WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin recently spoke about his decision to retire, calling it “one of the toughest things I’ve ever had to do,”.

Austin recently spoke with Bill Apter from Sportskeeda to discuss the neck injury he suffered in 1997 and how it forced him to become more of a brawler in the ring.

You can check out some highlights from the interview below:

 On his decision to retire: “Believe me, retiring at 38 was the toughest, one of the toughest things I’ve ever had to do, walk away from the business that I love so much. This is one of the things that I love more than anything in my life,” said Steve Austin. “I have my family, and of course, they are very close to me, but professional wrestling, you want to call it Sports Entertainment, it’s all the same to me. This is one of my biggest, if not the biggest, passions of my life. So it was very hard for me to walk away at 38 years of age.”

On changing his wrestling style after his neck injury in 1997: “There is no telling as to what I would have done had everything else played out the same with respect to the development of the character. But you know, things along the way, getting dropped my head forced me to turn into a brawler but god, if I could have had that kind of physicality and you know, that kind of health that I had in my youth. The run would have lasted a lot longer.”

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