“Stone Cold” Steve Austin may have built one of the most iconic résumés in WWE history, but even he can look back and spot the one move he wishes he had made sooner.
The last time fans saw Austin in a sanctioned match came in 2022, when he stepped back into the ring at WrestleMania 38. Nearly two decades after calling it quits, he surprised the crowd by taking on Kevin Owens in a No Holds Barred match.
Before that, Austin’s actual retirement moment was WrestleMania 19 in 2003, when he faced The Rock for the third time on the grandest stage.
That match closed the book on his full-time career, primarily due to long-lasting injuries—including the spinal complications stemming from a botched piledriver by Owen Hart at SummerSlam 1997 and the knee issues that followed him for years.
Looking back now, Austin says the biggest thing he should’ve done had nothing to do with the ring at all.
Speaking on DJD Classics, Austin admitted that he simply wasn’t prepared for what came after wrestling. “When I got out, I didn’t really have an exit strategy, and for about three years, I drank, I hunted and I fished and did a lot of stupid stuff,” he said. “I sidetracked myself three years of nothing… I could have planned it a lot better.”
He explained that the downtime came as a shock after years of nonstop travel, live-event schedules, and the constant adrenaline of performing. It led him to realize he should’ve been thinking about life after WWE while he was still active in the business.
Now, Austin encourages today’s roster to avoid the same mistake—not by splitting their focus, but by being smart about opportunities.
“Hey man… always keep your loyalty, and your main job is with WWE,” he said. “But if you’ve got some feelers out there and you’re trying to network other things… based on the fact that you’ve got a high Q-rating or a lot of television exposure, and you can get your hands into different things, do it.”