We have seen countless athletes who participated in contact sports get diagnosed with CTE after death due to blows to the head in their playing days. But in the eyes of professional wrestling legend ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, CTE “doesn’t exist”.
For those unaware of what CTE is, it is short for Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a brain disease that stems from repeated head injuries. It has been a hot topic as of late due to Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre announcing his diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease earlier this week.
Austin offered his opinion on CTE during an appearance on the new Netflix docuseries around former WWE CEO Vince McMahon called Mr. McMahon, where he shared his opinion that the disease “doesn’t exist”.
“I worked for a long time,” said Austin. “I got dropped on my head one time I got concussed there. But other than that I can’t remember having too many concussions in the business of pro-wrestling. And my take on that has always been if you were just wrestling and you got a bunch of concussions, you’re probably doing something wrong. I’m not a CTE guy…just don’t believe in it.”
Stone Cold Steve Austin states that he does not believe in CTE.
“I worked for a long time, I got dropped on my head one time I got concussed there. But other than that I can’t remember having too many concussions in the business of pro-wrestling. And my take on that has always… pic.twitter.com/yVdbdpSg6X
— Wrestle Ops (@WrestleOps) September 25, 2024
It’s great that Austin believes his head injuries were limited throughout his professional wrestling career due to proper technique in the ring.
But for him to say that CTE simply “doesn’t exist” is a bit absurd. Especially when you consider that several former professional wrestlers, including Jimmy Snuka and Chris Benoit, were diagnosed with CTE after a diagnosis of their brain after their death.
All of the evidence is there that clearly shows professional wrestling among other sports can be quite dangerous on the brain. But clearly, Austin has not caught onto all of that evidence just yet.
