10 Fascinating Facts About Famous Wrestling Promos
3. Steve Austin Coined TWO Mega Catchphrases On The Fly
The scripted promo is something of a misnomer.
Most wrestling promos are scripted, and heavily rehearsed. The difference is that a scripted promo only ever really works when it is penned by the actual wrestler in their own voice. It's easier to refer to an AEW promo as "unscripted" if only to differentiate it from the usual abysmal WWE hack job.
Steve Austin's legendary King Of The Ring 1996 promo was almost entirely off-the-cuff and would not have been delivered in the way it did if the day had not unfolded as it had. After suffering a split lip in his semi-final win over Marc Mero, Austin was rushed to a nearby hospital for a quick stitch-up before returning to the arena - at which he was caught up to speed by Dok Hendrix. Hendrix told Austin the context of Jake Roberts' promo to allow Austin to inform his. At this serendipitous moment, "Austin 3:16" was born. One of the most successful sensations in WWE history happened because a talented man reacted to a situation organically. No lessons were learned - even though this more loose system yielded a second legendary catchphrase literally in as many minutes.
"And that's the bottom line" was a quick way of allowing Austin to wrap it up.