5 WWE Superstars who got to retire on their own terms and 5 who didn't

#3 Didn’t: Stone Cold Steve Austin

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin (left) with "JR" Jim Ross

Stone Cold Steve Austin’s WWE career became a ticking clock following a botched sit down piledriver at the hands of Owen Hart during a match at the 1997 SummerSlam. He suffered temporary paralysis and a broken neck.

Austin would return to action following this injury at Survivor Series that same year and would go on to be the Superstar who defined the most successful era in WWE history.

The Rattlesnake would go on to capture the WWE championship six times and would adopt a more brawling style with less focus on bumping and technical wrestling in order to protect his weakened neck.

Following WrestleMania 19 and his classic match with The Rock, Steve Austin would reveal via an interview on WWE.com that he was retiring due to injuries he suffered throughout his career.

It’s unclear how much longer the then 39-year-old Austin would have wrestled for had he not been forced to retire. But one thing we can assume is that his eventual retirement would have had more fanfare had it been on his terms alone. Austin still appears for the WWE mostly via his Broken Skull Sessions Podcast on the WWE Network and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009.