Stone Cold Steve Austin Held a Longstanding Grudge Against Owen Hart

Stone Cold Steve Austin may be one of WWE’s most iconic legends, but behind the scenes, he had a grudge that lasted for years.

In 1997, during their match at SummerSlam, Austin suffered a career-altering injury after a botched piledriver from Owen Hart. The move left Austin temporarily paralyzed in the ring, forcing him to crawl his way to a pinfall victory. While he walked away with the Intercontinental Championship, the damage to his neck would haunt him for the rest of his career.

In wrestling, it’s considered common courtesy to check in on an opponent after a major injury, but according to Austin, Owen Hart never properly took responsibility. On his Grilling JR podcast, Jim Ross revealed that Austin’s resentment toward Hart ran so deep that he refused to work with him again.

“I don’t think Steve was extremely pleased with that opportunity. I think he held a grudge against Owen because Owen was careless on that Piledriver and Austin paid the price for that for the rest of his career. I’m not sure Austin would have ever wanted at that time [to work with Owen Hart]. Maybe later on it would have been a different ballgame, but at that time Owen was not welcome into the Austin world.”

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The injury forced Austin to alter his entire wrestling style, cutting back on the high-impact moves that had made him famous. Doctors warned him that any further damage could lead to permanent paralysis, and the lingering effects ultimately forced him into retirement in 2003.

Tragically, Owen Hart never got the chance to fully reconcile with Austin before his passing. In 1999, during the Over the Edge pay-per-view, Hart fell 80 feet from the rafters due to a botched entrance stunt, dying at the age of 34. His death remains one of the darkest moments in WWE history.

With Austin still carrying physical and emotional scars from that SummerSlam match, it’s a story that wrestling fans still discuss to this day.