Austin quickly returned to WWE television before the end of 2003 when he was part of the "Tribute to the Troops" taped live in front of U.S. troops in Iraq, posing and attacking Mr. McMahon. He returned to "Raw" on December 29 as its "Sheriff", giving a "Stone Cold Stunner" to Eric Bischoff and rehiring Shawn Michaels, who had just been "fired" by Bischoff. Austin appeared on-and-off as 2004 began, culminating in him being the special guest referee for the Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg match at WrestleMania XX. Austin made his first appearance on WWE programming in a year at WrestleMania 21 where he was confronted by Roddy Piper in "Piper's Pit", until Carlito interrupted to insult both. This resulted in Carlito receiving a stunner from Austin and Piper throwing him out of the ring. The segment ended with Austin and Piper celebrating with beer until Austin gave Piper a "Stone Cold Stunner" as well. Austin was involved in the concluding segment at ECW One Night Stand in which he had a beer bash with the ECW locker room and brawled with the anti-ECW invaders, led by Eric Bischoff. He returned at "Raw Homecoming", delivering "Stone Cold Stunners" to Mr. McMahon, Shane McMahon, Stephanie McMahon and Linda McMahon. An angle including Jim Ross being fired led to a match in which Austin agreed to face Jonathan Coachman at Taboo Tuesday, with the stipulation of Ross regaining his announcing job had Austin won and Austin losing his job had he lost. Austin hurt his back before the match and could not wrestle unless he was heavily medicated, so the match was canceled. To explain away his failure to appear at Taboo Tuesday, Vince McMahon said on "Raw" that Austin had been involved in an accident, thus preventing him from competing. Batista substituted for Austin, defeating Coachman along with Vader and Goldust. The stipulation was dropped due to Austin not competing. He returned to WWE briefly to face John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) in a beer-drinking contest at March 18, 2006, episode of "Saturday Night's Main Event XXXII". Austin inducted Bret Hart into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 1, 2006. Austin returned to WWE programming (appearing on "Raw", "ECW", and "SmackDown!") in March 2007, partially to promote his starring role in the release of WWE Films' production, "The Condemned".