Steve Austin explains why he missed WrestleMania 33

If you wondered why Stone Cold Steve Austin didn't take part in any of the weekend activities for WWE at WrestleMania 33, it's not because of any issue with the company. He says, on the latest episode of his "Steve Austin Show" podcast, that the timing was wrong because he just sold his ranch down in Texas.

His words:

"As you'll come to find out, I figured once me and my wife talked it would probably take between one and three years to sell that ranch. When you're looking at selling 2100 acres in South Texas it's gotta be a very unique, specific, qualified buyer, so it was going to take some time. It took about 18 months to sell that place, so I was right in the ballpark with my estimate of how long it would take to sell that place. In putting the place up for sale, you can never know when all these things are going to start lining up. From a business standpoint and from a personal standpoint, I had a lot of irons in the fire and they were all heating up as WrestleMania became right down the road, and then it happened. So you have all this speculation going on on the Internet that 'oh, Stone Cold Steve Austin is done with the WWE, he's no longer a part, his contract expired, he's not satisfied with what's going on' and just all this mularky, which was total BS.

"It all kinda started when I went down to the Staples Center to interview Kevin Owens, one of my favorite WWE Superstars going right now, in a podcast. People assumed I was down there talking business with the WWE brass to set up an appearance in Orlando for WrestleMania 33. That was not the case. I was down there to interview KO. Along the way I stopped to visit with the boys. So anyway, I never talked to anybody about being part of WrestleMania 33."

That's when he goes into saying that he finally got an offer on his ranch and it takes a while to close such a deal. Doing so included a lot of moving, making it a difficult endeavor logistically, and the timing didn't work out well regarding WrestleMania.

"Going back to WrestleMania, WWE reached out to me and invited me down to WrestleMania 33. They know I love going to the Hall of Fame and I had some of my very close friends going in on this year's induction. But as it goes I was having to drive down there, fly down there to get all my stuff, drive back after just selling the place, getting all our stuff. Man, I was too busy. I told the person that invited me to go down there, I said 'hey, man, I sure appreciate the invitation but I've got so many things...' ... I was, frankly, too busy taking care of all my personal business and some professional business that I'm working on as well to make it down to WrestleMania 33.

"But I just wanted to put to rest all these rumors and BS that say I'm at odds with WWE, this, that, or whatever. ... I will always be a part of the WWE. The WWE will always be a part of my life. I'm in this thing for the rest of my life. That's the relationship that I have with the WWE. So there's never been no heat, no this, no that, no whatever. I'm at a great place with those guys and I'm thankful for everything they've done for me and I'm sure they're thankful for the things I did for them. Again, I'm a WWE member for life."

Nothing to see here, folks, Austin and WWE are doing just fine.