Steve Austin Comforted WWE Star After Horrendous Injury
Braun Strowman has revealed he reached out to Steve Austin following his devastating neck injury.
In the first half of 2023, Braun Strowman went on hiatus to undergo neck fusion surgery, leaving him out of action for the following year. During a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet, the Monster Among Men reflected on discovering he had stenosis of the spine after taking a move during a match.
“So I didn’t know. I come to find out, I didn’t know I had stenosis to the spine. So stenosis of the spine, yeah, it’s basically where it’s tightened around your spinal column. So I only had nine millimetres of clearance around my spine between my C4 and C5 vertebrae. I didn’t know that and I got hit wrong during a match and my head whipped back. When my head whipped back and pinched my spine it felt like a lightning bolt shot out both my arms and my arms went limp.
“So if you watch the match back, you can see in the match where it happened. There’s a point where you see me, my arms dropped to my side, and I kind of look around really weird and I find my hands and stuff start to move again. And I’m like looking at my hands and I go to take off running and I’m all wobbly my balance is off and things like that.”
In the weeks after the incident, Strowman was “terrified” at what the condition would mean for his future. However, he was able to get reassurance from a conversation with the legendary Stone Cold Steve Austin, whose own neck problems are widely documented.
“We got the match finished and got in the back, and it felt like someone was pouring boiling hot water down both of my arms, it was on fire. So I was in this really terrifying place for a couple of weeks of not knowing am I ever going to have a normal life again? Am I going to be able to do what I love? Am I going to be able to just do anything? So it’s very fortunate that I’ve become friends with so many of the legends and things like that in this business.
“So I called Stone Cold, because I know Stone Cold went through something like this, because come to find out his injury was almost exactly like mine, it was just a little bit more severe. So he had stenosis in his spine when he got the Piledriver. And it pinched his spine and it pushed all the fluid out of his spine and bruised and he was actually paralysed from the neck down for like 30 seconds. So having him talk to me and kind of almost giving me the proverbial it’s gonna be okay, it was a very big breath of fresh air. Because like I said, I didn’t know what was going on.”
“WWE Takes Unbelievable Care Of Their Talent” – Braun Strowman
When it comes to how WWE helped with his injury, Strowman has nothing but praise, saying Triple H reassured him that his health came first.
“WWE takes unbelievable care of their talent. Talking with Hunter and stuff like that, and him going ‘Look, what we’re doing right now is not as important as what you’re going to be doing in 15 years of your life. Get it taken care of, you’re important, you’re not going anywhere. If you can wrestle again, you can, if you can’t, we’ll figure it out.’
“So having that pat on the back again, like giving that reassurance because you’re not guaranteed anything. So having them be able to put me in the place to have the best surgery that I can, go into the WWE Performance Center, having the best rehabilitation that I can. I couldn’t be more thankful that I’m taken care of by such an amazing company.”
Braun Strowman finally returned to WWE during the 2024 draft and immediately made an impact when he took out members of The Judgment Day and confronted Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes.
H/T to Inside The Ropes for the above transcription.