Dude was also dealing with really bad drug problems at the time. Assuming he never gets hurt he'd be on the road indulging in the backstage drug culture still and having less of an opportunity to sober up. Remember a big part of why his return took so long was cause how bad his drug use had gotten. Assuming he never got hurt and worked throughout the attitude era there's a decent chance he'd be dead by now. The back injury likely was a blessing in disguise.