Stone Cold thinks his WrestleMania appearance could have been cooler, almost nixed dancing with New Day

Do any of the Legends who return to work with WWE these days have positive experiences?

To be fair, Steve Austin did have good things to say about his segment in Arlington, Texas for WrestleMania 32 when he was on the podcast You're Welcome with Chael Sonnen with the retired mixed martial artist.

Stone Cold put over the crowd, talked about how meaningful it was for him to work in front of a crowd that size in the area where he got started in the business, and had a lot of praise for Xavier Woods, Big E & Kofi Kingston, the main guys he interacted with during his Mania moment.

But, perhaps as part of why he described his appearance by saying, "the situation could have been a little cooler", Austin initially wasn't down with the set-up for the spot most of us will remember from his appearance at AT&T Stadium.

I'll let him tell it, because even in print (which, by the way, comes via transcription from Wrestling Inc), Stone Cold is a hell of a storyteller:

So Xavier, we always kid around backstage. I'll throw an elbow at him or whatever and just kind of mess with him. And so, we were talking about doing the dance scene because he was going to be one of the guys to take a Stunner. And they were selling me this and I was thinking, 'okay, well, 'Stone Cold' don't dance'. I could sit there and just look at him the way 'Stone Cold' does that look or that I could just bait him in a little bit by saying, 'okay, yeah, I get it, I get it'.

So actually, they were pitching me this. I was going to shoot it down, but then I said, 'you know what? It's WrestleMania. It's going to make the pop bigger if I let him get me into it and they think 'okay' because [the fans] know what's coming. They know what's coming. And so, you expand the 'Stone Cold' character to another level. It goes with a basic one-step, two-step kind of a thing, which is about all I'm capable of for a shoot and then you hit him with a Stunner after he does a spin. It was the icing on the cake.

Good thing he was convinced, because it's that little glimpse of dancing Rattlesnake which makes the scene - if for nothing else than how it worked "Stone Cold purists" into anger just like it got Austin thinking his character wouldn't dance.

The whole discussion of WrestleMania with Sonnen shows a lot of Austin's issues with the current product, however (he goes off on talent being scripted again), and points to a future where he's not going to be talked into doing a spot, or even a return.

I don't know when the next time I'll ever hit a WWE ring will ever be again. That might have been the last time.

Believe him?