Ever since the beginning of the year WrestleMania fans have been eagerly speculating about who the biggest names will be at this year’s WrestleMania 29. Of those names, it was widely believed that Stone Cold Steve Austin would face CM Punk in the ring, for a match that would be the final showdown between these two notorious enemies. Now though, Stone Cold has publicly denied these rumors, or any others linking him to WWE’s biggest event of the year. For 2013 at least.

When it was announced a couple of weeks ago that it would be the Undertaker taking on Punk, fans were disappointed that they wouldn’t see the Punk/Stone Cold rivalry come to a head once and for all. Still though, they clung to the hope that Steve Austin would still be making an appearance in New Jersey this year, until this past weekend when he squashed any chance of that happening either.

“I’ve had many questions concerning WrestleMania 29. The decision has been made that I will not be WM29 and that the bottom line,” he wrote on his Twitter account on March 21.

The decision was most likely due to practical reasons than anything else. It was just this past summer that Austin had surgery on his knee, and he’s just gotten over the rehab for that surgery as well.

That being said, Austin’s knee is likely to be completely rehabilitated next year, and by that time it’s also likely that Austin will be itching to get back into the ring. And that always renews hope for a Punk/Stone Cold matchup for WrestleMania 30 next year!

WrestleMania 29 is coming to the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on April 7, 2013, and tickets are already on sale. This is an annual event that, according to WWE superstar, Triple-H, is similar to the World Series or the Super Bowl — only better. He talked about why, and what mania-goers can expect, when he recently sat down with the New York Post to talk about the upcoming event.

When the Post asked Triple-H why people should attend the event, if they’re on the fence about buying tickets, he stated, “You don’t have to be a football fan to go to the Super Bowl, and that’s really what this is. There’s Super Bowls, there’s World Series, and there’s WrestleMania. It’s one of those events that just becomes the talk of the world.”

But Triple-H also points to the fact that while you may be able to include Super Bowls in talks about WrestleMania, wrestling does have one thing over football. That’s simply that more people seem to like it. When talking about how the Super Bowl will also be held at MetLife Stadium in 2014, Triple-H goes so far to state that it won’t be nearly as successful as the upcoming WrestleMania.

“I think [the NFL will have big shoes to fill] because we’ve outdrawn the Super Bowl for a little while now in the arenas and stadiums that we’ve followed them in for the Super Bowl. We’ve gone in after and surpassed their ticket sales,” he says.

But it’s more than ticket sales. Triple-H also talks about how WrestleMania simply has much more to offer than any Super Bowl ever could.

“WrestleMania isn’t just a one-night event, it’s a week-long event,” he says. “All of the things we do in the New York-New Jersey area. We’ll have events on both sides of the Hudson. From WrestleMania Axxess, which is our fan event that goes on all week, which is going to be revamped this year with a lot more meet-and-greet and autograph signings with our superstars, which is the biggest part of it. There’s also going to be a VIP experience that allows fans unprecedented access to backstage and the inner workings of what happens on a Monday Night Ray or Pay-Per-View event. That’s going to be a really unique experience. From that taking place at Izod Center to Hall of Fame being at Madison Square Garden, to Raw the next night being back at the Izod Center, to WrestleMania itself, there is going to be stuff that happens all week long. We come in and take over the whole area.”

And while there sure is going to be a lot going on in the New York area during the week of WrestleMania, we refuse to draw a comparison between this event and the Super Bowl. We figure that if you’re in the area, you should attend both!

If you have ever watched the WWE, then you probably already know that celebrity stunts are a wrestling tradition, ever since Vince McMahon marketed the first Wrestlemania to mainstream audiences with Mr. T and Cyndi Lauper. The tradition has continued through the years, featuring all sorts of bizarre cameos, including Mike Tyson (long before The Hangover made him cool again), Donald Trump (in a bad hair vs. bad hair match with McMahon) and even the Muppets (strangely enough). Now it looks as if the WWE is up to its old tricks again. Now there is serious talk of Shaq vs. Show, as in Shaquille O’Neal vs. “The Big Show” Paul Wight at Wrestlemania.

It’s hard to imagine anyone in America not knowing either of these giants. Shaquille O’Neal is a former MVP and NBA Legend, standing seven feet and one inch tall, and 325 pounds, making him one of the NBA‘s largest athletes of all time. He recently retired from the league after 19 years of power playing. The Big Show is a veteran of wrestling going way back to the beginning of the WCW era, during which he was cited to be “Andre’s son.” He is a former WCW and WWE champion and a sports entertainment icon. Ever since his WWE days, he has tightened his muscle tone and now stands a huge man (not just chubby!) at 485 pounds and seven foot even.

That’s right, Shaq is actually taller than The Big Show, so right away this is going to be a hard fight to predict. If you’re been watching WWE recently then you may remember that Shaq and Show have already met each other, under troubled circumstances. After a title match, Shaq and Show had a confrontation that led to Shaq shoulder blocking The Big Show. He also served as a Raw Guest Host and earned a Slammy nomination–though he later lost to Bob Barker. (Honestly though, who doesn’t lose to Bob Barker in everything?)

Will the dream match happen? Shaq is already saying he’s in negotiations with the WWE to schedule a match, and it would only be fitting since this year’s Wrestlemania takes place in Miami. Who could forget that Shaq played for Miami Heat from 2005 to 2008? If it happens, it will certainly make for one of the WWE’s top celebrity moments in history!