During a recent interview with Sports Illustrated to promote his new show on A&E, Steve Austin discussed being contacted for WrestleMania 39. He explained:

"I haven’t spoken to this, but I’ll give you the story. I met with some people from WWE. We talked about the possibility of me wrestling at WrestleMania 39. The biggest thing in my mind was the presentation and what kind of match it was going to be.

Going back to 38, the way the KO thing was presented – I love KO – I turned that down three, four, five times until the creative finally came to what it ended up being. I didn’t want it constructed as a real match, per se. I needed something that could turn into one, and it did, but I think that’s why we got away with it. The Dallas crowd was very receptive. I hadn’t been around, so the timing was right."

Steve Austin also revealed how many times he turned down the Owens match before the creative was right, and why he couldn't make a match at WrestleMania 39 work for him:

I had two 30-pound dumbbells, a 45-pound sandbag, and a 25-pound kettlebell. Working 15 hours a day, then getting in a 30- or 40-minute workout, that doesn’t get you ready for WrestleMania. And I was really protected at WrestleMania 38. This time, that wasn’t going to be the case. That was a true statement: Until this show was over, I couldn’t commit."

Stone Cold Takes on America, premieres on A&E on April 30.