Steve Austin on potential CM Punk WWE dream match: ‘We’ll see’

“Stone Cold” Steve Austin isn’t closing the door on competing in the ring again.

Austin came out of retirement at WrestleMania 38 in 2022, wrestling his first match in nearly two decades. He defeated Kevin Owens in a no holds barred match that wasn’t officially announced in advance. It was instead advertised as a KO Show segment with Owens and Austin.

In an interview with ESPN to promote WWE 2K24, the 59-year-old Austin didn’t rule out the possibility of having another match:

I said I’d never get in a ring again unless all the stars aligned. And for some reason, somehow, they all did. And at the age of 57, I headlined the first night of WrestleMania. I never thought I’d do that. If you’d have told me that when I retired in [2003], I’d have said, ‘You’re crazy.’ So I’m not gonna sit here and say no to anything, because you never say never in this crazy business of sports entertainment.

Austin told ESPN that, if he does wrestle again, he has an opponent in mind who he would like to face. Austin did not name who that opponent is.

ESPN wrote:

When asked whether he had an idea of what opponent he would want in what would likely be his final career match, Austin said he did. But he did not want to mention the name, because he was not promoting the match, nor did he want to add pressure on WWE or the foe to make it happen.

When asked about potentially facing CM Punk, Austin said that the matchup “would be a good one.”

I like Punk, and I think Punk likes me — so, as long as he can take a [Stone Cold] Stunner [laughs]. I consider him a great friend, a great guy and a great wrestler who’s had a great career. We’ll see.

Punk returned to WWE at Survivor Series last November and was scheduled to challenge World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 40, but Punk will instead be out of action for several months after suffering a torn triceps in the Royal Rumble. Punk underwent surgery for the injury earlier this month.

Austin told ESPN that he loves the pro wrestling business more than anything else he’s ever done in his life:

I love the sports entertainment business more than anything I’ve ever done in my life. And you get a dose of it, and you want more. And so here I am talking to you a couple years later about doing it again. And that’s how addicting it is to me, just to talk about it. And I get excited, and I’ll start talking too fast.

But it’s not gonna happen. But it could.

On Wrestling Observer Radio last December, Dave Meltzer and Garrett Gonzales discussed the possibility of a potential Austin vs. Punk dream match: