14 Wrestlers Who Should Probably Regret Leaving WWE

2. Steve Austin

Stone Cold Steve Austin is one of the biggest draws in the history of the sports entertainment industry. However, he was also a part of one of the more controversial exits in the history of WWE. In 2002, Steve Austin admittedly became exhausted by his legendary run at the top of the mountain. Things started to spiral out of control for "The Rattlesnake" as years of injuries & travelling all over the world were effective his psyche. Also, the lack of direction for the "Stone Cold" character & illogical creative ideas were something that rightfully got in the way of Austin's desire to wrestle. Steve Austin has admitted countless times that one of the biggest regrets of his career was not showing up to Raw on June 17, 2002. The plan was for Stone Cold to face Brock Lesnar in a "King of the Ring" qualifying match where Lesnar was booked to defeat Austin. The illogical booking is something that Austin didn't agree with. He chose to not show up to Raw that night and leave WWE for all intents and purposes. It took nearly a year for WWE to get back on the same page with Austin to "bury the hatchet" and plan for a Stone Cold return to the ring. The events of that night changed the course of WWE history & tainted WWE's view of Austin over the course of 2002. Since then, Austin has been embraced by the WWE Universe once again and has become a member of the WWE Hall of Fame. If Stone Cold would have stuck around in 2002, rumors were circulating that there could have been a showdown between Austin & Hulk Hogan at SummerSlam. And who knows how long his feud with Eddie Guerrero would have gone on for and what kind of amazing matches could have come out of that.