WWE icon Stone Cold Steve Austin has controversially claimed he does not believe in chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

CTE is a neurodegenerative disease linked to repeated head trauma that can cause violent mood swings, depression and other cognitive disorders.

It comes as the scandalized former WWE chief Vince McMahon rejected the idea that former wrestler Chris Benoit was suffering from ‘roid rage’ or CTE when he killed his wife, 7-year-old son and himself in a 2007 murder-suicide.

Austin, widely considered one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, told a Netflix documentary about McMahon’s career that he’s ‘not a CTE guy’.

He explained: ‘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 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.’

CTE was usually associated with boxing before former NFL players began revealing their conditions.

Several notable players who committed suicide were posthumously diagnosed with the disease.

In 2023, Boston University researchers discovered the degenerative brain condition in 345 of the 376 former NFL players they studied.

Former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez was found to have a severe case of CTE.

Hernandez infamously killed himself in prison in 2017 while serving a life sentence for the 2013 murder of semi-professional football player Odin Lloyd.

Also speaking in the Netflix documentary, the scandalized McMahon was asked about Benoit, who authorities say strangulated his wife Nancy and son Daniel at their Georgia home before hanging himself.

Although a precise explanation has remained elusive, two compelling theories emerged in 2009: Benoit was suffering drug and alcohol problems or he was dealing with CTE, a neurodegenerative disease linked to repeated head trauma.

McMahon, who promoted Benoit in the WWE, rejected both of these theories.

‘There is no correlation between taking steroids and what happened to Chris Benoit,’ the WWE’s former CEO told Netflix.

‘Human beings are flawed. Chris went nuts. It happens in every form of life and everything, so that’s the only thing I can take away from it.’

Steroids were found at Benoit’s home after the tragedy, but authorities dismissed suggestions that ‘roid rage’ played a part in the murder-suicide.

McMahon found the CTE argument even less compelling.

‘This doctor came up with this ridiculous statement of “Okay here’s why Chris Benoit did this”,’ McMahon said. ‘There was some sort of trauma to his head and things were shown where Chris would dive off the rope and hit someone with his head.’

As McMahon claimed in wrestling vernacular, Benoit did not actually suffer head injuries by jumping off the top rope.

‘That’s a complete work,’ McMahon said. ‘It looks like there’s damage and there’s not. We know what we’re doing, we don’t hurt each other.’

However, in 2009, researches working with Benoit’s family revealed that his brain was so severely damaged that it resembled an 85-year-old’s.

Also in 2009, Benoit’s doctor, Phil Astin, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for illegally distributing prescription drugs to patients.