10 Weird Secrets To Wrestlers' Success
7. Steve Austin - Breaking His Neck

What if? scenarios are tedious because there's just no way of knowing, there are too many variables, and in 2021, you can't even use established facts to convince people that they have sh*t for brains, much less a well-reasoned argument.
Steve Austin was going to be a pro wrestling superstar regardless, but the broken neck he suffered at SummerSlam 1997 forced him to modify his style and landed him in a storyline opposite Vince McMahon that transformed the pro wrestling business.
Austin was as cracking a brawler as he was a technician. His performance at In Your House: Canadian Stampede was incredible.
But packed arenas across the U.S. went apesh*t for the broader style he introduced in 1998, around which the WWF built so many iconic and deliriously entertaining main events worked almost directly in front of their screaming faces. Austin was a hard bastard with no frills. The complete lack of pretension made that character. That Austin couldn't take too many bumps further established him as the invincible ass-kicker who always rewarded your support, and his storytelling and timing was so exceptional that his work never once felt trapped by its one dimension.
Wrestling is an inherent, insane paradox - so much so that a serious injury once propelled a great worker to megastardom.