Punk's biggest misstep of his career imo. The pieces were there to get his momentum back after the WWE had fumbled the Summer of Punk angle, Austin was GAME for this...and then Punk was like "
this is cool" and it went by without any buzz, spark or memorable moment.
Austin was always been very clear that he wasn't ever coming back "unless the context/booking is right". The only time he himself said there could've been a chance was with Punk. They were clearly toying with the idea at the time but of course it went when nowhere when this faceoff didn't produce anything worth a damn, and WWE booking fukked Punk's face run immediately.
I'm kinda with you that Austin would've never returned regardless because WWE booking is too shytty to create the angle and context he wanted, but this was THE moment were he could've seriously thought about it if thing clicked, imo.