The stone-cold truth about Stone Cold Steve Austin is that he was one of the GREATEST wrestlers of all time.
The WWE is like the present-day Colosseum. I mean, maybe a bit less real of course.But Stone Cold was a beast. But there are a bunch of things that you should know about Steve Austin. Such as...
1. If you want to see him on screen, you can basically find him in any Adam Sandler movie.
He played a crooked officer in The Longest Yard and was the rival of Sandler's character in Grown Ups 2.
2. He came up with the "John 3:16" shtick as an ad-lib from mocking Jake Roberts at King of the Ring.
Roberts was portraying a born-again Christian and Austin called him out saying: "You sit there and you thump your Bible, and you say your prayers, and it didn't get you anywhere! Talk about your Psalms, talk about John 3:16… Austin 3:16 says I just whipped (you)!”
3. His wife came up with the "Stone Cold" persona after being inspired by cold tea.
Turns out his wife at the time was an avid tea drinker and Steve was inspired when she told him to "drink [his] tea before it gets stone cold.” She apparently paused and said, “That's it, Stone Cold."
4. He was almost a gym teacher.
He was just a few credits short of earning a degree in physical education but he dropped out of college and decided to work on a loading dock. He said he was frustrated with math and accounting classes.
5. His Wikipedia page actually reads, "Stone Cold Steve Austin." I mean, how EPIC is that.
6. Despite his persona of pounding back the beers, he's actually a HUGE sophisticated wine snob. He says:
“Back in the day I was really into the big cabs from Napa Valley, and my wife's a big fan of some of the Italian wines, but now I'm more of a pinot noir guy –something a little bit on the lighter side. So yeah, I'm a bit of a wine connoisseur.”
7. Vince McMahon said that when it came to addressing box office drawing power, Austin was the most profitable wrestler in the history of the WWE.
Bigger than Hulk Hogan?
8. He straight-up refused to lose to then-rookie Brock Lesnar in an advertised match of WWE Raw.
Austin refused and didn't show up at work and walked out of the company. He calls it one of his biggest regrets of his career.
9. He's held 21 championships throughout his wrestling career and is a six-time WWF champion, "a two-time WWF Intercontinental Champion, and a four-time WWF Tag Team Champion, thus making him the fifth Triple Crown Champion in WWE history."
10. He only made $40 in his professional wrestling debut.
The match was in 1989 as a part of World Class Championship Wrestling against Frogman LeBlanc. He apparently didn't know that wrestling was staged either.
11. He had his first beer at the age of 14 and his brand of choice is Budweiser – he'd drink those suds during WWE shows.
12. There's a beer named after him in Manitoba, Canada.
One beer company introduced a beer named stone cold in honor of Steve.
13. He dropped a country album...
He called it Stone Cold Country.
14. Stone Cold's alleged domestic abuse was supposedly covered up by the WWE. Police found his wife bruised in her San Antonio home. She said that the WWE placed a gag order on her from speaking up.
He was given 80 hours of community service, a $1,000 fine and banned from drinking alcohol for a year. When The Woman's Champ Debra did speak she alleged that Austin was a steroid user who attacked her out of “roid rage.” The WWE has not publicly commented on the alleged incident.
15. He apparently loves antiquing.
COMMENT and tell us what you miss about STONE COLD Steve Austin!
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