Steve Austin’s career altering neck injury at SummerSlam 1997 | WON Flashback
August 3 is an extremely notable day in the career of Stone Cold Steve Austin, as August 3 1997 was the date of his infamous neck injury at SummerSlam ’97. Austin would take an inverted piledriver from Owen Hart; landing on the top of his head, causing a neck injury that nearly ended his career (in fact he was told not to wrestle by multiple doctors following the incident), but he continued to wrestle near-full-time until WrestleMania in 2002.
Steve Austin’s Neck Injury at SummerSlam 1997
Here is what our own Dave Meltzer had to say about the incident in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter the week that SummerSlam ’97 took place:
“There was an injury that appeared to be major at the time involving the WWF’s hottest star, Steve Austin, which wound up with Austin hospitalized after his arms and legs went numb in the middle of his match with Owen Hart where he was scheduled to win the IC title. The two did an impromptu and totally unconvincing finish after Austin feared his neck was broken and was paralyzed from the waist down for several seconds and whispered to Hart that he couldn’t move after taking a tombstone piledriver with his head too low.
“Hart stalled for as long as he could, trying to get a “USA” chant going to chanting Canada and with major concern all over his face, tried to stall waiting for Austin to recover. Austin managed to roll toward him, using almost only his stomach muscles and got his arms up for a weak schoolboy finish, ending the match some six to eight minutes early. Apparently the original finish was for Austin to win using his stone cold stunner. The weak finish was explained on television as Hart having sympathy for a beaten opponent and that’s why he was stalling so long after Austin was obviously injured.
“Austin could barely get up after the match, limped with his left leg dangling out of the ring where he almost collapsed after getting backstage, and was rushed to the emergency room at Meadowlands Hospital where he was released at about 1 a.m., having apparently suffered a “stinger” in his neck, an injury more common in football. Austin had been having some legitimate neck problems earlier in the week stemming from the constant aggravation his neck has taken from wrestling. Austin appeared at Raw the next night but clearly wasn’t walking well, with his activity limited to doing an interview and interfering in the Dude Love vs. Owen Hart main event by hitting Hart with a Slammy Award leading to Love’s victory. We haven’t heard any long-term prognosis when it comes to Austin other than we’re told that it’s possible he could be back in action this coming weekend but the most likely situation is he’ll be out for a few weeks.”
You can find Dave’s review of WWF SummerSlam 1997 in the August 11, 1997 Wrestling Observer Newsletter (which you can read in full with a subscription).
Jake is the Head of Audience at F4WOnline, having previously worked as a Combat Sports, Gaming and Pro Wrestling writer, successful Editor in Chief and Sports Coordinator. He has more than ten years of experience covering mixed martial arts, pro wrestling, football and gaming across a number of publications, starting at SEScoops in 2012.
He previously also worked for PROGRESS Wrestling as Head of Media as well as working on the social channels of the company.