Steve Austin Underwent Total Knee Replacement Surgery in Late 2024 & Provides Update on His Recovery
WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cole Steve Austin revealed on Instagram that he had underwent total knee replacement surgery for his left knee in late 2024 and is currently on week seven of his recovery.
“How it was. And how it is…
I am 7 weeks post op on a Total Knee Replacement. My left knee was on its last leg, and I have been putting this surgery off for years.
Post op X-Rays show everything is healing nicely.
Many thanks to Dr. Nicholas Dirig, Derek Bobst, and their excellent team for my surgery.
Thanks to Bill Wall of Physical Therapy Specialist for getting me back on track.
Before starting PT, I came out of the gate aggressive and started walking way too soon and too far and really pissed off my new knee. Total Knee Replacement is a year long healing process, so I dont know what the hell I was thinking.
Swelling is still an issue, but things are healing up nicely and getting solid.
I am back in the gym and training. Nothing heavy yet. And no squats…
I have my sights set to race in The Mint 400 outside of Las Vegas, NV with the @gfiracing team and my teammate @zach_kisman in 7 weeks.
I will get back in my @kawasakiusa KRX1000 for the first time this weekend to knock the rust off and get back to driving. I am thankful to have found the challenge of Desert Off Road Racing. I love competition and the harsh conditions that come with it. So here goes…
Jordynne Grace’s Expired TNA Contract & Expected to Join WWE Status Update
As noted before, Jordynne Grace’s contract with TNA Wrestling is currently set to expire this month. Grace’s match against Tessa Blanchard at this past Sunday’s TNA Genesis 2025 event in Garland, Texas was her final match and night in the company. Grace is currently expected to be joining WWE once her contract expires.
PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources within WWE stated that Grace was seen at WWE’s Performance Center in Orlando, Florida on Tuesday.
WWE News & Notes
Variety reported that Netflix will be raising the prices for subscriptions for their streaming service. The standard subscription plan will go from $15.49 per month to a new price of $17.99 wile their ad-supported tier will go from $6.99 to a new price of $7.99 per month. The Premium tier will go from $22.99 per month to a new price of $24.99 per month. This will be Netflix’s first price increase since October of 2023.
Tuesday’s WWE NXT show at the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida featured NXT talent Niko Vance making his official in-ring debut for WWE. Vance teamed up with Brooks Jensen in a tag team match against The Family (Luca Crusifino & Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo). This match was won by Vance & Jensen.
Tuesday’s WWE NXT tapings also featured Javier Bernal making his in-ring return from injury. Bernal competed in a dark match against a currently unknown opponent prior to the start of NXT. Prior to his return, Bernal had been out of action for WWE since this past June due to a broken foot injury and surgery.
ECW Press recently announced that they will be releasing a new wrestling-based book titled Bigger! Better! Badder: WrestleMania III and the Year It All Changed in late March. This upcoming new book was written by longtime reporter and writer Keith Elliot Greenberg.
WWE filed new trademarks for “D1,” “D-1,” and D-One” on January 19th for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE creative officials recently pitched the idea of a “top TNA star” to be one of the surprise entrants for the Men’s Royal Rumble match at next month’s Royal Rumble 2025 event in Indianapolis, Indiana. No other details were given regarding the potential identity of this mystery talent from TNA Wrestling. Current TNA World Champion Joe Hendry is currently speculated to likely be this mystery person.
WWE recently released five new videos to their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video is a “The Shield attack The Rock” from the January 21, 2013 episode of WWE RAW. The second new video was a “40 minutes of VICIOUS one-side beatdowns.” The third new video was a Five-Man Royal Rumble match of The Undeertaker vs. The Rock vs. Kane vs. Mankind vs. The Big Show from the September 16, 1999 episode of WWE SmackDown. The fourth new video was a “Invasion ’92 – Undertaker & Jake “The Snake” vs. Macho Man & Hacksaw and more!” The fifth new video was a Battle Royal for No. 30 entrance in Royal Rumble match from the January 19, 2004 episode of WWE RAW.
