5 WWE Superstars who almost died in the ring

#1 Stone Cold Steve Austin

WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin is one of the biggest names in pro-wrestling history with a majority of wrestling fans considering him to play a massive role in making WWE a household name. Unfortunately, he was on the receiving end of a botched piledriver during his match with Owen Hart at Summerslam 1997 that shortened his WWE career and almost killed him.

The move temporarily paralyzed the Texas Rattlesnake and he should consider himself to be lucky to survive that night and walk out on his own. Legendary WWE commentator Jim Ross spoke about the backstage reaction to Owen Hart after this accident on his Grilling JR podcast.

"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.'”

*This Day in History* - August 3, 1997 - Stone Cold Steve Austin suffers a broken neck during a botch pile driver from Owen Hart at SummerSlam 1997 in East Rutherford, NJ. https://t.co/0Gi46Wx0Xd

— WWEalerts (@WWEalerts) August 3, 2018

Years later, it was due to his neck issues that Stone Cold Steve Austin had to retire from WWE.