Steve Austin Reminisces About Ad-Libbing Infamous “Austin 3:16” Line
On 3:16 day, Stone Cold Steve Austin joined The Rich Eisen Show and broke down the origins of the infamous "Austin 3:16" promo he cut on Jake Roberts at King of the Ring 1996.
The WWE Hall of Famer revealed how he came up with the two lines on the fly that night and how Jake's religious promo that night made way for the debut of Austin 3:16.
"They had decided I was going to be that guy to get the push and the first match of that night I was wrestling Marc Mero, he did this fancy move and he ended up kicking me in the mouth and split my mouth wide open," Austin said. "They ended up taking me to the hospital to get stitched up, so while I'm gone to get about 14-15 stitches in my upper lip, Jake Roberts was going to be my next opponent.
"As soon as I stepped out of the ambulance coming back, I just had a pair of shorts on with my gear on and everything and Michael Hayes came up to me and says 'hey, I just want to let you know while you are gone, Jake cut a religious promo on you.' He kind of told me words to the effect of what he said and I said as soon as he said that, Austin 3:16 popped into my mind.
"Back in the day, the old football days, they always had the John 3:16 posters behind the field goal attempt and I said 'Oh man, I've got one for [Jake's] ass.' I just spun that thing together and when we went out, we went out there and I wrestled Jake, it was a short match. Go over there and do the promo with the guy who told me about the Jake promo and I just let it loose. Pretty much an ad-lib, one of those things you just let it go on the fly and gold starts happening.
"I said 'Austin 3:16 says I just whooped your ass!' And as I kept on, Vince was doing the announcing and I knew I needed a button on the end of that promo. Something I just pulled out of thin air... 'And that's the bottom line cause Stone Cold said so!' I got two trademarks. I hit two grand slams at two at-bats at an event I was never supposed to win. It was just something I capitalized on, the timing was right, I was right and I was ready. Magic happened that night."
Another one of Austin's infamous moments throughout his career was when The Rattlesnake hit the WWE Chairman Vince McMahon with a bedpan while Vince was in the hospital.
Speaking about that moment, Steve Austin revealed who came up with the idea and some of the other moments that happened that night in 1998, including Austin testing the bedpan on his own head.
"That was Vince's idea," Steve Austin said, referring to Vince coming up with the idea to get hit with the bedpan. "That segment, there's so much gold in that. Me and Mick Foley are in this tiny closet while Vince is doing his stuff and he breaks out Mr. Socko and says that's about to be his new finishing maneuver and we're in there like two big ass guys in a little bitty room laughing our asses off. They said 'hey man, you guys got to keep it down while Vince is doing his stuff,' and so when I found out I was going to hit Vince, that thing is stainless steel.
"I'm bouncing it off my head trying to get the right acoustics to try to find that sweet spot because when your boss says you've got to lay me out, he's going to get laid out. But when you've got to hit somebody with a bedpan and you're in the middle of a hot angle, you don't want to just go 'dink' you've got to bareback and bring it. I found the sweet spot on my head and then on the fly, I'm an expert of hitting people with certain objects. It worked out great and people still talk about that moment."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Rich Eisen Show with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.