We said two weeks ago when ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin’s return at WrestleMania was mooted that WWE was pulling out all the stops.
But they had one more stop to pull.
WWE chairman Vince McMahon, aged 76 years old, is reportedly set to make his in-ring wrestling return at WrestleMania 38 in Dallas (April 3 and April 4 AEDT).
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The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported the current WrestleMania plan sees McMahon facing commentator and former NFL punter Pat McAfee in a singles match.
Speculation began when McMahon was announced for an interview on McAfee’s podcast; the WWE head honcho hasn’t been interviewed on-camera since 2014. It’s almost certain this interview will be used to spark the program that ends in their Mania match.
McAfee has wrestled before, impressing with his athleticism and passion in two appearances in the NXT developmental league, including a properly-good 16-minute match with Adam Cole in August 2020.
But McMahon hasn’t wrestled in 12 years, when he and Bret Hart had one of the worst matches in WrestleMania history at XXVI – and that was already a match that had to work around the physical limitations of both McMahon and stroke victim Hart.
The character of Mr McMahon is one of the great heels in pro wrestling history and during the late 90s he duelled with Steve Austin and others, including winning the 1999 Royal Rumble and briefly holding the heavyweight championship later that year.
He also held the ECW championship in 2007 before being phased out of in-ring competition.
McMahon has appeared less frequently on WWE television over the years given his advanced age but returned in recent months, including a storyline where someone stole a golden egg given to him by The Rock.
McMahon has since been seen in segments with young wrestler Austin Theory, who could end up getting involved in the McAfee match.
The long-time WWE boss turns 77 this August. The oldest person to ever wrestle in WWE was Mae Young, who had a brief and hardly physical TV match in 2010 aged 87, while The Fabulous Moolah wrestled a tag match with Young on WWE television aged 81.