Wrestling WI: Steve Austin gets paralyzed?

What if the tombstone piledriver Austin took from Owen Hart at Summerslam 97 caused him to become permanently paralyzed? What would be the implications for the WWF (and WCW for that matter)? Would they be able to survive? Who would become the top babyface? How would Owen deal with the fact that he was responsible for it?
 
My first thought is that Owen obviously gets buried, but I'm not too sure how far Vince would go as Bret is the main star at the time and he won't have much leverage at a time when his company is struggling.

Looking at the WWF roster at that time, I might see the likes of Ken Shamrock or Ahmed Johnson getting a bigger push as there really isn't a face to fill the role Austin held. Johnson was not viewed too highly by some fans and didn't seem to have the best work ethic in the ring. Shamrock was solid in the ring but couldn't talk.
 
I can see them hastily turning Bret back to babyface (maybe the hart foundation and dx form an alliance and turn on Bret), since Bret will obviously have to be lead babyface (not many other choices, maybe Mankind but even that would be a stretch). I can also see a desperate Vince trying to sign any recognizable 80s-90s stars who werent in WCW or ECW just so they have some familiar faces to gain fan interest.
 
I believe I will have to call ASB on this, because he would simply open up a can of Austin 3:16 on his disability.

In all seriousness, the lack of Austin would probably have some interesting effects on internet culture, in particular on memes. No unexpected "RKOs" or "John Cena" type vids, for example.
 
Stone Cold was probably the biggest factor in WWF surpassing WCW in the ratings during the attitude era. The WWF would need to put someone else into his position, but they might not be able to find someone with the same natural charisma. Maybe WCW is able to survive longer.
 
Well, Bret Hart left the WWF in part because he was uncomfortable with the edgier nature the program was taking; what would eventually blossom into the Attitude Era. No Stone Cold changes that, obviously. I see the WWF working harder to keep Bret away from WCW, probably making him the top face again. This also butterflies away the Montreal Screwjob, and thus, Vince McMahon becoming a major on-screen figure. I have no idea how the Michaels-Hart feud goes from here, though. HBK's back injury is probably butterflied away too. I still think the WWF is able to survive, given how badly WCW was run towards the end both from a business and booking standpoint. Remember, the WWF still had a young Dwayne Johnson on their roster, and his talent and charisma is bound to break out at some point. Rock and Foley are probably the top stars of TTL's attitude era equivalent.
 
Just thinking that the tombstone piledriver would likely be banned as well (even though Owen did it the wrong way, done right its nowhere near as dangerous).
 
I think one of the men we are forgetting is "Dr. Death" Steve Williams. He was being brought in to face Steve Austin with the Brawl for All, which ended up a tremendous failure. With the Austin injury, I doubt Vince will take a chance on a real fight to prove Williams toughness and instead follow a more traditional build up. This would protect Williams and possibly set him up as the big face to challenge the Foundation, DX, or even the Nation of Domination.

Speaking of the Nation, I doubt you will see Mark Henry being slotted in there because Mark can be built as the traditional All-American face and puting him in a feud with the established heel Ron Simmons(Faroque) and possibly team with Ahmed Johnson. Maybe it is Johnson that becomes Mark's first real feud and could revitalize both men.

There is also the possibility of more ECW talent being pulled in earlier. Both Raven and Tommy Dreamer are solid hands and Raven has a history with the WWF from an earlier run under a different gimmick. Shane Douglas is also there, healing from injury, but certainly a reasonable talent that Vince may drop money on to try and fight.
 
I think one of the men we are forgetting is "Dr. Death" Steve Williams. He was being brought in to face Steve Austin with the Brawl for All, which ended up a tremendous failure. With the Austin injury, I doubt Vince will take a chance on a real fight to prove Williams toughness and instead follow a more traditional build up. This would protect Williams and possibly set him up as the big face to challenge the Foundation, DX, or even the Nation of Domination.

Speaking of the Nation, I doubt you will see Mark Henry being slotted in there because Mark can be built as the traditional All-American face and puting him in a feud with the established heel Ron Simmons(Faroque) and possibly team with Ahmed Johnson. Maybe it is Johnson that becomes Mark's first real feud and could revitalize both men.

There is also the possibility of more ECW talent being pulled in earlier. Both Raven and Tommy Dreamer are solid hands and Raven has a history with the WWF from an earlier run under a different gimmick. Shane Douglas is also there, healing from injury, but certainly a reasonable talent that Vince may drop money on to try and fight.

Nah, the Attitude Era was the time when personality really reigned above most other things. Steve Williams won't really get far at all, especially as a Face. We're more likely to see the Rock, Mick Foley and Triple H get earlier bumps off the cards and Shawn Michaels is likely to get his injury butterflied away, which is likely to do him even worse. Mark Henry won't be going anywhere, especially with the All American Face gimmick, they tried that with the Patriot and it floundered.
 
I'm a major fan of Stone Cold, but I wouldn't say he's the only person really important with the rise of the attitude era. You still have Dwane Johnson,Mick Foley,Triple H,The Undertaker. The very simple fact that if WCW doesn't change its favouritism policies and bad business practices still can't save it, I say you could see Chris Jericho among others with the WWE. I wonder if this would possibly butterfly away the deaths of Eddie Guerrero and the murder-suicide of Chris Benoit and his family?
 
I wonder if this would possibly butterfly away the deaths of Eddie Guerrero and the murder-suicide of Chris Benoit and his family?
Doubtful, as sad as it is to say but Steve would not be the first wrestler to be paralyzed in the ring. Vince might make his guys work a bit safer but for the most part it's just a botched move that ended the worst way. Meanwhile Eddie died thanks to likely damage done thanks to steroid abuse, and Benoit had done irreparable damage to his brain. Having a big star's career cut short after a major botch wouldn't change that. Benoit might have been butterflied away thanks largely due to the fact that the nature of Post Concussion Syndrome and CTE mean that literally any change to that day might have altered what happened.
 
Austin's popularity was only a few months old at that point. His famous 3:16 speech was at King of the Ring a year earlier, but his star didn't really start to rise until his match with Bret Hart as Wrestlemania 13 earlier that year. I wonder if the WWF would have brought in someone to replace him in the anti-hero role. Perhaps they could have tempted someone like Scott Steiner from WCW or maybe someone like Shane Douglas from ECW.
 
Austin's popularity was only a few months old at that point. His famous 3:16 speech was at King of the Ring a year earlier, but his star didn't really start to rise until his match with Bret Hart as Wrestlemania 13 earlier that year. I wonder if the WWF would have brought in someone to replace him in the anti-hero role. Perhaps they could have tempted someone like Scott Steiner from WCW or maybe someone like Shane Douglas from ECW.
Likely not Douglas due to a lot of bad blood between the fed and him at the time. Steiner also at that point was mostly known as a tag team wreatler, and was making good money with his brother. He wasn't exactly Big Poppa Pump just yet. Honestly it'd either be Triple H getting his push again since he was supposed to be in Austin's spot before the Curtain Call. Maybe Vader given his popularity. Maybe even Jarrett, Honestly though it's unlikely any one man would be plugged into Austin's historic place. It's more likely that different wrestlers would get pushed at different times. Someone would be top face, but they'd be a different sort of face than Austin was.
 
I think it might have saved owen's life , and obviously WWE loses the war with WCW .
Unlikely, WCW was a massive shit show behind the scenes and would have lost sooner or later baring massive changes to how they operated. WWF might have died as well, but even with SCSA they had some of the biggest names of the 90s.
 
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