10 WWE Superstar Careers Completely F****d By Injuries
3. Stone Cold Steve Austin
Steve Austin is one of the greatest WWE superstars of all time, and his run from 1997 until 2002 will stand as one of the most profitable and successful runs of any wrestler at any time. But that timeframe was extremely short, and could have been extended had it not been for one serious injury. Everybody remembers Austin taking the tombstone piledriver from Owen Hart at Summerslam 1997. That injury forced Austin to miss a couple months in 1997, when he was rising to the top of the card, and the nagging pain forced him to have neck surgery and miss all of the year 2000, which was one of the WWEs best years in terms of roster talent. Austin put the pedal to the medal in 2001 to make up for the time he lost, and his schedule (plus some shady creative decisions) forced him to take a self-imposed sabbatical from the WWE in 2002. When he returned in 2003, he only wrestled two matches against Eric Bischoff before having his retirement match against The Rock at Wrestlemania 19, a match he almost didnt make due to spending the night in the hospital the night before. Because of the neck injury, Austins run at the top only lasted three full years: 1998, 1999 and 2001. Considering how long John Cena has held pole position in the WWE, it seems like a wasted opportunity for Stone Colds overall career. But youll probably never hear Austin complain about it. Those three years at the top made him and everybody around him very rich men.
