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#7 Steve Austin
Stone Cold Steve Austin is one of the biggest names WWE has ever produced, and the former WWE Superstar was a crowd-favorite for almost the entirety of his career.
Austin not only turned himself into one of the most relatable on-screen WWE characters but also helped the company reach a larger audience by introducing a new attitude to the product.
While Austin was at the peak of his career in the late 1990s, he suffered an injury during a match that proved to be disastrous for his career.
At WWE SummerSlam 1997, Austin was competing against Owen Hart when a Tombstone piledriver by Hart went wrong and ended up injuring the neck of his rival. The Rattlesnake’s neck was broken as a result of the move, and he was temporarily paralyzed.
The tough Superstar was able to recover enough to pin Hart and end the match with a victory, following which he had to be taken to the hospital. According to Jim Ross, everyone backstage was really shaken up following the injury.
"A lot of concern. And it’s gonna sound bad if I don’t say this the right way, but you’ve gotta be first and foremost concerned about a man’s health. But at the same time, you’re looking at the guy that you see is going to be, unless injuries bite him in the a**, is going to be the biggest we’ve ever had. And now that may be over just as he got started. Took him seven years to get to WWE. Territories, missed booking, underutilized in WCW. We all remember all those stories. But you know, you just thought, ‘Well, this poor son of a b***h is not gonna live his dream.'” [H/T: 411mania]
Stone Cold was unhappy with the botch at WWE SummerSlam 1997
Stone Cold wasn’t too happy with the way Hart apologized to him following the botch that cut his career short and almost ended his life.
"Owen almost paralyzed me. He called me only once to apologize while I was in the hospital. If I almost break someone’s neck, I’m calling them 25 times to apologize…”
While Austin’s WWE career suffered a lot due to the injury, he was able to recover well enough and lead a healthy life.