In a new video posted to his YouTube channel, WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley stated that he recently achieved his weight loss goal of 280 pounds well before his goal of reaching it by his 61st birthday this June. Foley stated “I weighed in a 360 and I was looking to get down to 280 by June 7th and do a death match on my 60th birthday. Unfortunately, training a little bit in the ring, I got a slight concussion and I thought, ‘If I got a concussion from that little bit that I did, what I plan do to in the deathmatch would likely kill me.’ It wouldn’t likely kill me, but I thought there was a great liklehood that if I were to drop the elbow that I always wanted to drop, off a TV truck onto the hood of a car, it seriously could undo all the benefits of having my hip replacement, and that’s been a game changer for me. The hip and knee. I thought, ‘I don’t want to take that chance of feeling numb and having a serious concussion or losing the ability to walk away without discomfort,’ which the hip replacement really helped. I started to gain weight because no matter how much weight I gained, I still felt so much better than I had.” Foley also stated that he credits achieving his goal to healthier eating, doing DDP Yoga workouts, swimming, and swimming, and “cheating” for his weight loss using Wegovy following advice from his doctor. (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
In a recent interview with the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle gave his thoughts about the potential of him inducting John Cena into WWE’s Hall of Fame in the future. Angle stated “Well, I’ll tell you this, there are a lot of people that deserve to induct John. Randy Orton, who was his biggest — I guess competition, or his nemesis. But Stephanie McMahon, don’t forget that she’s the one that discovered his rapping ability, and she was a big fan of his. She really supported him quite often. But, no, I’d be honored to induct John Cena. The one thing I want to say about him is he has shown that he is possibly the greatest WWE Superstar of all time. Winning 16 World Heavyweight titles in one company — Ric Flair won 16, but he won them in NWA and WCW and WWE, and you can’t take that away from him, they were all major promotions. But to do it all in one company, that makes you that company’s greatest star. And I really believe that he deserves another title before he retires.” Angle also gave his thoughts about not being interested in being Cena’s retirement match opponent due to health-related reasons. Angle stated “No, I can’t wrestle anymore. Actually, you know what I did? I did wrestle about two months ago. I did a commercial for CBS. And it was for the NFL pre-game for the [Baltimore] Ravens and [Pittsburgh] Steelers. So me and a gentleman named Kyle Brandt, he’s a sportscaster for CBS, he pretended he was the Ravens and I pretended I was the Steelers. We had a pro wrestling match and I was bumping. No, no, no [there’s no chance of Angle wrestling again]. Because what happened was, I threw my back out. And I couldn’t walk for a week after that. My wife was like, you’re never getting in that ring again. And she’s right. I shouldn’t have even got in the ring, but it was a lot of fun to do it. But I would love to wrestle John Cena. There’s nobody that wants to wrestle John more than I do for his retirement match, especially with the respect I have for him. I just can’t do it.” (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)
In a recent interview with Collider, Sheamus gave his thoughts about his hard hitting style of wrestling for matches. Sheamus stated “In the beginning of my career, I was always stiff, all the time. Stiff like in the ring, as in just the hard-ass wrestler. ‘You’ve got to learn to loosen up.’ Absolutely no. Why would I do that now? It’s like, this is who I am. This is what makes me, me. I’m sure there are people who don’t want to get in there with me because they don’t like the physical aspect that I bring, but I don’t give a sh*t because if you want to go in there with me, come in there with me. A lot of young talent will want to get in there, and they’ll know when they’re going to have a Sheamus match — a banger of a Sheamus match to walk away — and the crowd will give them that much more respect.” Sheamus also gave his thoughts about how he never takes liberties with his opponents in the ring despite his physical wrestling style. Sheamus stated “The thing about me is I’ve never been a guy to take liberties. I will hit you. I will hit you hard. I’m not going to break noses and stuff, but I’ll hit you. But I expect to be hit back just as hard, if not harder, and they know that. They’re relaxed there, and they can do that, and they can show a side of themselves that they probably wouldn’t be able to show with certain other talent or more experienced or veteran talent like me, and that’s just the way I like it. I just love that physical aspect. That’s the most important thing for me. I’ll never be a high flyer. I’ve got a technical aspect that I learned from being in the UK and Ireland, and the rest of them, which is a lot of groundwork and basics. But the people know — the fans know — once my music hits, they’re going to get a banger. They’re gonna get a real fight, and that’s what I’m proud of.“