Stone Cold Steve Austin was no stranger to an injury or two in his explosive wrestling career.
We all remember Owen Hart’s infamous botched pile-driver at Summerslam ’97, which left the Texas Rattlesnake with a broken neck and temporary paralysis.
And just recently the 51-year-old Hall of Famer tore his rotator cuff during a surprise appearance at WrestleMania 32. He had already been carrying the injury prior to the show, and the first punch he threw at Rusev completely ripped the muscle.
Considering all of the above, fans of the legendary brawler wouldn’t have been too surprised to see the freakish elbow bulge he shared a picture of on his Twitter account, but they may well have been confused given that he’s meant to be taking it easy with a cold Steveweiser in retirement.
Austin posted the gruesome snap as a teaser for subscribers to his podcast, The Steve Austin Show – Unleashed!, and it can only really be described as a whopping great golf ball on his elbow.
The elbow for today's podcast. @PodcastOne pic.twitter.com/OiSSTRx34C
— Steve Austin (@steveaustinBSR) September 1, 2016
The social media reaction was both predictable and understandable. After all, nobody wants to see that pop up on their timeline during a toilet break scroll.
https://twitter.com/DavyLambert/status/771353324809494528
https://twitter.com/pdamian93/status/771352232683982848
Brutal pic.twitter.com/LKRPGb2X0R
— Sportsbook Review (@SBRReview) September 1, 2016
https://twitter.com/DanRicchezza/status/771401938084720640
gotta say bye to that elbow bump and see ya down the road later. pic.twitter.com/ihdPOI1VDM
— ian fisher (@ianfisher86) September 1, 2016
https://twitter.com/MadMikeyG/status/771351869755043840
But guesses of the bump being due to some kind of horrific dislocation were actually wide of the mark. Austin explained on his podcast that he suffers from something called olecranon bursitis, which good old Wikipedia tells us is an inflammation of the elbow’s bursa, a small fluid-filled sac. It’s sometimes called ‘Popeye’s Elbow’.
The former wrestler said that it’s a common condition in his old profession.
“I bent down to pick up a weight and I used my left arm, and my left arm didn’t wanna bend. And I’m like ‘man, what the fuck’s wrong with my arm?’ So I grabbed my left arm with my right hand, and it’s like someone had buried a golf ball in my elbow.
“You know, back in the day, when I was in the game of pro wrestling, when I was first starting out – or hell, it could be any time – try and make a flat-back landing and sometimes your elbows just bang into that mat and you bust that bursa sac. Virtually all the boys who ever come up in the business have that tennis ball elbow as you go through the paces, because it kinda comes with the territory.”
So there you have it. Nothing at all alarming about having what looks very much like a new potato trying to burst out of your arm. And that’s the bottom line, ’cause Stone Cold said so.
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