Eric Bischoff Says He Would Be Surprised To See Steve Austin Wrestle Again

Eric Bischoff gave his thoughts on various topics on the latest episode of his 83 Weeks Podcast. Here are the highlights:

On whether he thinks Steve Austin will wrestle again: 

“I will [be surprised if he wrestles again]. I’d be happy to see it. I’d be excited to see it. But I would definitely be surprised if next year’s WrestleMania is a long way off, and it’s hard to predict. But it all comes down to how Steve’s feeling. I was probably in Steve’s last quote-unquote match, but it really wasn’t much of a match. But in terms of being promoted with a story behind it, an arc leading to a pay-per-view and all that, when I wrestled Steve and Montreal, I didn’t want to say wrestled when I was in the ring was Steve at Montreal. And at that point in time, when I don’t remember when that was, that was 2005, maybe, or almost 20 years ago, and there was no in a world I could have ever imagined at that point in time that Steve would ever step into the ring in an actual match with an actual opponent. Just physically, it wasn’t in the cards. Now, is Steve recovered? If he is in rehab, does he overcome the issues that you had? Whenever I worked with him, No Way Out. If he has that, I could see it because he looks like he’s in great shape. As far as how he knows his body. He knows what he can do and what he can’t do. I’d love to see it. But I would be surprised.”

On possible CM Punk vs. Austin match: 

“And you know, we’re talking about Steve and his injuries. Let’s be honest. And talk about Punk. Yeah, Punk has been very susceptible to serious injuries over the last couple of outings. Yeah. So it’s not only Steve, that’s got to, you know, would have to work hard at being physically ready and enabled to bump around and do the things that Steve would want to do. I would imagine, you know, when you’re a guy like Steve Austin, you don’t want to come out there and be half of what the audience remembers, right? That’s, that’s always the danger, right? When guys who have been so successful for so long get out of the business and decide to make a comeback. And just less than what people remember; part of that is because people remember you, and their memory of you, and their memory of that time. It’s kind of hyper-inflated over time. Absolutely. You remember it much differently and more favorably in some respects than it really was at the time. And then on top of that, you’ve got time, and the fact that you know, in this case, that Boston hasn’t been in the ring and an actual match and wants to be yours. You know, it’s hard to go out there and meet the audience’s expectation when that expectation is kind of based on a memory that wasn’t actually true, at least to the magnitude that you recall it. So it’s hard to live up to the audience’s expectations for talent like that. And especially someone like Steve Austin, who’s very proud, but he’s got his head on straight and doesn’t have an overinflated view of himself or value. But at the same time, he won’t want to disappoint the audience. He won’t want to go out there knowing he’s not going to be able to live up to his expectations. So you’ve got that you’ve got the same situation with CM Punk is gotta be able to put together three or four or five, six-month runs, run without injuries, to really start feeling his momentum. It’s gonna hold it. Punk is like 44-45 somewhere in that area. He’s not going to heal up real fast. His rehab is going to be tough. And then you’ve got to get back in the ring and get in ring shape again; it’s gonna be interesting to see how punk comes out of this with a series of injuries that he sustained over the last year.”

If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit 83 Weeks with an h/t to Wrestling Headlines for the transcription.