being around the ring, being around the business, that is one of my number one passions in my life – to get hooked on it again just for one match and to me, it would have been so anti-climactic. Go out there and do it, and then whatever the finish was. And then the people go home, but what does it all mean in the big picture? Stone Cold had a comeback, and the match was a three and a half on Meltzer’s five star rating. ‘It ain’t great enough,’ and even if I crushed it, what would it mean? If I couldn’t be 110 percent Stone Cold Steve Austin, it just wasn’t worth doing. I just said, ‘Man, stay away.’ And I’ve stayed away.”
