10 Wrestlers Who Sacrificed The Most To Become WWE Champion

1. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin

The severe neck injury that "Stone Cold" Steve Austin suffered due to a botched Tombstone Piledriver by Owen Hart at SummerSlam 1997 was one of the most gruesome injuries most wrestling fans have ever seen. Instead of dropping to his knees to deliver the move, Hart dropped to his butt and Austin's head went crashing into the mat. It's a miracle that Austin had the strength to actually perform a weak rollup on Hart to finish the match. Part of the reason he did it was because he knew he was going to get pushed to his first WWE Title win at WrestleMania XIV in 1998. Could you imagine what Vince McMahon was thinking when that moment happened? He was probably freaking out imagining the worst because Austin was the guy he was going to build the future of WWE around. Austin only took a few months off, came back in November 1997 to beat Hart again even though he probably should have sat out longer. He won the 1998 Royal Rumble and then beat Shawn Michaels for his first WWE Title at WrestleMania. The Texas Rattlesnake's neck problems flare dup again in late 99, and he was forced to miss almost a year of action due after undergoing fusion surgery. He came back in late 2000 and at WrestleMania X-Seven in 2001 he looked like he wasn't hurt at all as he beat The Rock in the main event of what many fans call WWE's greatest show ever. Austin's career was cut short by the neck injury and he was forced to retire in 2003, at the age of 38, even though he probably wanted to wrestle for a few more years. It's twelve years later and people still think he might come back for one more match, but he's been pretty honest in saying that it's not happening. There aren't many wrestlers that could have kept going after breaking their neck in a match, but Austin had worked too hard for too long to quit. He sacrificed his long term health to get to the top of the business he loved so much.