Ranking Every WrestleMania Retirement From Worst To Best

4. Stone Cold Steve Austin - WrestleMania 38

Triple H boots
WWE.com

Everyone comes back eventually. In a world of fake retirements, there was always something about Stone Cold Steve Austin's bow that felt permanent. Maybe it was the obliterated neck? Yes, let’s go with that. Austin’s neck was in such bad condition that even the prospect of a single bump was enough to threaten paralysis. With that in mind, imagine being Kevin Owens, hooking Austin in for a suplex on the concrete floor of AT&T Stadium in a WrestleMania main event…

Say what you will about the build for Stone Cold Steve Austin’s return match, but the bout itself ended up being a whole lot of fun. Kevin Owens is an absolute bumping machine, the perfect foil for a 58-year-old Austin, and the entire angle allowed the most important pro wrestler of the last 30 years to go out on his own terms. Was it the best match ever? No, but it was a whole lot of fun, and it gave the world Stunners, beers and all the rest.

Of course, Austin’s original last match was a true WrestleMania classic. Stone Cold vs. The Rock was the defining in-ring rivalry of the Attitude Era, and it was only fitting that Austin’s storied career (initially) ended with Rocky finally beating him on The Grandest Stage of Them All in a true classic.

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.