“It Was Scary”: Jim Ross Recalls What Led to Stone Cold Steve Austin Getting Hospitalized Ahead of His Match Against Dwayne Johnson in 2003

As a wrestler for WWE, Dwayne Johnson achieved peak success and became one of the highest-valued superstars on the roster. The late 90s saw the emergence of Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock, Stone Cold, Triple H, and several others as the top names.

However, amongst them, Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock rose up the ranks and became the top guns of the company. Thier rivalry defined WWE’s most successful period in the late 90s, the ‘Attitude Era.’

The duo had several matches together with each other, with three of them coming at WrestleMania itself. At WrestleMania 19, their rivalry concluded, with the two of them facing each other for the final time. The match was scheduled to be the main event of the night until a mishap occurred.

The night prior to WrestleMania 19 saw Stone Cold Steve Austin getting hospitalized. Wrestling veteran Jim Ross recently revealed in his podcast exactly what went down that night, and why The Texas Rattlesnake had to visit the hospital.

Jim Ross reveals the reason behind Stone Cold getting hospitalized before WrestleMania 19

WrestleMania 19 is one of the most popular ‘Manias of all time. The match card featured several top matches and was stacked with top superstars. However, while Steve Austin and The Rock were scheduled to main-event the night, their match had to be moved.

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Ross revealed in his podcast that, it was dehydration and lack of sleep that sent Austin to the hospital. He said, “Well, it was scary.” Ross said, ” So you know, he felt like he was letting a lot of people down and he was over-training and those damn energy drinks.”

The 71-year-old would further state, “Steve was not sleeping, he was over-caffeinating himself, and his body reacted by just backing away. So, when we all went to bed on Saturday night in the middle of the night, we didn’t know if he was going to be able to wrestle Rock or not, in the main event.”

And, unfortunately, Austin would not main-event WrestleMania 19 against The Rock. However, it opened up the doors of Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle, as they headlined the event, and stole the show.

As for Austin and The Rock, The Great One would finally score a WrestleMania win over his most storied rival in what remained the last time Stone Cold laced up wrestling boots until his memorable comeback at WrestleMania 38.

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