A piece of wrestling history has just made history of its own. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s match-worn, signed knee brace from circa 1999 has sold at auction for a staggering $225,700 — making it Austin’s top auctioned item ever.
Stone Cold Steve Austin (Credits: Fightful)
The brace went up for auction on Heritage Auctions, where it drew intense interest from collectors chasing one of the rarest kinds of Austin memorabilia. Very few match-worn Stone Cold items have ever reached the open market, and his famous match-worn vests have never surfaced at all — leaving collectors scrambling for anything actually worn by the Texas Rattlesnake.
What Makes The $225,700 Steve Austin Knee Brace So Special
This is a DonJoy knee brace, 16 inches long, signed by Austin in gold paint pen and dated “5-8-99” nearby. It carries a WWF authentication sticker near the date, plus letters of authenticity from WWE, Heritage Auctions, PSA/DNA and Beckett Authentication Services.
The brace shows the wear of a working wrestling career: various scratches and some paint loss, three of its four Velcro fasteners still fully functional, and a top button that has broken off — damage that probably ended its in-ring run. That worn, battle-scarred condition is exactly what collectors want: proof that this was not a replica or a ringside prop, but a piece of gear Austin actually wrestled in.
The auction listing notes the brace has a very similar wear pattern to another Austin knee brace Heritage offered in May, underlining its authenticity and its place in a small, documented group of surviving items.
A New Record For Stone Cold Memorabilia
The $225,700 price is a record on multiple fronts. Heritage Auctions had already set the top price ever paid for a knee brace when it sold another Austin brace for $115,900 in May 2026. This sale has nearly doubled that figure.
For comparison, the knee brace Austin wore at WrestleMania 38 recently realised $58,045 on an auction site. The circa-1999 brace, from the peak of the Attitude Era, has now blown past both — and, according to ProWrestling-Collectibles, moves to rank No. 1 among Steve Austin’s historical auctions.
That timing is no coincidence. Austin was the driving force behind wrestling’s boom in the late 1990s, helping transform WWE during the Attitude Era. His anti-authority attitude, his rivalry with Mr. McMahon, and his no-nonsense, beer-drinking brawler persona connected deeply with fans and helped WWE win the Monday Night Wars against WCW.
Collectors are not just buying a brace — they are buying a piece of the era when Austin helped save WWE financially and reshaped what a top wrestling star could be. At $225,700, the market has now put a very clear price on that legacy.
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Source: Fightful — read the full story there.