Stone Cold Steve Austin Defeats Kevin Owens At WWE WrestleMania 38 Return

Austin's 'Mania 38 appearance turned into a No Holds Barred contest.

by Andrew Pollard
WWE WrestleMania 38 Steve Austin Kevin Owens
WWE.com

Following plentiful speculation that he'd be returning to the ring to face Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 38, 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin did indeed lace up his boots and have one more match at last night's first leg of 'Mania 38.

As had been advertised, Austin came out in the final segment of Night 1 of this year's Showcase of the Immortals, with him a guest on The KO Show. After a heated exchange of words between the two, Owens revealed that he'd lied to Stone Cold all along. Rather than wanting the Texas Rattlesnake to merely be a guest on The KO Show, the French-Canadian had brought Austin out to AT&T Stadium to challenge him to a No Holds Barred match.

Following a quick consultation with the reported 77,899 in attendance - and a couple of raucous Hell Yeahs from those fans - Austin accepted Owens' offer, and the pair embarked on a 14-minute brawl that took in table spots, fighting in the crowd, battling on the WrestleMania stage, plentiful swigs of beer for Stone Cold, and eventually a 1-2-3 win in the middle of the ring for the Bionic Redneck after a Stunner.

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Post-match, Owens ate another Stunner as Austin continued to drink more beer, and then Byron Saxton took a Stunner after being coerced into the ring by Stone Cold.

For what it was, the 57-year-old Steve Austin looked great here, with the stipulation meaning that the WWE Hall of Famer was able to work a style that highlighted some of his signature spots while Owens bumped his ass off for a wrestler who he has long idolised.

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Whether Austin has the itch to return for further matches down the line now - particularly with the hefty paydays on offer for Saudi Arabia shows - that remains to be seen.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.