Steve Austin Explains Why He Had Great Chemistry With Bret Hart, Recalls Doubts & Fears After Broken Neck Injury

During a recent interview with Insight With Chris Van Vliet, WWE Hall of Famer and wrestling legend Stone Cold Steve Austin spoke about his classic feud with WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart in the mid-1990s, suffering a broken neck during his match against Owen Hart at SummerSlam 1997, wondering if his career would be over, and more. Below are some highlights from Insight:

Steve Austin on Having Great Chemistry With Bret Hart

“Because Bret Hart is the best there is, the best there was, there ever will be. I love working with that guy. We just had instant chemistry. He was a student of the game and a student of other promotions. He had seen what I was doing in WCW as Stunning Steve Austin, and he knew his style and my style would work well together. And it did. Just trash-talking heel that I was, and he was at that steady workaholic working babyface, blue collar, if you will, from Canada, wearing the pink. Just two styles that would work really, really well together, and it did. I’m very thankful to that guy, because he meant a lot to my career. I’ll never forget that one time when he was just coming back from getting his knee cleaned up, and he needed an opponent for Survivor Series in the Garden, and he picked me as he picked me as his opponent. That was a real classic, an understated classic. And if you go back and watch it match, the rings were miked differently back then, so that match sounds different and the crowd is different, and I was not at the level that I would be, but people were into that match, and I had some mixed reactions. Of course, Bret was the babyface, but for some reason, when they ring the bell, Bret and I click in the ring. There’s just mutual respect, and for some reason, with some people, you just have great chemistry. You and I could be best friends, and we could go out there and work, but we might not have the best in-ring chemistry, although we’re best friends. So sometimes that just happens, like with The Rock, great chemistry, with Mankind, great chemistry.”

On Breaking His Neck in 1997

“When I got fused up, had a great doctor in San Antonio, and I was starting to kick out a little bit. I had my collar off, and I was riding around on my four-wheeler, and I had a cooler on the back of my four-wheeler. I was out there just drinking beer, riding around, and my phone rang. Just back in day, we had those Star Trek flip phones and those Vince calling me. He just asked me how I was doing. He goes, ‘I was just thinking about what we need to do for your comeback.’ I was kind of almost offended. Man, I almost got paralyzed, and you’re asking me to get ready to come back into the ring. I said, I don’t f*cking think I’m taking any more bumps. That’s what I’m thinking. And I told him, I said, ‘Vince, I don’t think I’m coming back.’ I can imagine him on the other end of the line when I said, I don’t think I’m coming back. Because it kind of scared me. When you get paralyzed, which I was a transient quadriplegic for a length of time, 60 or so seconds, it scares you, and so you don’t want to go back to that place again. I didn’t think I was coming back. And so anyway, we had a few more phone calls. And it’s funny, because when you get into any endeavor that you love or brings you joy, and what I set out to be in my life a professional wrestler. Once you come out of those tender stages of healing, and you start getting solid, and you turn back into the man that you are, a physical person who played football, track, hunted, thrive on physical, manual labor. Once you start getting solid again, you start regaining that confidence and that sense of, hey, there’s things to be done, and I’m not through yet. So, yeah, once I started getting more solid, then it was time to start talking about that, come back and indeed, make a return.”

On If He Had Any Doubt That He’d Be Able To Return

“Oh, definitely doubt. I don’t think that there’s anybody that comes out of a I can’t say that. But yeah, when I came out of surgery, and you’re kind of all f*cked up, and I remember I had my hard collar on, and I was bored, and so because I was just being on the road, and I lived on 120 acres right outside of San Antonio, and just because I wanted to feel like I was still on the road, I would drive to Fredericksburg, which is about 25 miles away, because they had a Sonic. I’d go through the Sonic and I drive back home, I’d feel like I was on the road. I’d get a jalapeno burger and some onion rings or whatever, and that’s what I did to feel like I was on the road. I don’t know if you’ve ever had a hard cervical collar on before, but man, and they’ll tell you this anytime you get your neck fused, sometimes you’re gonna have a hard time swallowing. There was a couple times like when you swallow food, it just gets lodged in your throat. It’ll scare sh*t out of you. So I’d be driving my truck down the country road choking on a jalapeno burger thinking, God damn, am I fixing to die? Wash it down with that vanilla Coke that I’m drinking. Yeah, things started getting solid. It was time to get back in the ring.”

Bret Hart and Steve Austin famously wrestled each other in a classic match at WrestleMania 13 in 1997. The match saw Hart win against Austin via submission in a No Disqualification Submission match with Ken Shamrock as the special guest referee.

However, a bloody Austin refused to tap out or verbally submit while in Hart’s Sharpshooter hold, causing a now-famous double-turn, with Steve Austin transitioning into one of WWE’s top babyfaces, with Bret Hart turning heel and later reforming the Hart Foundation.