10 Injuries That Changed WWE History
1. Stone Cold Steve Austin
There are few stars with such influence on a product that their injury would trigger an entire stylistic change at the top of the card, but Stone Cold Steve Austin carried that much weight.
Though a drastically reduced in-ring performer, 'The Rattlesnake' made a remarkably quick recovery from a bodged Owen Hart tombstone to sustain the momentum of his incredible surge.
Aware of the money he was about to make, Austin struggled through nearly two years of WWE's main event grind, toppling records as one of the biggest box office attractions in the history of the industry. Similarly aware of his fragility (but also the profit that could be lost), Vince McMahon allowed a strategic adjustment to Stone Cold's matches that ensured a satisfied crowd and a (partly) healthy 'Rattlesnake'.
In an era-defining brawl at May 1998's Over The Edge pay-per-view, Steve Austin and Dude Love made liberal use of weapons shots, fighting into the crowd, run-ins and the type of mid-match melodrama emblematic of the era. It was all designed to aid Austin, who was simply too physically delicate to embark on displays he'd become known for before the injury.
The match type suited the product, and became standard fare for years. Ironically, it was a rebuilt Steve Austin in 2001 along with Triple H, Kurt Angle and vastly-improved Rock that lead the main events back to a standard of quality unseen since the heady days of Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart years earlier.