Retirement Age: 38 Steve Austin was on the verge of becoming the top star in wrestling when a Tombstone Piledriver from Owen Hart broke his neck. With the company depending on Austin to ensure a profitable future, the rising star rushed his return back to the ring. He was a fixture on television during his recovery, and three months after his initial injury, he was wrestling once more. Austin went on to make millions and break records, but in late 1999, his neck started giving him trouble once again. He had to undergo spinal fusion surgery and miss another ten months of action. Upon returning, Austin produced some of the best work of his career, but his physical state continued to worsen. Frustration over his condition and a dispute with management led him to walk out of WWE in 2002, and while he soon returned to the company, he only wrestled one more actual match - a bout with The Rock at WrestleMania XIX. Since that time, Austin has abided by doctors' warnings, knowing that another bad bump could ruin his health permanently.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
