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The "Mr. McMahon" docuseries might not have been the bombshell some fans were hoping to see about Vince McMahon's life, but it did have a few shocking statements. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin claimed to not believe in CTE in his interview for the docuseries, which caught the attention of some of his peers, like Rob Van Dam, who said he was surprised to hear Austin's take.
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"It made me wonder if that footage was outdated because at first, the whole idea did get nothing but pushback, you know?" Van Dam explained during an episode of his "1 Of A Kind" podcast.
He recalled how McMahon and WWE were not willing to face the theories about the disease, especially once Chris Benoit's brain was confirmed to have had the disease. Van Dam detailed how hard he finds it to believe that Austin meant what he said, especially with what we now know about CTE.
"That was the thing back then, [it] was just deny it, 'Ah, it's bulls**t!' You know?" he said.
The WWE Hall of Famer compared it to how the discourse has changed around smoking cigarettes near children decades ago, to how people view it today. The veteran again brought up Benoit to further drive the reality of CTE home, noting how reports have claimed that he had advanced Alzheimer's at the time of his death.
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"He also happened to act unlike the guy that I knew (...) and spent the weekend doing this f**king family –- family'cide? I don't know, I don't believe in coincidences," declared RVD.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "1 Of A Kind" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

