Steve Austin rode off into the sunset over 12 years ago, yet some fans still stand around waiting for him to ride back into town.
Stone Cold is done in the ring. No matter how badly we want to see him lace up his boots again and down a beer to celebrate a hard-fought win, it's not going to happen.
Rumors of his comeback refuse to die and tend to pick up ahead of WrestleMania every year. Fans dream up potential opponents. Just about everyone who interviews him asks him if he has another in-ring run in him. Writers, myself included, wax poetic on the possibility.
Austin keeps telling the WWE fanbase to stop waiting around; it's time to start listening to him.
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
The latest set of clear hints that The Texas Rattlesnake isn't going add another bout to his resume came from an interview with Brian Fritz of The Buzzer.
Throughout the course of the discussion, he pointed to him being done as a wrestler. Austin said, "I'm not wrestling anymore. I'm out of that part of my career." He noted that he is "not addicted to wrestling anymore." He told Fritz, "It's the younger guys' time now and I recognize that."
If that wasn't enough to end the who-will-Austin-face-at-WrestleMania talk, the former WWE champ offered this strong statement: "I think 99.9 percent I've had my last match."
There are of course some fans who will read that and say in their best voice, "So you're telling me there's a chance."
Austin, though, is clearly not gearing up for a comeback at WrestleMania 32.
The event being in his home state of Texas had folks believing there was more of a shot he would wrestle again. It didn't help that he went into full promo mode when Paul Heyman asked him on the WWE Network if he'd want to fight Brock Lesnar at the pay-per-view.
But Austin later said on his podcast (h/t PWInsider.com) that he didn't mean to raise fans' expectations or appear to set up a match between him and Lesnar. The moment just got the better of him, he explained.
Fans glommed onto him calling out Lesnar, just as they so often have with any Austin-centered rumor that pops up. They too often ignore the many times he's rejected the idea of wrestling again.
Last year, he said on his podcast (h/t Washington Post) that he had "no desire" to come back.
He told MTV UK in July, "Don't look forward to me putting on the trunks and knee braces to get back in the ring and stomp a mudhole in somebody and walking it dry. How's that work for you?" In an Associated Press interview with Dan Gelston that same month, he said, "That final match I had at WrestleMania with The Rock was my last match."
If Stone Cold is not coming back next April, if the lure of WrestleMania being in the Lone Star State can't coax him out of retirement, just when would he come back?
Is he going to wrestle at WrestleMania 33 when he's 52 years old? Or WrestleMania 34 when he's 15 years removed from his last match?
The longer Austin remains inactive, the more certain it is he will stay that way. Getting back in wrestling shape is grueling work. Does he really want to do that at his age for a one-time payoff?
It's not as if Austin is hurting for money or is sitting around on his couch dreaming of the glory days. Stone Cold hosts a popular podcast and two reality shows for CMT. He excels at those roles.
He's already a legend in the business, in the Hall of Fame and considered by many the greatest WWE star of all time. What's in it for him to risk his health and grind it out in a gym to prep for a return bout?
As he told Gelston, "There's no reason to go back in the ring and prove anything."
That won't stop us from projecting whom he might tangle with or what's the best route for him to come back. It's hard to let go of legends. It's hard to accept someone you cheered so hard for is never going to be a part of the present again.
But we have to. A wrestler's career has to end at some point. And as Cageside Seats' Geno Mrosko asked, "At what age do we stop hoping retired wrestlers come back for one more match?"
With Austin, 50 is clearly not the magic number. We're still asking him about a comeback. He just keeps shaking his head.
