Steve Austin Talks Creation Of Austin 3:16, Not Wanting To Lose To Brock Lesnar, Chris Jericho

– During his appearance on Chris Jericho’s new podcast, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin spoke about the creation of Austin 3:16. Here is what he said:

“We were in Madison Square Garden, and Scott Hall and Kevin Nash were fixin’ to go down South to WCW. That’s when the infamous Curtain Call happened, when all those guys from the Kliq went down there and hugged. Shawn Michaels and Triple H had been a part of that hug. In MSG that’s hallowed ground; you don’t break kayfabe back in the day in Madison Square Garden. Shawn Michaels was very temperamental back in the day. You could rub Shawn the wrong way and he’d have a real bad attitude. Vince couldn’t put the screws to him, because he was his #1 guy and world champion. Triple H was going to win the King of the Ring in 1996, but because of that ‘curtain call’, Vince had to put the heels on somebody, and he put it on Triple H.’ … I was Plan B. So we go to Milwaukee, and my first match is with Marc Mero, and he does a little movement and kicks me in the mouth. They take me to the hospital during the middle of the show, I get 14 stitches and come back … Before that [Jake Roberts] match happened, I come rolling back in the ambulance. If Michael Hayes hadn’t come up to me and told me, ‘hey man, while you were gone Jake Roberts cut a religious promo on ya.’ Back in the day, any time somebody kicked a field goal or extra point, there would always be a John 3:16 sign in the football stadium. So I said, ‘that’s it. Austin 3:16.'”

– Austin also discussed the time he “took his ball and went home” when WWE wanted him to lose to Brock Lesnar:

“I handled the situation like a total ass. Jim Ross calls me while I’m laying in a hotel, and he told me creative wanted Brock [Lesnar] to beat me. I’m drawing stupid money right now. WWF has spent a lot of money getting me in this position. I’ve busted my ass getting me in this position. Guys that draw stupid money don’t just happen overnight. So all the sudden you want me to do a job? I love Brock Lesnar; he’s a monster. As soon as he walked through the door, we all saw massive potential in the guy. But for me to do a job for him, without any kind of build up – it’s a PPV match with two or three weeks of people talking about it. And I said, if that’s going to be the case, I won’t be there … I was drinking a lot of whiskey and beer. We were running hard back then, and I just said ‘piss on these guys’ and I got on a plane and headed back to San Antonio. I should have showed up like a man, come up with a different solution; just show up, talk to Vince face-to-face, solve the problem in some way, and get through it like a grown man. I took my ball and went home. I handled it about as badly as I could, and that’s my biggest regret in my career as a pro wrestler.”

– Chris Jericho spoke about getting the chance to work with Ricky Steamboat during his podcast with Austin:

“I was working with the Hall of Famers. It was a handicap match – me versus Piper, Snuka and Steamboat. I actually lobbied to get Steamboat in the match; Vince wanted Greg Valentine. Steamboat hadn’t worked in 7, 8 years or so. But Steamboat in his 50s, after not working in 7 or 8 years, was still 80-percent better than 80-percent better. That’s just how naturally good he is … We worked four singles matches: one of them in Tokyo, one in Honolulu, one in Greensboro, South Carolina and all those matches got successively better. The last one we had was actually one of my favorite matches; a ‘five star’ match if you can call it that.”