10 Best WWE Redemption Stories

If you believe Michael Cole, redemption stories are a fairly common occurrence in the WWE these days.

It's pretty much become tradition, in fact, for the winner of the weekend pay-per-view match to lose - or at least take a beating - on the go-home edition of Raw or SmackDown that precedes it, making them a near-monthly occurrence.

But we've got slightly grander things in mind when we refer to the company's best ever redemption stories. Overcoming the odds in kayfabe terms may be one of wrestling's great cliches, but in real life, coming back from long-term injury or a fractured relationship with the WWE board is altogether less common.

Most fans, by now, know how to spot the authentic emotion from the crocodile tears, and while it doesn't show its head very often, when it does you can be sure that you're witnessing something truly unique (even if it is sometimes soured by sub-par booking thereafter).

These are moments when even the most cynical among us have to admit that whilst wrestling may indeed be largely fake, it can from time to time be very real as well.

There were so many different ways in which Stone Cold's WrestleMania XIV WWE Title win can be considered a redemption story.

For one thing, it represented a remarkable turnaround in the career of a wrestler who was once thrown on the scrap-heap by Eric Bischoff. It was a lesson in not taking no for an answer, and pursuing your dreams no matter how firmly the odds are stacked against you (which, in this particular case, wasn't just a Michael Cole cliche).

On top of that, Austin had suffered a serious neck injury not one year earlier after a botched pile-driver from Owen Hart, the type of experience that would probably have deterred many from ever getting back in the squared circle, much less practising the kind of all-action style he did.

Throw in the fact that WWE were still, at the time, very much the underdogs of the Monday Night Wars - and were beginning to put their faith in younger stars like Austin, The Rock and Triple H - and this was a truly special moment, not least of all for the Texas Rattlesnake himself.