10 Times Wrestlers Quit Before Major PPVs

10. Stone Cold Steve Austin (WWE King Of The Ring 2002)

In a dream match for the ages, Stone Cold Steve Austin was at one time booked to wrestle ‘Latino Heat’ Eddie Guerrero at the King of the Ring PPV in 2002. The two had briefly wrestled before on SmackDown in 2000 after Austin returned from neck surgery but now they were going to have a considerable PPV match for the first time.

Austin had been away from the main event scene since losing to Chris Jericho in the main event of No Way Out for the Undisputed WWF Championship, wrestling Scott Hall at WrestleMania X8, Big Show at Insurrextion and Ric Flair at Judgement Day. This was to continue with Eddie at KOTR, so the two started wrestling each other on house shows in late May to work out the execution of their PPV match. They filmed a chaotic karaoke segment together too to air on Raw for some hype.

But less than 2 weeks away from King of the Ring, Austin walked out on WWE after learning he would be losing clean to newcomer Brock Lesnar in a KOTR qualifying match on Raw. Obviously, this meant Austin’s match with Eddie at KOTR was cancelled, with Eddie instead clashing with Ric Flair at the event.

Austin would return around WrestleMania XIX the following year to retire and finish off his Mania trilogy of matches with The Rock.