Jim Ross clears the air on Stone Cold Steve Austin's return to WWE...sort of

Jim Ross has provided a little background information on the stories going around that Stone Cold Steve Austin is preparing to return to WWE in the coming year.  As promised by our own intrepid gossip monger Randall Ortman, here's what old JR had to say:

Talked with Steve Austin, whose podcasts on @PodcastOne are killing it, on Monday night and was kidding him about him 'training for a comeback,' which most fans thought meant Steve was returning to the ring, and, subsequently, 'taking a bigger role within WWE in 2015.' I jokingly asked Austin that if he was going to be taking a bigger role if he could get a brother some work because a man's got to eat!

Bottom line is that Steve was talking to a man who used to train with 'Arnold' back in the day at the Gold's Gym in Venice and Steve said he was training to prepare to return to Gold's Gym to train. They were talking about training, not wrestling, and how working out at Gold's in Venice wasn't for everyone. When the fans heard Austin say that he was "training for a comeback" they assumed that he meant to the ring which in turn means WrestleMania 31.

While Steve always keeps an open mind on returning to the ring for one last match, that's not an immediate goal of his or even on the back burner. If many factors involved in that process were in place, I could theoretically see Steve doing it but the chance that all the stars aligning to his satisfaction are slim plus the window of opportunity as it relates to Father Time is beginning to close as well.

Austin would never return to the ring to go through the motions and he would likely need a solid four months of in ring work/training to be in the condition that he would demand of himself to headline a major event like WrestleMania. If I were WWE, I'd more likely look at WM32 in Dallas and begin discussing that sooner than later for the Texas Rattlesnake. That's merely my personal opinion but selling 100,000 tickets in his home state might interest Steve the most if the money, the opponent and the creative were all on point.

Austin just finished another season of Redneck Island for CMT and is getting ready to tape another run of the Broken Skull Challenge for CMT in a few weeks. After that it might be challenging to find him unless you can make your way to South Texas where the deer grow large on the Broken Skull Ranch.

I did not listen to the Austin podcast this quote was alleged to come from, but if the quote was pulled out of context as JR describes, well...smh at the dirt screens, evn more than usual.

All together though, Ross doesn't tell us anything that we don't already know.  A lot of things would have to line up perfectly for Stone Cold to wrestle again, and 2016 is more likely for business and training time reasons.  I had the impression that the reports of Austin having a larger role in WWE soon were separate from the in-ring comeback rumors, by the Oklahoman makes them sound like they're from the same misinterpreted conversation, so that may be disappointing news for fans if true.

What do you make of all this, Cagesiders?  Does it change your opinion on the likelihood of a Stone Cold Steve Austin return to WWE - or wrestling - in the near future?