1. Stone Cold Steve Austin
Steve Austin is the best example of a successful return and the best example of an unsuccessful return from injury. The best thing to ever happen to Steve Austin was to get injured in 1997, and the worst thing was to disappear in the year 2000. The father of Attitude was missing for almost one full year recovering from surgery. While he was gone, the WWF flourished. Rock stepped in and in many ways surpassed Austin as the top babyface. Rock was different than Austin. While Austin was a unique, fight against the system every-man, Rock was ridiculous. He was the king of catch phrase. Austin may have opened the audience chant Pandora's box, but Rock spearheaded the normalization of catch phrases repeated with and by the audience. Can someone explain to me what a Ruddy Poo is?... The Rock isn't to blame for Austin's struggles when he came back. Stone Cold did that to himself. Austin & McMahon came up with the bright idea of turning Austin heel at Wrestlemania x7. Austin wanted it. McMahon wanted it. Fans did NOT want it and therefore it didn't work. Who exactly wants to boo Stone Cold Steve Austin? He is cool, he was gone for a really long time. The nostalgia pops alone would keep him going and he had been built as part of a redemption story line with his 3rd Rumble victory and his rematch against the man who took his spot, the Rock. No one was going to boo Steve Austin. But they went with it. The problem came, what do you do with a heel Stone Cold? How can you get the fans to boo him? The WWE didn't know. And so, we got a series of character modifications to Stone Cold, which in the end didn't stick and didn't work. Despite Stone Cold's ability, his turn was a flop. He tried unsuccessfully playing the heel comedy role, merged with Triple H (briefly before his injury) and created the end of the live wrestling promo, the "What" chant. From 2001, Austin's career is muddled. His Alliance tenure was illogical at best. (Stone Cold chooses WCW, who fired him over WWF, who made him?) He has expressed in interviews that his idea of turning heel in 2001 was a mistake. No one wanted to boo Stone Cold Steve Austin. By 2002, the damage was done. Stone Cold's stock was down. The WWE was very well aware of this when they had him wrestle Scott Hall at Wrestlemania X8. Austin went from main-eventing every Wrestlemania (that he was healthy for) since 1998, to wrestling the third tier guy of a revamped out of place NWO. By the middle of 2002, Stone Cold had took his ball home over creative difficulties. The fact that he was asked to job to Brock Lesnar on TV with no warning/booking/plans showed what the management thought of Stone Cold in June 2002. His stock had fallen greatly. And this can all be traced back to his injury. Without missing 2000, Austin continues on his path of domination and popularity. Even if he eventually turned heel, it would be an earned turn, not a sudden one. Sadly, Austin's career ended with a whimper. Like many great stars before him, his injuries became too much and he retired fully in 2003. Austin just never reached back to the level he attained in 98/99. He is proof positive that injuries even a main event level talent can be adversely affected by a injury. Let's hope Sheamus and John Cena (he'll be fine) have better luck.