Stone Cold Steve Austin admitted that he was approached to wrestle at WrestleMania 39 but couldn’t fully commit to it due to his new A&E show, Stone Cold Takes on America. Austin was talking to Sports Illustrated when he made the comments.

Austin said that when he met with the powers that be to go over the plan, the biggest thing weighing on his mind was what kind of match it was going to be. He said he was “protected” at WrestleMania 38 against Kevin Owens, but this time around, to do a proper match, he wasn’t ready.

The Rattlesnake noted that they “got away with it” last year and the Dallas crowd was very receptive because he hadn’t been around but for this one at 39 he needed to be in “off-the-charts shape” to be able to get in the ring.

Austin added that production on his new show took around a month longer to finish than expected due to technical issues and there was no way he would be able to train while driving in an RV across America.

“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,” Austin said. “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.”