As noted, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin commented on his podcast about his talks with Paul Heyman on the Stone Cold WWE Network broadcast, saying he wasn’t trying to set up a match. Austin said he raised people’s hopes and spun the match, but he didn’t mean to and he doesn’t think that match with Brock Lesnar would happen.
According to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Austin and Lesnar have talked about this match before, considering it the biggest match they could do. The matchup has never happened, and Heyman is friends with both men, so all parties thought there could be some potential. Austin has gone on record saying he has not committed to a comeback, and would not return to the ring unless everything aligned and it worked correctly, and he got cleared to wrestle in the first place. It was said the reason the “Death Match” stipulation was discussed was because it could be booked more as a fight, and could help protect Austin’s neck.
Some are saying no one was prepared to go this route on the podcast, but Heyman asked the question, Austin was ready with an answer, and the graphics coordinator was ready as well. Even though it’s said there was some plan to go this way in talk, Heyman didn’t know Austin’s response, or that he would cut a promo on him.
Even with the tease on the Network show, it’s being said the match won’t happen, and if it doesn’t now, it won’t ever. Vince McMahon was said to be upset at the close of the show, because the proposed match won’t happen and they can’t deliver anything as big as that at Wrestlemania 32. Vince was said to want the story to go away quickly; the idea being Austin would address it once and be done with it. Currently, and before the podcast took place, WWE had no plans to run Brock Lesnar vs Steve Austin at WrestleMania 32, so Vince was not happy that the tease went public without that being WWE’s plan.
