‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, a WWE Hall of Famer and one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, recently came out of retirement for a highly acclaimed match against Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 38. It has been reported that while training for the match, Austin had a long and intense match with a current WWE Superstar at his ranch. Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful revealed that Vince McMahon and NXT star Drew Gulak flew out to Austin’s ranch in Texas to work with him in person, and Gulak ran drills with Austin. During their training, Austin fully embodied his iconic Bionic Redneck gimmick, calling out spots to Gulak, who played along, and the two had a long and intense match. McMahon also got in on the action to ensure that Austin was fully prepared for his WrestleMania 38 match against Kevin Owens.
Fightful Select had reported in January of 2022 that WWE was planning to bring Stone Cold Steve Austin out of retirement. Austin himself had been hesitant since his initial 2003 retirement, and was very particular about how the right situation would present itself. Not only that, Fightful has learned that Vince McMahon was also very particular in making sure that Austin was ready for his “impromptu” WrestleMania match that would main event the show.
We’re told that Vince McMahon and Drew Gulak flew to Stone Cold Steve Austin’s ranch in Texas. Drew Gulak was running drills with Austin, and Austin started calling out spots to Gulak, almost in full character. Gulak went with it and the two effectively had a long match at the ranch.
Gulak also ended up working with Vince McMahon. One WWE higher up said “the funniest thing about all of this wasn’t that Vince flew all the way out there, took Drew Gulak with him and made sure that Austin could still go. It’s that while he did all that to make sure that Austin was good to go, he knew he was planning to wrestle himself, knew he sucked, still did it and ended up having one of the worst matches and Stunner sells of all-time after.”
