12 Biggest WWE Storylines Ever (And How You Never Saw Them Coming)

9. Stone Cold Steve Austin Wins The King Of The Ring And Changes EVERYTHING

Austin 3:16
WWE.com

By 1996, Vince McMahon had spent years looking for his "next Hulk Hogan" without stopping to consider how exactly to make the best of the potential lurking within the rest of his roster. It took this and a wave of happenstance to make it so.

A post-1994 steroid trial resulted in McMahon choosing fellas from the big-and-tall shops rather than his old vascular faves. Out went a flailing Lex Luger at the expense of Yokozuna, whilst the likes of Diesel and Mabel got big pushes as much to do with passing an airport test as a p*ss one. Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels propped up the match quality in spite of perceived size issues, but it was a man barely any different in stature to those two that would at long last rocket the organisation back to prominence.

Steve Austin wasn't scheduled to win the King Of The Ring 1996 before Triple H got booted from the spot because of his much-reported farewell to his Kliq friends. Unscheduled winner Austin then dropped an unscheduled "Austin 3:16" line into his celebratory speech playing off unscheduled finalist Jake Roberts' (who dispensed with the freefalling Hunter in the first round) own religious reinvention.

WWE was saved whilst its owner was making other plans.

 
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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for nearly 10 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 65,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live.