Steve Austin expresses his regrets regarding his WWE WrestleMania 38 match

Steve Austin made his ring comeback in 2023 at WWE WrestleMania 38 after defeating Kevin Owens. The match was caused by Owens' harsh treatment of the WWE Hall of Famer, to which Austin replied with a harsh  promo and agreed to appear on the "KO Show." This interaction ultimately resulted in a brawl between Austin and the former Universal Champion.

In a recent interview with Zack Heydorn for The Takedown On SI, Steve Austin gave his thoughts on the fight and admitted that some parts of his performance fell short of his standards."I was happy in a moment, but, you know, they didn't send me a ring down. I didn't have any timing. I think they interviewed Triple H, The Undertaker, and Hogan. Each one of them said something so true. Paul said, 'You can come back, but you don't know what you have, because you haven't been out there.' Undertaker said, 'You're not going to have any timing.'

"You can return, but you have no idea what you have because you haven't been out there," Paul [Levesque, Triple H] stated. "You're not going to have any timing," the Undertaker added. He was correct. There was no timing for me. Hell, it had been 19 years since I had struck a set of ropes. had not delivered a blow in nineteen years. "You know, you're just not calloused up," Hogan adds. 

Steve Austin to mark his presence at WrestleMania 41

Steve Austin said that he realized he could have done a better job of managing the audience and timing the action when he saw the match replay. “When I went out there, I think I couldn’t hear the crowd as much as I wanted to. When I watched it back, the crowd was into it. It was very, very loud, yes, but I wish I would have taken more time, savored more moments, and worked the people a little bit more than I did," he said.

WWE showed Austin some possible opponents for WrestleMania 39, but he turned them down. He stated earlier this month that he had not received any inquiries regarding a possible presence at WrestleMania 41. He is still willing to entertain any suggestions for attending the event.