10 Wrestlers Who Retired Way Too Early

3. Stone Cold Steve Austin

Stone Cold
WWE.com

Due to the fact that he has looked about 48 years old for over two decades now, it is easy to forget that Steve Austin was just 38 years old when retirement was thrust upon him. Austin's injuries were well-documented, with neck and knee issues plaguing him throughout his career. The former went into overdrive after the infamous Owen Hart Tombstone piledriver at SummerSlam '97, after which Austin was rushed back into the ring.

Austin was everywhere at that time, and instead of correctly rehabbing the injury, he was soon back on television. Somehow he overcame the damage to become arguably the biggest star in WWE history, but the neck issue never truly went away, and Austin missed 10 months of action at the turn of the new millennium following spinal fusion surgery.

The Texas Rattlesnake returned, but the frustration of niggling injuries and the passing of time meant his days were numbered. Stone Cold's final match came at WrestleMania XIX, and he hasn't taken a bump since.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.