Steve Austin Recalls Health Scare Before Big WWE Match – “I’m In Trouble”

Steve Austin had a scary health issue during one of his biggest WWE matches.

The WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin had one of the greatest careers in WWE history, but it was cut short by injury.

When Steve Austin had his last match as a full-timer at WrestleMania 19 in 2003, he was just 38 years old. Many wrestlers keep going past that age, but Austin’s body was so beaten up from serious neck and knee injuries that he had to wrap up his career far too soon.

At WrestleMania 19, Steve Austin faced The Rock for the third time at a WrestleMania. While Austin won the first two matches they had at WrestleMania, The Rock got the win this time. After the match, they spoke to eachother and Austin was done. Going into that match, very few people knew Austin would retire at that point because Austin wanted to keep it quiet.

Over the last 20+ years, Stone Cold has told the story about how he spent the night before WrestleMania 19 in the hospital. Austin recently shared more about that pre-WrestleMania 19 health issue on Insight With Chris Van Vliet.

“It was just a thing where I was running hard and dehydrated and drank a lot of caffeine. I remember my legs were kind of shaking at the gym that day, and it was just kind of a precursor for what was to come. I was working out with Kevin Nash, and we were sitting there doing cardio and talking on the recumbent bikes.

Then when I got into the hotel, I think was at Grand Hyatt, and I was up on one of the top floors, 27, 28 and goddamn, my heart just started beating out of my chest. It was like about 180 beats a minute. That sounds crazy, but that’s what it was.

Then the doors opened, and I’ve told this story many times, and there’s a lady that worked in the office. Her name was Liz, real nice lady, and God damn, I looked at Liz. I said, ‘Liz, I’m in trouble.’ My room was right there.

Went in my room, and she called 911, and a couple of ambulances came and all that stuff, and they told me about the hospital.”

“Doctor Never Really Cleared Me” – Steve Austin

As he continued, Steve Austin revealed that the doctor never really cleared him to compete at WrestleMania 19 in Seattle, but he still competed anyway.

“They had to kayfabe me to the hospital because, you know, I was in the main event. So anyway we get there, they do a bunch of tests on me, check me out and everything, and thought I had a pulmonary embolism and stuff like that.

Turns out, man I was just running ragged. And so anyway, doctor never really cleared me.

I’ve said this before, and went to the ring the next day and put over the Rock and took care of business. I think the match is okay, but that was just a product of running too hard, too fast.”

In the same interview, Steve Austin admitted that he wishes he never created the “What?” chant at wrestling shows because he knows how much it is hated by people decades later.