Steve Austin: It's Almost Like 'Austin 3:16' Was Predestined To Happen In WWE

It has been 25 years since Steve Austin's uttered the words that launched him into the WWE stratosphere.

On June 23 1996, Austin won the King Of The Ring before cutting one of the most iconic promos ever in professional wrestling. It was the first time 'Stone Cold' said 'Austin 3:16' or 'because Stone Cold said so’.

With a quarter of a century since that famous day, Austin has spoken at length about how the promo came into being and what happened to get him into that situation.

Speaking on Busted Open Radio about the legacy of 3:16, Austin said: "Who would’ve figured it would’ve lasted that long? I watched that promo about ten times last night, just so I could kind of take myself back to where I was.

"But so many things had to happen for that promo to even happen. That 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 going to win. I go in and wrestle Marc Mero, who’s a wonderful human being, get along really good with him.

"I was fortunate enough that he kicked me in the mouth. If he’d never kicked me in the mouth, this never would’ve happened. They haul me to the hospital, I get fourteen stitches, come back. Michael P.S. Hayes is right there at the ambulance, telling me ‘hey, Jake just cut a religious promo on you.’

"So thank you Jake for cutting a religious promo, thank you Michael P.S. Hayes for telling me that.”

When asked about his philosophy behind the promo, Austin added: "You always know you get a push coming out of King of the Ring, so I was predicting my push. And I also 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 let people know how important that match is. I said ‘Hell, I don’t care if its Davey Boy Smith or Shawn Michaels, but you’re looking at the next WWF Champion if I ever get the shot. And that’s the bottom line cause Stone Cold said so.’ So many things happened in that promo, but so many events happened to line up.

"It was almost like it was predestined for that promo to happen. And if none of those events had happened or happened out of order, that promo would’ve never happened. Maybe I’d have still been a big star, but that promo gave me two tag lines, 3:16 and ‘because Stone Cold said so’, at one night at an event I was never supposed to win. So I’m entirely grateful for all the pieces and people that fell in place for this to happen."

H/T EWrestlingNews