10 Wrestlers Who No-Showed
1. Steve Austin
Event: 10 June 2002 - WWE Raw.
What Happened: Steve Austin's 2002 no-show is a classic example of burnout.
'Stone Cold' was wandering along aimlessly as a character when WWE notified him that he'd be putting Brock Lesnar over in a King Of The Ring qualifier on the 10 June Raw. Frustrated beyond belief and baffled that the promotion would throw such a match away on free television, Austin said he wouldn't do it.
WWE repeated their wishes, but Steve told them not to expect him in town for the show. True to his word, Austin no-showed the card and Lesnar beat late-replacement Bubba-Ray Dudley in a tournament preliminary instead. On TV, the company buried Austin by saying he'd "taken his ball and gone home".
This was huge news at the time, and some feared it could be a sorry end to Austin's peerless rise towards superstardom. Thankfully, he was able to thrash things out with McMahon and return in early-2003.
For more WWE, check out NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day: 10 Things That Must Happen and 10 Reasons NOT To Give Up On WWE Raw!