Drew McIntyre on Stone Cold Match; Tyson Fury Returns; WWE Rumors on Gable Steveson

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.

McIntyre Talks Interest in Wrestling Stone Cold

After nearly 20 years out of the ring, WWE Hall of Famer "Stone Cold" Steve Austin returned to action at WrestleMania 38 earlier this year, beating Kevin Owens in front of tens of thousands of fans in the Dallas area.

WWE framed the match as Austin's last stand, but if The Texas Rattlesnake ever decides to give it one more go, Drew McIntyre is hopeful it is against him.

In an interview with SportsKeeda (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News) prior to his WWE Universal Championship match against Roman Reigns at Clash at the Castle this weekend, The Scottish Warrior said the following about Austin:

"If he wants to get in the ring one more time with Drew McIntyre, I can assure you that'll be a dream come true. I'm sure you've seen the sit-down interview I did last week on SmackDown, they showed those pictures when I was a kid and I'm lying on my Stone Cold bed sheets with my Stone Cold merchandise. You can get an idea of how big that would be for me."

Another Austin match would be huge business, and despite being 57 years old, he proved against Owens that he can still go in the ring.

As for McIntyre, he is one of WWE's biggest stars and is building up a ton of momentum ahead of what is arguably the biggest match of his career at Clash at the Castle.

Given that McIntyre is a native of the United Kingdom, the fans in Wales figure to be behind him at Clash at the Castle, and he seemingly stands a great chance of ending Reigns' two-year run as champion.

If that happens, McIntyre will have suddenly reached the level where a future match against Austin would make sense if Stone Cold has any interest in making it happen.

Tyson Fury Says He'll Be at Clash at the Castle

Heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury is set to make his WWE return at Clash at the Castle on Saturday.

Fury announced Thursday on Twitter that he will be in attendance at the show and sitting ringside:

The Gypsy King had a brief foray into the world of professional wrestling in late 2019 when he faced and defeated Braun Strowman at Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia. Fury later appeared on an episode of SmackDown and fought alongside Strowman in a segment as well.

Fury is among the most accomplished heavyweight boxers of all time with a career record of 32-0-1, including wins over Wladimir Klitschko and Deontay Wilder.

While Fury is the reigning WBC and The Ring heavyweight champion, he announced his retirement from boxing in April following a win over Dillian Whyte.

Retirement tends to be fleeting in boxing, much like pro wrestling, but if Fury does intend to stay retired, it could open the door for him to do more with WWE.

Last year, Fury said plans originally called for him to be part of both WrestleMania and SummerSlam in 2020, followed by facing McIntyre at a premium live event in the UK. However, things went by the wayside because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fury has often talked about his desire to wrestle McIntyre, and they have even traded shots on social media before, so there is reason to believe Fury's presence at Clash at the Castle could be meant to set up a future match against The Scottish Warrior.

WWE Reportedly Down on Gable Steveson

WWE announced the signing of collegiate wrestling star and Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson to great fanfare last year, but he has only been seen on WWE programming a handful of times.

The expectation was that he would be a regular part of the roster by now, but WWE has reportedly cooled on him.

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Mukherjee), Steveson's training has not progressed as well as hoped, which has led to him not being around WWE lately and not being discussed internally.

Steveson's most notable WWE appearance to date occurred at WrestleMania 38 in April when he beat down Chad Gable after a Raw Tag Team Championship match that was won by RK-Bro.

WWE surprisingly had Steveson drafted to Raw in the most recent WWE draft last year, which suggested there may have been plans for him to make his in-ring debut at some point over the past year, but it hasn't happened.

Steveson signed with WWE with the understanding that he would compete collegiately at the University of Minnesota for one more year before making the full-time move to WWE, but he still hasn't become a full-fledged WWE Superstar after his college season ending.

There could be some truth to Steveson not translating to pro wrestling as quickly as hoped. Other talent with combat sports backgrounds like Kurt Angle and Ronda Rousey made the move seamlessly, but that isn't always true for every athlete trying to get into WWE.

Still, Steveson has an impressive resume and name recognition, so one can only assume WWE will do everything it can to get him ready for prime time rather than casting him aside and moving on from the project.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).