Steve Austin turned WWE down 'several times' before WrestleMania 38

Steve Austin says he kept turning down WWE's pitches for a WrestleMania 38 match until they came back with different creative. 

Austin appeared on Out of Character on Wednesdy and spoke about his in-ring return last year.  

Austin said:

I turned them down several times until they kept coming back with different creative. KO was always in the conversation, I was down with that cause I love that guy, he's awesome. 

On the inside, I was knocking his head-off so many times because I hadn't thrown a punch in 19 years. I told him when we got finished, I said, 'Dude, I cannot believe you didn't give me a receipt out there.' That's the good-natured heart of KO.

I think he was thrilled to be out there and I was thrilled to be with him. It took some talking, we got everthing lined up, you saw what happened.

He was asked about his preparation for the match and if he did any in-ring training ahead of time. 

Austin responded:

Zero in-ring training. I was doing cardio. Here's an inside tip for you. I love Sheamus, he's got a great YouTube channel, Celtic Warrior Workouts, whatever it's called. I got on there, I watched Edge's routine, I watched Bryan Danielson, Daniel Bryan's, whatever his name is, I watched his training routine. But the one that really got me was Becky Lynch's comeback routine. So, I did Becky Lynch's routine over and over again and then I invented my own out of that. 

So, I was training hard at my house but I didn't have a ring. Once I got to Dallas - I got there 3-4 days early because I always do - I ran the ropes a lot with Drew Gulak, who is absolutely wonderful and is a great talent, super guy, very intuitive in the ring. 

Asked what he thought of his match with Kevin Owens on the show, Austin responded:

It was what it was. I wanted to give them more but the whole time, when you've got that amount of people out there, I've been in front of a million crowds, but you're just trying to pace yourself. When you saw me go sip beers, I wasn't doing that to advertise my beer, I was doing that to just take a breather and just kind of monitor the system because I was getting a little gassed. 

In January, our own Dave Meltzer reported that Austin has turned down multiple pitches for a match at WrestleMania 39 in Los Angeles. He turned down a pitch for a match against Brock Lesnar as well as Roman Reigns, opting to not wrestle on the show at all. He would later tell the Wrestling Classic that he believes WWE should focus on its current roster at this year's event. 

When asked if WrestleMania 38 was his final match, Austin responded by saying "never say never." 

If the stars align again, hell, it could happen again.