Stone Cold is almost everyone’s first pick when it comes to their pick for the Mount Rushmore of professional wrestling. He is one of the greatest superstars to have ever stepped into the squared circle.

Steve Austin was the critical reason WWE’s business prospered in the 90s. He is also responsible for many present day wrestlers becoming superstars. Only a few superstars in the company’s history equal that of Stone Cold in star power.

Stone Cold had to cut his career short because of injuries. He got hurt multiple times, which ultimately led to his early retirement. However, there was an extraordinary damage caused during a match with Owen Hart. Damage which could be pinned as the cause of his career’s untimely demise.

Owen Hart reveals what went wrong with the SummerSlam match in 1997.

Steve retired after his match with The Rock in 2003 at WrestleMania XIX. But what led him to retirement was his match with Owen Hart.

Owen Hart and Steve have narrated how the latter ended up in a temporary coma.

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Owen said, “The crowd was right where we wanted them. Everything was perfect. I could do no wrong. It’s like [having] a dance partner. You go out there, do your stuff, and everything is going well. And then, all of a sudden, in a split second…[snaps fingers]. “

In the middle of the match, Hart set his opponent up for a Piledriver, which ended in Austin breaking his neck.

“I dropped him on his head. The match went from utopia to hell in a second. I knew right then; there’s something wrong.”

Stone Cold was temporarily paralyzed in the middle of the ring and couldn’t feel anything. Owen said that Steve told him that he couldn’t feel his fingers.

“There’s a point where you’ve gotta say, ‘What’s more important?’—The guys’ health, or satisfying this crowd and the cameraman and everybody else,” Owen recalled. 

Austin 3:16 ended up finishing the match and winning the belt from Hart. However, it took three referees to pick him up. Hart revealed he felt terrible and didn’t want to hurt any guy.

Owen Hart also said he wouldn’t have even performed the tombstone if he could see what would happen.

After the pay-per-view, Bret Hart told his brother to call Austin up to apologize, but he never did that. He thinks Owen couldn’t handle the injury and the pain he caused, which created bad blood between the two competitors.

Stone Cold narrates his version of events.

In an interview with Larry King, Steve revealed what happened to him during the 1997 SummerSlam match.

“I got dropped on my head in about ’97. I was a transit quadriplegic for about 90 seconds there in the middle of the ring in front of the whole 20,000 people live on PPV. And I was thinking at that time as I was laying there looking up at the lights that I was going to be in the next Christopher Reeve.”

In another sit-down, Austin recounted the details of the story. As the pain set in his body, he tried to straighten out his legs to finish the match. When he looked back at the footage, Austin said you could see the pain in his eyes.

Following the injury, he was confused and didn’t know what would happen. “When you come that close to almost being paralyzed for the rest of your life, it fucks your head up.” The Texas Rattlesnake said.

Also, Steve Austin talked about how Owen Hart called once to apologize to him when he was in the hospital. After that one phone call, it was radio silence from Hart.

“If I almost break someone’s neck, I’m calling them 25 times to apologize.”

The 3:16 creator said that he watched the video multiple times for a long time. He said he still views it now and then to analyze where his life is at.

“These days, I watch it just to realize where I’m at. It just kind of keeps everything in perspective. I consider myself lucky.”

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Will Stone Cold ever come back to WWE?

Steve Austin’s damages were difficult to deal with, nor was it easy to heal. If he came back to WWE, it would take a lot of training and hard work.

In an episode of the Talk is Jericho podcast, Steve Austin admitted Vince had asked him to come back to the squared circle on more than occasion. (H/T Wrestling Inc.)

“I think Vince [McMahon] tried talking to me to coming back a couple of times, but you know Chris, I love the business so much, I love it more than anybody else.”

Unfortunately, the former WWE champion has already been through the struggle for acceptance. It took him years to accept that pro-wrestling was over for him.

“I love the damn business, and it hurt me so much to leave it. And to me, going back for one match, man, why? What am I proving? What are they going to remember? It ain’t about the money. It took me a long time, damn near three years, to get over the fact that I left the business.”

Austin said he wasn’t confident if he’d be willing to undergo the hard work and training needed for an in-ring return, even if it were for a WrestleMania match.

Austin thinks it would be anti-climatic if he returned for one more match. Stone Cold will not return to WWE soon.

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