Stone Cold Steve Austin looks back at when he had to be hospitalized the night before a major WWE match.
WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin was a recent guest on the INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet podcast. During the conversation, he reflected on being hospitalized the night before his big match against The Rock in the main event of WrestleMania 19.
Austin recalled pushing himself a bit too much with his workouts. He remembered going back to his hotel and experiencing an elevated heart rate. He sought the help of a lady working in the hotel, who called 911 and had him taken to the hospital.
“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,” Stone Cold Steve Austin continued.
“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.”
Stone Cold Steve Austin Competed At WrestleMania 19 Despite Not Being Cleared
Speaking further, Stone Cold Steve Austin noted that he initially feared that he had a pulmonary embolism, but it turned out he was just burned out. He also revealed that the doctors never cleared him to compete, but he still entered the ring the following night at WrestleMania 19 and put The Rock over. It turned out to be his final in-ring outing until his match against Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 38.
“But 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,” Stone Cold Steve Austin said.
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