“Stone Cold” Steve Austin made his triumphant return to the ring on the opening night of WWE WrestleMania 38. The WWE Hall of Famer competed in a match for the first time in 19 years, and he defeated Kevin Owens in the show-closing No Holds Barred Match.
In a WWE Digital Exclusive, the Hall of Famer reflected on the experience. He expressed his gratitude for the opportunity and praised Owens, but he noted that “KO” paid for running his mouth too much.
“I came here looking for anything,” said Austin. “This is where I started. I was lucky enough to finish here. KO is outstanding, but he ran his mouth a little too mouth, and it finally caught up with him. But it was really an honor to be here on such a stacked card with so many great matches.”
“Stone Cold” went on to describe how meaningful the crowd’s support was. He also gave a shout-out to the WWE stars who performed ahead of him and the ones who will compete on WrestleMania Sunday.
“You just love the crowd,” said Austin. “You love the crowd, and the guys and gals before me had so many great matches, it’s really hard to follow that. But you live and die by that crowd. And this crowd is so faithful, so loyal, so rambunctious, they’re behind everything you do. So I give a shout-out to the WWE superstars that worked before and the ones that are gonna work tomorrow night. I’m gonna give the biggest shoutout to the crowd because I never expected to be able to headline WrestleMania at this day and time. So it’s all about the WWE Universe.”
