Steve Austin is regarded by many as the best heel ever in the world of professional wrestling. Some people believe that that honor goes to CM Punk. It is true though that Steve Austin was very popular during the Attitude Era. He was the reason why the WCW lost to the WWE.
Austin has a fantastic WWE career, but his injuries forced him to retire early. His last match was against The Rock at WrestleMania 19. What most fans do not know is that Austin was hospitalized right before WrestleMania 19. According to him, he was severely dehydrated. He had to be taken to the hospital where they treated him. He spoke about it on the Steve Austin show.
“They're thinking, 'from the way this guy is acting, maybe he has a pulmonary embolism,' so they do a bunch of scans, x-rays, all kinds of stuff on my chest cavity. And, of course, there's nothing wrong with me other than the fact that I was severely dehydrated, drinking way too much wine at night, drinking way too much coffee and all those caffeine drinks I had before I worked out. And after running so hard for so long, it finally caught up with me and the s--t hit the fan and my heart just wigged out."
He made it out in time and had a fantastic match with The Rock. He never officially retired from professional wrestling after that, but he never had another match.