March 16 or 3:16 has been an unofficial holiday among pro wrestling fans for years on account of its association with Stone Cold Steve Austin.
The word “legend” gets thrown around wrestling circles pretty liberally. Austin is a class of his own, though. He’s the only three-time Royal Rumble winner, a four-time WrestleMania main event winner, and a six-time world champion. Perhaps most importantly, Austin is on an extremely short list of performers who can genuinely argue he was the hottest act wrestling has ever known.
Austin never had haters or doubters like Roman Reigns or John Cena. In contrast to Hulk Hogan, his work as the top babyface in wrestling has aged well for its match quality. While guys like The Undertaker had longer runs at or around the top, they never burned nearly as bright as The Rattlesnake at his peak.
One of the biggest launching pads for Austin’s time on top came when he won the 1996 King of the Ring tournament and, all the more so, when the victory speech to follow arrived as the single greatest promo in wrestling history.
The Austin 3:16 Promo Was A Unique Fit For Stone Cold’s Character
Not just any wrestler can cut any promo. Yes, good talkers are capable of turning lemons into lemonade and making subpar suggestions from the WWE writing team into entertaining, even memorable monologues. The best of the best promos always have a connection to the person delivering it, though, the way CM Punk’s Pipebomb could only have come from The Straight Edge Superstar or the way only The Rock could verbally shred countless opponents on the stick in his unique style.
Austin 3 :16 was the ultimate example of a great wrestling personality channeling everything about himself and his character to make a moment. The victory speech perfectly captured the piss and vinegar of Stone Cold Steve Austin before he was a babyface, before had arrived as a top name, but when he was hungry, a little bitter, and had finally put the pieces together to realize his potential.
The Austin 3:16 Promo Was A Unique Fit For Stone Cold’s Opponent
The phrasing of “Austin 3:16” was a direct knock on Jake Roberts, whose babyface persona in 1996 leaned into both the character and the real person having embraced religion and drawn inspiration from scripture.
Yes, there have been great wrestling promos focused on the man delivering the words at hand. Some of the very best promos, however, like Dusty Rhodes talking about “Hard Times” up against the machine that was Ric Flair and The Four Horsemen or Vince McMahon becoming the heel mastermind Mr. McMahon before our eyes when he declared ‘Bret screwed Bret’ had as much to do with the speaker’s enemy as they did the with person holding the mic. So it was that Austin 3;16 was so good not in spite of, but because it so cuttingly took down Jake Roberts.
The Austin 3:16 Promo Rejected Convention
Even in 1996, there was a tradition of heels winning the King of the Ring tournament and embracing their version of how a king might behave. Owen Hart did this masterfully in 1994, while Mabel did just OK with it in 1995. Years before them, wrestlers including Randy Savage and Haku had put their own spins on the gimmick. Years later Booker T would use a royal gimmick to reinvent himself and reach new heights, while Baron Corbin would bore fans to tears as King Corbin.
Steve Austin easily could have fit in with this line of arrogant heels who put on airs, maybe a little comedic, but also wearing the gravitas that comes with a crown in the wrestling world. Instead, in delivering a foul-mouthed, heated promo, he embraced the push of winning a major tournament while rejecting the tacky trappings of a king gimmick. Stone Cold would remain Stone Cold, and with this big win on his resume, he was geared up for a run at the top of the card.
The Austin 3:16 Promo Launched A Legendary Run
Obviously, Steve Austin was a respected worker to be signed to WWE in the first place and he’d made some inroads with management and the fans to justify winning the King of the Ring tournament in 1996. Austin was a backup choice as king, though, as Triple H infamously lost the opportunity as punishment for his role in the Curtain Call incident.
Austin delivering the victory speech he did cemented his place as more than someone WWE was trying in a featured spot, but rather someone who had truly captured the imagination of WWE fans. Stone Cold wouldn’t shoot straight to the top (case in point, the following month’s PPV saw him work a forgettable mid-card match with Marc Mero, and he didn’t make it onto the main card for SummerSlam two months later). However, Austin had a concrete accolade to point to and this promo launched arguably the most successful wrestling t-shirt of all time, further highlighting that the fans wanted what Austin was selling.
By late 1996, Austin would be feuding with Bret Hart in a long program that was instrumental in launching him into the stratosphere. This feud included one of the greatest WrestleMania matches of all time in 1997. Fast forward a year later, and The Bionic Redneck would win his first world title, unseating Shawn Michaels in the ‘Mania main event.
Austin 3:16 Embodied The Attitude Era
The face of WWE in different eras is often instrumental in defining that era. Bruno Sammartino was a dominant babyface when he put the brand on the map. Hulk Hogan was a superhero who appealed to kids. John Cena returned WWE to a sense of family-friendly entertainment with a reliable star who always showed up and never got himself into trouble.
Stone Cold Steve Austin was the foul-mouthed antihero who was not only willing but eager to go up against wrestling tradition embodied by Bret Hart, then corporate powers that be represented by Vince McMahon and his Corporation.
The Austin 3:16 promo encapsulated the character and its ethos. While there’s some debate about when the Attitude Era truly started, the earliest point that has any widespread traction is the Austin winning King of the Ring. This night signaled Stone Cold’s chaotic style was no flash in the pan, but rather emblematic of where WWE and the business on the whole were headed for the next five-years-plus—one of the hottest periods in pro wrestling history.
The choice for the greatest wrestling promo of all time will always be subjective. Nonetheless, it stands that Stone Cold Steve Austin’s King of the Ring victory speech is one of the most memorable, game-changing, era-defining pieces of business on the mic wrestling has ever seen. To this day, Austin remains on the short list of the greatest wrestling stars of all time. His signature promo is an indelible part of that legacy.