Stone Cold Steve Austin Says He Hasn't Quit Drinking Beer Permanently

WWE Hall of Famer "Stone Cold" Steve Austin has long been synonymous with cracking open a brewski or 10, and The Texas Rattlesnake assured his fans this week that he isn't abandoning beer. 

On last week's episode of The Steve Austin Show (h/t Christopher McManus of Wrestlezone), he revealed he was on a diet and had been alcohol-free for 14 days.

Austin acknowledged on this week's show (h/t Bill Pritchard of Wrestlezone) he had cut back on beer, and he expanded on his reasoning for it:

"To answer the question, to put all of the rumors to rest, and I'd hate to even go down this road. Everybody started spreading the word, my phone started ringing off the hook, people were texting me, people were emailing me or sending me direct messages. Some people were flat-out upset and heartbroken that I had stopped drinking beer. I had many people who are recovering addicts saying, 'Hey man, congratulations on your newfound sobriety.'

"To those people, I say thank you so much for caring about me, but that was a rumor. I'm fine, I'm on a diet. That's why I quit. When you try to drop some pounds, you get down to your desired weight, you don't level off on the calories and throw some alcohol back in there and go hog wild, but that's what we did every year down there in South Texas."

Austin then added he had simply stopped drinking "temporarily" in order to "reach a goal weight."

During his WWE career, Austin became known for celebrating his victories with "beer bashes," which featured the timekeeper throwing him beers and Stone Cold guzzling them down two at a time.

Many consider the Attitude Era of the late 1990s and early 2000s to be the best time in wrestling, and nothing may be more representative of that period than Austin's post-match victory blowouts.

The 53-year-old has been retired from in-ring competition since 2003, but he still makes sporadic appearances for WWE, and his comments suggest a beer bash isn't out of the question the next time he shows up.

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