WWE if: Stone Cold Steve Austin is never injured

  • Thread starter Deleted member 43582
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Deleted member 43582

Not sure how many Wrestling fans there are here, but thought to find out, lets just start with the bigget WI of Wrestling history:
What if Stone Cold Steve Austin the greatest draw in Wrestling history is never injured so badly, that he has to retire?
I mean by 2003 he is only 39, and judging from how good Triple H still can be if he wants to and how Undertaker and HBK had their best runs in their old age, I could actually see Austin continuing to do well for himself.
Cena would still likely eventually take over as number #1 face IMO, as there is not really anyone (apart from Benoit, who is already too old at the time), who can match the draw of Cena, even in a different environment, but the transition from Austin to Cena could be very interesting.
Though PG Austin may be a bit eh.
 
Steve Austin, prior to his injury, was one of the best professional wrestlers going. He had the ability to be a technical wrestler, he could brawl with anyone, and he had the ability to sell like it was nobody's business. The biggest issue is what 2-3 more years of damage would have been inflicted upon Austin had he been healthy. A healthy Austin would have stuck around and been able to have a meaningful feud with Evolution, possibly a good run with Kurt Angle, and we might have actually had the Austin-Hogan match that fans still hold as a could have been. Imagine WrestleMania 18 if the main event was Austin-Hogan rather than Rock-Hogan going on before Helmsley-Jericho... Unfortunately, his knees also started to wear down, so we wouldn't be seeing Steve at 100 percent. He might be in the line of part-timers that are trotted out every year for Mania, but the longer he would go, the more he would tarnish a legacy. He would have eventually either been fed to a Cena, Orton, or Lesner to make them stars or he'd have jumped ship to Impact Wrestling and, if he had anything left in the take, he might have helped start a second Monday Night War. I just don't see a second act like Shawn Michales.
 
Or, better yet, WI Flair is fired by Eric Bischoff in 1998 and jumps to the WWF, instead of being suspended? God, the Austin-Flair matches would have been, if not five-star, four-star matches...
 
I still think he transitions into being a part-timer. I don't seem him lingering on exclusively as a wrestler, even if he avoids that injury his body is still not going to be in prime shape.
 
Austin going to impact might have happened, provided they Austin and jarett patched up a rumored burial to that happened in the attitude era.
 
First of all: thanks for the wrestling what-if!

Secondly: I think if it wasn't that injury it would have been another not long after. Stone Cold was and is an amazing talent, but he had a lot of wear and tear by the early 2000's and a history of injury that was going to catch up with him someday. I don't know the man personally, but he strikes me as the sort of guy who would push it (and probably jump to Impact and/or ROH) rather than smoothly transition into protected part-timer mode. I don't think his jump to TNA has any more impact (pun not intended) than the MEM or Hogan had however, a run in ROH against an up-coming CM Punk would have been EPIC!
 
Or, better yet, WI Flair is fired by Eric Bischoff in 1998 and jumps to the WWF, instead of being suspended? God, the Austin-Flair matches would have been, if not five-star, four-star matches...


According to Cornette this is how close that came to happening. Warning NSFW obviously it's Cornette


 
Pretty much agree. Austin, even outside of the injury, did have tons of wear on not just his knee, but also his neck (Owen Hart broke it with a piledriver back in 97). I feel like Austin - Rock 3 was the Swan song regardless.

With that said though, I feel we may have gotten a couple of those once in a lifetime matches between 03 - 06. Probably him and Orton during his legend killer run. Maybe him and Cena as the page turn to the PG era.

Without the injury, I feel like that's the in ring projection for Austin, but I feel like he stays more involved as an on screen talent. His run as Co GM of raw comes to mind as how brilliant he was on camera without having to step into the ring. But hey, that's why it's a what if.
 
What particular injury are you trying to avoid?

The broken neck after Owen Hart's piledriver would probably be the most interesting. That's when Austin started becoming more of an out-and-out brawler.

Either way, his knees are still going to give out sooner or later. Possibly sooner, without taking the time to heal up.

Could a healthy Stone Cold be hot-shotted into the main event scene early, to try and come up with a solution to Bret and Shawn's animosity? Or would Shawn's backstage politicking ensure that he was the one in the main event at Montreal?
 
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What particular injury are you trying to avoid?

The broken neck after Owen Hart's piledriver would probably be the most interesting. That's when Austin started becoming more of an out-and-out brawler.

Either way, his knees are still going to give out sooner or later. Possibly sooner, without taking the time to heal up.

Could a healthy Stone Cold be hot-shotted into the main event scene early, to try and come up with a solution to Bret and Shawn's animosity? Or would Shawn's backstage politicking ensure that he was the one in the main event at Montreal?



This is interesting if you avoid Owen breaking Austin's neck, then we could see an Austin Owen feud for the title in 99 which might butterfly his death especially if Austin isn't as pissed off at Owen as he was in OTL. Regarding his knees they could do a similar angle to the one they did to cover up his neck surgery give him time to heal up. Regarding Montreal I can't see Austin getting the run that early he was still firmly in the Owen feud which you could change a little I suppose make it Owen nearly put Austin on the shelf as Owen's character had form for doing that, but unlike HBK Austin will go through the Harts to get at Owen. My personal belief is Bret vs Shawn would have happened regardless Vince for all his flaws is a businessman and the rematch had been a year plus in the making it was going to make money for Vince either way so he had to do it. However if you were smart you make the main event a Triple Threat having a Battle Royal earlier in the night and have Owen the winner thanks to screwing Austin so you have the fans in Montreal baying for HBK's blood you have Bret being Bret but off his game because of Owen who's getting his chance to show he belongs in the main event. You still keep the original ending which was meant to be a mass brawl DQ finish but you change it while the brawl is happening Austin appears makes a beeline for Owen for screwing him out of a World Title shot and drops him with a stunner, Bret tries to get involved and he gets dropped and Shawn thanks his old tag partner for the easy pickings only to get dropped himself, with everyone out cold the match is declared a no contest and the title is held up and you now have Bret free and clear to go to WCW no screw job, Shawn can claim he had the Harts beat if it wasn't for Austin and is therefore entitled to another championship match and Owen and Austin feud continues grooming them both for the main event.
 
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