8 Wrestlers With The Worst Luck Ever

#5 Steve Austin gets a monster push but breaks his neck

Austin's mega push could've lasted much longer had one particular incident never happened...

Stone Cold Steve Austin is the most financially-successful wrestler ever. WWE made a fortune off his character, rivalries, star power, matches, and merchandise. He was easily the best character WWE had during the 1990s, but all of it was on borrowed time.

In 1996, Austin won the King of the Ring tournament and began his rise following the ‘Austin 3:16’ speech. About a year later, Austin was still rising to the top when he crossed paths with Owen Hart.

At SummerSlam 1997, Hart executed a sit-out Tombstone Piledriver on Austin and broke his neck. Austin couldn’t move at all for a few seconds, and would later need time off for a critical neck surgery.

While Austin enjoyed spectacular success as the face of WWE, it was much shorter than it could’ve been if that neck injury never happened. It was terrible luck for Austin to suffer such a bad injury right in the middle of his main event push, given that he’d have to take time off later on just as things were getting really hot for WWE.

Worse, the injury effectively cut his in-ring career short, with Austin wrestling his last match in 2003. The year before that (2002) wasn’t that good either, as Austin was dealing with so many problems (many of which stemmed from this neck injury) that he walked out on WWE in mid-2002.

Certainly, things would’ve been much better for Austin had that unfortunate neck injury never occurred.