Why Stone Cold Steve Austin Retired From WWE
It's heavily rumored that «Stone Cold» Steve Austin is finally headed back to the ring, but here's why he retired from WWE in the first place. Today, Austin is thought of as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, both in the ring and on the microphone. The «Stone Cold» character launched a thousand catchphrases and T-shirts, and he was clearly the biggest overall star in WWE during its biggest period of popularity ever, the Attitude Era that took place from 1997 to 2001.
As big as he got though, Austin wasn't an overnight success, debuting in 1989 to a few brief stints in WCW — as «Stunning» Steve Austin — and in ECW — as «Superstar» Steve Austin — before finally signing with WWE in 1996. Even then, it took a while for Austin's fateful Austin 3:16 promo to occur, and another year-plus before he was firmly entrenched as the hottest act in the company. At the end of the day, Austin's reign as a WWE main eventer was only about five years long — a much shorter WWE career than someone like John Cena — but he definitely accomplished a lot in that time.
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When Austin retired from WWE in 2003, he was just shy of 40 years old, but the fans still loved to cheer him on. Unfortunately, while Austin would've happily continued his wrestling career for awhile longer, his body didn't agree. AtSummerslam 1997, Austin had suffered a partially broken neck thanks to a botched piledriver at the hands of the late Owen Hart. While he was able to return to action a few months later, the damage was done. Austin's in-ring career was on borrowed time from then on, leading him to retire for medical reasons after losing to future Hollywood star The Rock at WrestleMania XIX.
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