Backstage News On WrestleMania 38 Plans For Steve Austin And Kevin Owens

WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin is reportedly working on his cardio as he prepares to get physical with Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 38.

There had been rumors on Austin coming out of retirement to wrestle Owens at WrestleMania 38, but WWE has officially announced that Austin will confront Owens on a special edition of The KO Show, scheduled for Night One of WrestleMania 38, or WrestleMania Saturday.

While WWE officials wanted Austin to do a match, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that the scheduled match was changed as Austin agreed to do the segment with a "fight sequence" but not a match.

Word is that Austin has been upping his cardio work as of late. The current plan for the segment at WrestleMania calls for a "fight scene" and not just a quick Stone Cold Stunner to Owens.

It was noted that the segment is planned to consist of more than just a Stunner to Owens, but that Stunner is the obvious conclusion. There was still talk of doing an angle to lead to a match between Austin and Owens, if Austin were to agree to it, but WWE felt like they needed to announce Austin for the card this week, and not at a later date.

While Stone Cold has gotten physical at several events since retiring in 2003, WWE is billing his WrestleMania 38 segment as his first physical confrontation in 19 years. Austin is saying he's coming to AT&T Stadium to open "one final can of whoop-ass" on Owens.

There's no word on if Austin will be appearing on RAW in the lead-up to WrestleMania 38, but promotional material for the match indicates we won't see Austin confront Owens until the big event in Arlington, TX that night.

Stay tuned for more. Below is a new WWE Now video with McKenzie Mitchell looking at the feud between Owens and Austin: