Despite having already reportedly turned down WWE for a match at this year’s WrestleMania, reports are surfacing that the company hasn’t given up hope to get Austin in the ring. In fact, WWE is said to be dangling a pretty big carrot in front of Austin, with an opportunity to wrestle one of the bright, up-and-coming stars in promotion.

According to a new report from Fightful Select (via Wrestling Inc.), WWE is still trying to convince Austin to take a match at WrestleMania, even with only three weeks to go before the biggest show of the year. The company has kept the lines of communication open and left a potential opponent without a matchup, even though creative has continually teased something big. The opponent for Stone Cold that WWE is trying to sell is LA Knight.

Knight has spent weeks now talking about WWE can’t have a WrestleMania in Hollywood without LA Knight on the card. Still, he’s not been given a match and there’s been no tease of an opponent. The belief is that WWE wants to keep that option open in the event Stone Cold changes his mind and says he’ll do it. The sell here might be that Austin doesn’t actually have to wrestle a full match, but can make an appearance to shut Knight up when he inevitably shows up to run his mouth.

That said, Austin has been working out and getting in incredible shape. From the videos he’s posted on his workouts, it appears he could wrestle a match if he felt the desire to.

Knight has gathered a ton of steam of late with the WWE Universe and he’s quickly becoming a crowd favorite. It would make for a fun match or a nice pop if Austin were to square off with Knight and put him in his place. The only downside here might be a back-and-forth of “What!” and “YEAH!” chants that, if promoted, won’t be something fans will let go of.

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