10 Wrestlers Who Broke Their Neck For The Business
6. Masahiro Chono
The tombstone reversal sequence between 'Stunning' Steve Austin and Masahiro Chono wasn't quite as slick as the future 'Rattlesnake's effort with Owen Hart five years later, but the 1992 flub between the pair made it all the more astonishing that Austin would be willing to go near the spot at all after the injury his opponent suffered in their New Japan Pro Wrestling battle.
He'd perhaps forgotten the scale of the damage done to Chono due to the unbelievable endurance of 'Mr G1' following the botched spot. Austin - like Owen - dropped to his backside, with Chono's head slipping through his legs and bouncing hard off of the canvas. Then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion, the NJPW icon gutted out the remainder of a competitive match and even managed to claim victory before the ramifications of the move claimed a few years off of the back end of his career.
Despite confirming that he was weathering the strains of a broken neck in September that year, Chono only took a month off from in-ring action altogether. Easing himself back in with several October tag team matches, he was back into singles title defenses as early as November.