Steve Austin, Kevin Owens may have WWE WrestleMania 38 confrontation instead of match

On the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said that as of Friday, Steve Austin had not agreed to a match for next month’s WWE WrestleMania 38.

While Austin is still slated to be on the show, it’s no longer clear if he’ll be having an actual match against Kevin Owens as had been the working plan. According to Meltzer, a confrontation between the two is now listed on the books.

“They will have a confrontation but it is not clear if that will be a match or not anymore,” Meltzer said. “It’s essentially up to Austin at this point. They want the match, they thought they had the match and Steve…there’s a reason he hasn’t wrestled in 19 years. I just know that as of Friday, he had not agreed to do the match even though it was on the books. Now, it’s on the books as a confrontation.”

Last month, it was learned that WWE was looking at having Austin return to the ring after nearly 20 years away from it against Owens, who has run down the state of Texas in recent weeks as part of the build. WWE has yet to tease an Austin return match or mention him by name.

The two-night event is set for AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas, and the bout would be a big driver for ticket sales.