10 Wrestlers Who Returned From Injury Better Than Before
2. Stone Cold Steve Austin
Similar to Ric Flair in the ‘70s, a career-threatening injury to Stone Cold Steve Austin saw him forced to switch-up his in-ring style – and again, it proved to be for the better.
At SummerSlam 1997, Owen Hart's miscued sit-out piledriver saw Austin left temporarily paralysed and with neck issues that would plague him for the rest of his career. In the short-term, he was facing a three-month spell on the sidelines, but in years to come he’d be facing a nine-month lay-off following a neck surgery and ultimately a premature retirement at the age of just 38.
However, stylistically, the incident had seen him essentially do the opposite of what Flair had done before, as Austin ditched his technical roots for a less scientific, brawling style. That brawling style proved to be a major part of his new trash-talking, beer-swigging anti-hero gimmick, which pretty much took the wrestling world by storm and elevated him to a whole new stratosphere popularity-wise.
Just months after SummerSlam, Austin won the Royal Rumble and from there captured the WWF Championship at WrestleMania XIV, before ushering in one of the most prosperous periods in company history – and all with a dicky neck, at that.