When you bring up the subject of the greatest WWE stars of all time, it’d be a huge surprise if Stone Cold Steve Austin wasn't in the conversation.

He’s in a unique, iconic bracket alongside the likes of Hulk Hogan, The Rock and Shawn Michaels plus many more.

DOUBT

They’re untouchable and you could argue that Austin’s rise in WWF was the reason WCW succumbed to Vince McMahon’s expanding empire.

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He bent the rules, he didn’t care who he annoyed along the way and let’s face it, the fans love a rebellious character even to this day.

When the Texas Rattlesnake is mentioned, you associate numerous iconic moments and gestures with him; ranging from him flipping off his opponents to the beer cans he celebrated with, to his legendary catchphrases.

However, perhaps the most notable is his promo after he became the King of the Ring and delivered the infamous ‘Austin 3:16’ promo to put everyone on notice that he had not only arrived, but he’d be taking over.

Former WWE producer Bruce Prichard has dropped another interesting story as he usually does on his ‘Something to Wrestle’ podcast, and this time he was explaining what Vince McMahon’s thoughts were on Austin 3:16.

AUSTIN 3:16

The Austin 3:16 shirts are still donned to this day, and we’ve seen numerous variations hit the stands for different stars, but nothing can beat the original.

According to Prichard, Vince actually hated the idea and the original design as he thought fans simply wouldn’t purchase them.

Instead, he thought baby faces should have shirts with their faces on it so that fans could wear them and show their support for their favourites, that was something Prichard questioned at the time as he didn’t think fans would wear something with a shirtless star posing.

Vince’s logic also didn’t make sense considering some of the biggest merchandise sellers were Hulk Hogan’s ‘Hulkamania’ t-shirt along with Randy Savage’s Macho Man sunglasses.

It’s a good job Vince didn’t pull the plug on the shirts, as Prichard claimed that the catchphrase they initially wanted to use was the ‘Cause Stone Cold Said So’ but were forced to change the plans when Austin 3:16 unexpectedly took off.

He said: “The next night when you showed up and we saw all these signs of ‘Austin 3:16’ and everybody’s going like, ‘Oh good god, we’ve got something here.”

How things could have been different if Vince went with his gut instinct – he’d have missed out on something massive for one of his prized assets.

What do you make of Vince McMahon’s thoughts on Austin 3:16? Have YOUR say in the comments section below and the third episode of GiveMeSport’s WWE podcast is here! Check it out via this link: https://soundcloud.com/user-818579649/gms-wwe-podcast-all-the-fallout-from-wwe-payback

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