Twenty Years Ago Today, Austin 3:16 Was Born

Twenty years ago today, professional wrestling history was made. At the 4th annual King of the [...]

By Lan Pitts

austin316
(Photo: WWE)

Twenty years ago today, professional wrestling history was made.

At the 4th annual King of the Ring pay-per-view event, the main event featured Shawn Michaels, the WWF Champion, defend his title against the British Bulldog. However, it was the King of the Ring finale that had the world of wrestling talking, and something that is still talked about as a defining moment for the company and the beginning of a movement.

The semi-final matches saw Steve Austin go against "Wildman" Marc Mero and a returning Jake "The Snake" Roberts against Vader, with Austin and Roberts reaching the final match.

Before the match started, WWF President Gorilla Monsoon came to the ring and begged Roberts to reconsider and to forfeit the match due to his injured ribs. Roberts refused to step down from the challenged and Austin targeted Roberts' injury throughout the match, which ended in Austin delivering a Stone Cold Stunner to capture the pinfall.

It wasn't the victory alone that made the night memorable, it was Austin's coronation speech that cemented his legacy the WWF's number one bad ass and King of the Attitude Era. In it, Austin called out Roberts and told him that he was washed up and couldn't cut it anymore and how he just whipped his ass.

You can see the look on Michael Hayes' face that this was the beginning of something new. The swearing, even the mention of the word "hell" was still pretty new territory, and even springboarding off of the Bible was seriously unheard of. This was the key in the ignition of what would be later called the Attitude Era, which would propel the WWF into unseen territory, as well as dominant ratings for the first time in years over WCW. It caused a marketing frenzy and the first Austin 3:16 shirt is still the greatest selling WWE shirt of all time. Soon after, Austin was catapulted into the main event scene and quickly won the Intercontinental Championship before winning the WWF Championship at WrestleMania XIV against Shawn Michaels.

What makes this whole situation even more interesting is that Austin wasn't originally scheduled to win the prestigious tournament that year. In actuality, Hunter Hearst Hemsley was slated to win, but due to his involvement with the notorious "Curtain Call" at Madison Square Garden, where he broke character in front of fans, Austin was called up to be the replacement.

The influence of Austin 3:16 echoed for years in the company, and even recently with Sheamus debuting his "Sheamus 5:15" shirt back in November. The speech and the moment are pieces of wrestling history that can never really be replicated, though some believe the closest thing to it would be CM Punk's "pipebomb" promo back in 2011.

Coincidentally enough, Punk was wearing a Stone Cold shirt at the time.

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