Who Broke Stone Cold Steve Austin’s Neck?

Published 12/09/2021, 12:30 PM EST

There have been various injuries in wrestling history. Some of them were minor and overlooked; however, there were some disastrous injuries that shortened careers and threatened the very livelihood of the performers. Stone Cold Steve Austin also became a victim of such a situation in 1997.

The Texas Rattlesnake wanted to come out of the mid-card where he was stuck for a long time since his debut in WWE. However, he faced late Owen Hart at the SummerSlam 1997 with Owen’s Intercontinental championship on the line.

To date, the moves and the blows of that particular match are fresh in the memory of the audience and the two wrestlers, alike.

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However, things went sideways when Owen Hart botched a piledriver and dropped Austin head first into the mat, breaking his neck and paralyzing him from the neck down.

Watch This Story: Vince McMahon to The Rock: The Biggest Rivals of WWE Legend Stone Cold Steve Austin

How did Stone Cold break his neck?

During their feud building up to the match, and added a stipulation where Steve Austin would kiss Hart on the butt if he lost. However, things took an ugly turn during the fight.

During the fight both the wrestlers put everything they had in their tanks and the crowd by this point didn’t care about the outcome, they just enjoyed the raw hatred between the two.

During a tilt o whirl slam reversal, Owen Hart put Austin into the piledriver position, and Austin supposedly slipped a bit because of the sweat, and when Hart hit the piledriver, Austin’s vertebrae couldn’t handle the pressure and his neck broke, leaving him paralyzed for a few minutes.

Who ended Stone Cold’s career?

Now, this is a debatable question. Technically, The Rock ended the in-ring career of The Texas Rattlesnake, as the two athletes faced each other for one last time at the WrestleMania XIX pay-per-view in 2003.

However, if you look at the reason, why Austin had to retire from the sport in 2003, it’s because of the botched piledriver from Owen Hart at the SummerSlam 1997 pay-per-view.

Austin tried to get back to normalcy, and he tried for eight long years before WWE medical team deemed the Hall of Famer unfit to wrestle inside the squared circle.

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Now, there can be various arguments whether Steve Austin’s retirement would not happen if the botch never happened. However, the world of pro-wrestling or any physical sport comes with the risk of “career-ending injury”.

On the other hand, 2003 looked like the right time for the former King of the Ring to retire, as new superstars like Brock Lesnar and John Cena were slowly getting to the top spot of the company.

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Stone Cold Steve Austin is still linked with the wrestling world, thanks to his ‘Broken Skull Sessions’ podcast where he talks with yesteryear and present day superstars, over a can of beer.

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Written by:

Prithvi Mishra is a WWE and AEW author for EssentiallySports. He graduated from Raj Kumar Goel Institute of Technology in Ghaziabad. Having started his career as a UFC writer, Prithvi has nearly 2 years worth of experience in covering combat sports.

Who Broke Stone Cold Steve Austin’s Neck?

How did Stone Cold break his neck?

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Who ended Stone Cold’s career?