Austin’s neck injury
By Scott Keith on 3 July 2024
Let's say Austin doesn't break his neck at Summerslam. Nothing changes I'm sure with him getting the strap at WM14 of course but big picture how does this affect the next few years and the Monday Night Wars in general? The neck injury obviously forced them to go with the garbage brawl main events that defined the era but if Austin never gets hurt perhaps that doesn't even become a thing and he stays more of a technician. Does this affect how big they got? Hell he possibly doesn't even have a reason to stun Vince if Vince isn't hounding him to resolve the WWF of liability for allowing him to wrestle. Lots of things get altered possibly without the injury not including of course the length of his career, but mostly thinking how the next couple years play out and if you think anything substantially different comes about.
Austin's neck injury is a bit of a retcon, to be honest. Not saying it wasn't bad, because it was, but Austin had done interviews even before the match where he talked about how doctors told him that he had the neck of a 90 year old man and wouldn't have much longer in the business. Plus his knees were destroyed and heavily braced for months already. It's not like he was this healthy specimen of top tier athletics that had his prime years suddenly ripped away from him by the piledriver, he was already on the 9th punch on his bump card and living on borrowed time as an active wrestler. Point being, he was gonna have to change his style regardless of the injury.