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It was 25 years ago when we learned that Austin 3:16 means "I just whipped your ass."
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Austin 3:16, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin was a guest on Busted Open Radio this morning with Dave LeGreca, Tommy Dreamer, and Mark Henry to discuss this iconic WWE moment.
Austin went in-depth this morning on everything that had to happen for Austin 3:16 to be born:
"You know who would have figured it would last that long," Austin said. "And, you know, I watched that promo about 10 times last night, just so I could kind of take myself back to where I was, but so many things had to happen, and I'll just run through it real quick for that promo to even happen. You know the incident had to happen at the Garden where the guys hugged because Triple H was supposed to win that King of the Ring. Vince tells me I'm gonna win.
Okay, so then I go in and wrestle Marc Mero, who's a wonderful human being. I get along really good with him. I was fortunate enough that he kicked me in the mouth. If he had never kicked me in the mouth, this would have never happened. They hauled me to the hospital; I get 14 stitches come back. Michael PS Hayes is right there at the ambulance, tells me, 'Hey, Jake just got a religious promo on you.' So thank you, Jake, for cutting religious promo. Thank you to Michael PS Hayes for telling me that. So we didn't go out there and try to plan a barnburner of a match myself and Jake it was short, to the point, got rid of him got the win."
If one event didn't occur, Austin 3:16 would've never happened
Austin believes that if one event didn't happen, Austin 3:16 might not have ever been born, and if that's the case, would the Attitude Era have ever taken place?
"That's when Austin 3:16 popped into my brain," Austin said. "I went out there, and I had Austin 3:16. I had because Stone Cold said so as a button because I knew I needed a button. I came up with that on the fly. And in looking back at that promo, you know I predicted my future. I said I don't care about any of the WWE Superstars what they are, they're all on the list, and that's Stone Cold's list, and I'm fixing to start running through all of them. You always know you get a push coming out of King of the Ring, so I was predicting my push.
And then also, I threw myself into the title mix, which is what all these UFC fighters do these days. They wanted me to say something about the championship match to dictate how important that match is. I said I don't care if it's Davey Boy Smith or Shawn Michaels, but you're looking at the next WWF champ if I ever get the shot, and that's the bottom line because I said so. So many things happened in that promo, but so many events happen to line up it was almost like it was predestined for that promo to happen. And if none of those events would've happened or anything out of order, that promo would have never happened."
What are your thoughts on everything that had to happen in order for the birth of Austin 3:16? Can you imagine the wrestling industry today if this iconic moment didn't take place? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit Busted Open with a link back to this article for the transcription.
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