10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Stone Cold Steve Austin

8. Without Jake Roberts There's No Austin 3:16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptHU3gm0joI Steve Austin wasn't told to say "Austin 3:16" by a writer or even Vince McMahon. Back at the King of the Ring 1996, promos weren't as scripted as they are today. All he knew is that after he won the tournament, he had to do a promo talking trash. Since he just beat Jake Roberts, who was doing a religious gimmick at the time, Austin improvised a speech by changing the much more famous "John 3:16" to "Austin 3:16" and adding that he had just whipped your ass. Here's how Austin explained it when he was on the Larry King show in 2013: "I knew that when I beat him I was going to say something in reference to John 3:16 and say Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass. It was totally spontaneous. Had no one told me that he had cut that promo, Austin 3:16 would have never been born." The catchphrase that took WWE to another level wasn't something they planned. It was straight from Austin's mind. When you think back to all the Austin 3:16 t-shirt commercials and mentions of it, you don't hear WWE mentioning Jake Roberts. Without Roberts, the hottest selling shirt in wrestling history never would have happened and who knows where Austin's career would have been. Most likely Austin would have still been a big star, but his rise could have taken a different path.