John Cena and Steve Austin are two of the biggest stars in WWE history. Both of them were the most popular wrestlers in their respective eras, and transcended the business with their immense worldwide possibility.
They have both won numerous WWE Championships, won a combined 5 Royal Rumbles, and forged Hall of Fame careers that might never be equalled.
However, WWE fans never saw “Stone Cold” Steve Austin vs John Cena. While it is a common dream match scenario you see played out on WWE 2K23, sadly fans never got to see it on a big stage, like WrestleMania.
However, Steve Austin came out of retirement for one last match last year. He wrestled his first match in 19 years when he beat Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 38, putting on am impressive performance in the main event of the show.
Seeing how good he looked, despite nearing 60 years old, fans have wondered whether we may see Stone Cold taking on The Champ, finally, at the big show this year.
Sadly, The Texas Rattlesnake has quashed all rumours suggesting the dream match may occur.
In a discussion on Ryan Satin’s Out Of Character podcast, Steve Austin revealed that he has a lot of respect for John Cena, but that he would not be wrestling the 16-time world champion inside a WWE ring.
He says that working with Cena would have been “a real highlight”, but sadly the match just never happened.
Working with him would have been a real highlight. I had a bunch of highlights. It would have been a real special thing because there’s something about John that people get so invested in his matches. He’s a very special talent. It would have been great to have a match with him. But will it ever happen? No, but I think very highly of John.
Steve Austin vs John Cena
Sadly for WWE fans, John Cena never wrestled Steve Austin in an official wrestling match. Two of the biggest stars of their generation never crossed paths in the ring and we never got to see the dream match between two of WWE’s greatest ever stars.
However, this was for good reason. John Cena did not debut in WWE until 2002, when he interrupted Kurt Angle during an open challenge to throw his hat in the ring as the future star of WWE. Boasting his “Ruthless Aggression” as his defining characteristic, he put in a good performance against the WWE Hall of Famer but would ultimately lose his first match.
It would take a few more years for Cena to progress up the ladder and become a main eventer in the promotion. This would not match up the schedule of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, who had a difficult 2002 before retiring from the business just a year later.
Steve Austin walked out of WWE on Raw in June 2002, which looked to end his WWE career.
He was unhappy with the way WWE was going creatively, being unhappy with his proposed loss to Brock Lesnar in a King of the Ring qualifying match. While he didn’t to losing to Lesnar, he instead wanted it to mean something and would have rather lost to The Beast on a built up match on Pay Per View.
He left WWE and stayed at home for a number of months, sitting out the rest of 2002. He would return in 2003 to set up his final match against The Rock at Wrestlemania XIX, where he would lose in his last match in WWE for 20 years.
Austin would come out of retirement in 2022 for one last match, although it was not against John Cena. Instead, he was goaded into a final outing by Kevin Owens, and the pair wrestled in a No Holds Barred match in the main event of Wrestlemania 38 Night One.
However while Steve Austin vs John Cena never happened in a WWE ring, the pair did face off just one time in their long careers. At Tribute to the Troops 2003, John Cena faced off against giant superstar The Big Show in a special singles match. Cena had progressed onto his rapper gimmick, which helped him grow to the biggest star in WWE before reverting to his military-inspired persona.
After defeating The Big Show, John Cena was confronted by Steve Austin. Cena had rubbed The Rattlesnake the wrong way with his antics during the match, including his pre-match rapping that disrespected his opponents. Due to his actions, John Cena ate a Stone Cold Stunner from Austin to send the troops home happy.
While this wasn’t a super memorable moment, it is one of the few times two of WWE’s biggest legends have interacted inside the ring. It’s a crying shame that we never saw them face off inside the squared circle, and it just adds to the list of WWE Dream Match That Never Happened.
