10 Incredible Links Between Wrestlers You'd Never Expect
8. Steve Austin & Owen Hart's Piledriver Lore
Steve Austin never forgave Owen Hart for the SummerSlam 1997 incident.
While Austin in recent years has insisted that he has let bygones be bygones, he has admitted that he held some animosity towards Owen Hart for a long time. Austin had concerns over the planned piledriver spot. He didn't want Owen to fall down "on his ass" because he thought the inverted move was more safely performed when dropping to one's knees. He respected Owen enough as a technician to go with the spot, but in a rule-proving exception of a move, Austin was left temporarily paralysed. It was of no consolation to Austin whatsoever that Hart had never botched something to this level before.
Anybody with a cursory grasp of Japanese history in the 1990s might point out Austin's hypocrisy here, because in 1992, he executed the exact same move, falling to his own ass, in a match against Masahiro Chono on a Battle Autumn tour for New Japan Pro Wrestling. Chono suffered an injury but did not miss a significant period of ring time. Austin has never mentioned that incident as a caution to Owen. It was as if it never happened.
The execution was even worse than Owen's. It's brutal to watch back, because Austin never once looks like has control over Chono's body; you can see the botch coming several seconds away.
Certain people become very successful because they don't believe the same rules apply to them, and it's striking to listen to Austin's comments on the 1997 incident. He thought the idea for he spot wasn't merely dangerous, but unfathomable.
He could fathom it five years earlier.