WWE: 3 Reasons Why Stone Cold Steve Austin Could Appear on Raw Tonight

Tonight's episode of Raw provides the most likely scenario and reasoning to have Stone Cold Steve Austin appear since the 1000th episode of Raw―a show that Austin didn't appear at.

Raw comes from Oklahoma and it will be a Jim Ross appreciation night.

The friendship between Steve Austin and Jim Ross has been well documented over the years. An appearance to honor one of his best friends in the business seems appropriate.

This Raw episode also falls on the 316th day of CM Punk's WWE title reign. For the past year-and-a-half CM Punk and Stone Cold have been linked to each other.

CM Punk growing up a Stone Cold fan has been well documented. CM Punk's break out which featured the famous “Pipe Bomb” speech in the summer of 2011 was often compared to Austin's famous “Austin 3:16” speech which launched his WWE career. CM Punk was also wearing a Stone Cold shirt during his famous speech. The two have engaged in words, likely all for show, on Twitter over the past two years. A match between the two has also been brought up to each of them in media interviews.

It would be safe to say there is an underlying relationship between the two stars of two separate eras.

Last week, Mick Foley made a surprise appearance on Raw and conducted an academy award winning promo on CM Punk that took some focus on how CM Punk wants to be remembered, as a statistic? This came after the WWE Champion touted how many consecutive days he's held the title.

Keeping with the lengthy title reign and counting, today would be the 316th day and 316 stands for only one WWE Superstar ever.

John Cena is injured which naturally has to be looked at as a concern regarding viewership. Cena can appear on television, but can only do so much as he only has the use of one good arm following elbow surgery.

The appearance or tease of a rare Stone Cold Steve Austin appearance would be a valuable weapon against the enemy of Cena's limitations and the always formidable opponents of Monday Night Football and prime time network sitcoms. If it was me, I would tease Austin's appearance and save it for the end.

A tease in the form of AJ informing CM Punk he has a visitor later in the evening who wanted to congratulate him on his 316th day as champion, with of course emphasis on the 316, could work. Anything WWE can have fun with in promoting and hold for the ending of the program.

Stone Cold Steve Austin has been blogging and posting videos from Mexico where he's filming the show “Redneck Island.” The filming presumably is taking place during the day which would allow for him to make the appearance in the evening for Raw.

WWE's Chairman Vince McMahon left Connecticut in the afternoon on his personal jet, the site of the evening's Raw, flew to Montreal to pick up Jerry Lawler, flew him home to Memphis and then returned to Connecticut for Raw.

Surely he could send the personal jet from Oklahoma City to Mexico (the exact location of the town and area of the island they are filming on hasn't been published) to make it possible for arguably the most popular WWE talent ever to appear on Raw.

Will it happen? Time will tell. But you know that if you hear the glass break, give an applause to WWE for making it happen in a situation that makes so much sense.

Follow @JustinLaBar