10 Biggest Career Hangovers In WrestleMania History

9. 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin (After WrestleMania X8)

Austin was the biggest WWF Superstar by far from 1998 to 2001, but as 2002 rolled in, there was trouble brewing beneath the surface. At WrestleMania X8, Austin faced Scott Hall, who was doing the NWO gimmick, in a short, 7-minute match. By that point, Austin began having very serious problems with WWE€™s Creative department over the handling of his character, and these issues were starting to reflect in his attitude and his actions. But the straw that broke the camel€™s back was when Austin refused to lose to Brock Lesnar, arguing that there wasn€™t enough build-up for a match of such importance. By June 2002, Austin had basically walked out of WWE, and according to longtime friend Jim Ross, €œAustin took his ball and went home€. Austin was blackballed and demonized on WWE programming, and there were attempts to tarnish his legacy and contributions to WWE history due to these controversial circumstances. It wasn€™t until early 2003 that Austin began reappearing in WWE, but by that point, Austin€™s career was undoubtedly reaching its end. He did his best to mend the situation, despite criticizing the WWE on numerous occasions in mid-2002. He explained that his doctors advised him to quit wrestling, which led to his final match at WrestleMania XIX against the Rock (at least so far). While it was a good sendoff for a star of his magnitude, after the creative fiasco in 2002, after WrestleMania X8, Austin definitely couldn€™t keep any positive momentum, and creative decisions destroyed a lot of the mutual good faith between Austin and WWE that took years to mend.