Austin's departure from the WWE is often attributed to his refusal to put over Brock Lesnar, and general disgruntlement with the company's booking in general. That did indeed lead to a bitter split from the company, but he actually returned the following year having patched things up. Stone Cold has since admitted that the ultimate reason for his more permanent departure in 2003 was the fact that he had been wrestling against doctor's orders since 2001. He was told to retire after a reinvigoration of his infamously gruesome neck injury against Owen Hart in 1997, but risked serious damage by continuing to appear in matches for over a year. Although nobody could argue that Stone Cold missed out on the prime years of his career due to injury, it did cut short an interesting period. The landscape of the current WWE would almost certainly look different today had Austin been cleared to continue - perhaps even in a worse way, had he continued to refuse to put over upcoming young stars.
