10 WWE Wrestlers Who Were Never The Same After Returning From Injury

1. Stone Cold Steve Austin

WWE struck gold in 1996 when floundering Superstar Steve Austin won the King of the Ring and uttered the famous catchphrase Austin 3:16 for the first time. At that point, Austin became Stone Cold and he rose to incredible heights in Vince McMahon's company. However, it was only a year later that Austin took an inverted piledriver from Owen Hart and when the move happened, Stone Cold's head was much too low and he was sent crashing to the mat. Barely able to stand, Austin somehow found the strength to make the pin and had to be helped from the ring. Despite having a broken neck, Austin missed only three months of action before returning to the company. For the next two years, Austin lived with the pain and worked through it in the ring as he became the hottest star in WWE. Vince McMahon had found his new top guy and the company rolled forward, hitched to the phenomenon that was Stone Cold. Two years passed and it became obvious that Austin would need to address his neck injury, so The Texas Rattlesnake had surgery and spent the next nine months at home. He came back in 2000 and picked up right where he left off, spending the next two years in one main event match after another. However, during those two years he turned heel and was taken out of the ring due to his health; as a result, he was used more in backstage segments and cutting promos in the ring. Austin missed large chunks of time in his ring career and was forced to entertain in other ways. Austin's career lasted until 2002, when the injury he had suffered some five years earlier was just too much to bear physically and following the advice of doctors, he worked his last match against The Rock at WrestleMania 19. Since that time, Austin's role has been limited to mic time and occasional scuffles in the ring. Though he did have a Hall of Fame career, many fans wonder what could have happened had the neck injury never occurred and ultimately caused him to hang up the boots for the last time at age 37.