Stone Cold King of the ring 1996 speech

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGM1o8CDLs8

What would have happened if this did not occur? Would we have seen the attitude era? Would we have seen Stone Cold as one of the main faces of the WWF? This was the moment in my opinion which led to the rise of Stone Cold and the very beginning of the attitude era. What do you think?

I think this speech is overated & in no way shape or form ushered in the attitude era, if there was no curtain call there would of been no Austin win here....I think it may of lead to Austin catching on as a credible talent but his fued with Bret Hart put him over.

I credit Shawn Michaels original incarnation of DX as the true genesis of the attitude era.

I think its definitely one of those career defining promo's, I'd also agree that the feud with Bret Hart put him over as a genuine top potential but that promo put him on the map, to be fair, he had already convinced Vince to let him be 'Stone Cold' by the tine the Curtain Call happened so I think he would have been a top star anyway. However with the path he took that promo was defining

Definitely a defining promo. It wasn't officially the start of the Attitude Era, but unofficially it was. I don't recall ever hearing a promo in WWF prior to this one that had the same tone to it; the expletives, the shoot-style grittiness. It was an ECW promo in a wrestling promotion that had always been the opposite.

The WWF was gradually evolving away from being kiddie-friendly, but this was a watershed moment. I think without this attention-grabbing promo, Austin may never have got the backing to let loose with his character.

Personally i prefered the Ringmaster gimmick

I kind of agree with Brady though, I would say the birth of DX is what i think of first when i think of the beginning of the Attitude Era. The Austin promo was fresh and definately put him on the map but he was always destined to be huge anyway after the Hitman fued and i fully believe even without that promo Austin would be exactly the same Austin as he is today.

I think the Attitude Era officially started around the time Pillman died, but if you look back a year or so before that the WWF was definitely pushing the envelope more and more. DX may have been the official watershed moment but the Austin speech was the very start of the promotion gradually shifting to more adult content.

There were plenty of things pre-DX where the WWF was doing things it had never done before. Even the Bret-Austin match at WM13 was a match you'd never have seen in the federation even a year prior. Plus there was the gun angle, Pillman's XXX Files, the racial gang wars, all preceeded DX.

Good points crips. If you think of the difference between Wrestlemania 12 and Wrestlemania 13, it is huge. At 12 you have the whole 'boyhood dream fairytale ending' then a year later you have Steve Austin covered in blood passing out in a submission match. Looking at the 2 events and the build up to both, there is a massive difference.

For me Pillman was the catalyst to the Attitude era, he was discussing topics that were far more risqué than anyone else, he was born Attitude and it was a real shame he didn’t live to become one of the main guys through that era, there’s no doubt in my mind that he’d be talked about now in the same league as Austin.

Im not so sure with Pillman, he was one of my favourites and in the past I said he probably would have got Foley's spot against Austin in 98 but Pillman was more wild, manic and foul mouthed than Austin and the whole McMahon/Austin feud was centered around McMahon wanting a squeeky clean champ, I find it hard to see where he would fit in without changing his character to a more corporate style

Regarding the op's point about this being the catalyst of Austins career, its interesting to see how Austin viewed the whole thing.
If you havnt seen the DVD 'The Legacy of Stone Cold' i really recommend it, its a great watch.

The following Raw after he made that promo the crowd all had Austin 3:16 signs and were going crazy for him. They recognised someone who was changing the form of the WWE at that time and it was the crowd who took him to the level that he got to.

Austin didnt expect the reaction he got after that KOTR speech but he & others soon realised the 'attitude' needed and what the crowd were crying out for at that time.

As the others on this thread have said, it wasnt just down to him though. Other superstars also had a major part to play in starting the attitude era, but it was the crowd's reaction to Austin's promo that set the wheels in motion for the attitude era.

It should also be pointed out that 'DUDLEY 3:16' was doing the rounds on ECW at Christmas 95 so it wasn't exactly a new concept in Pro Wrestling

I didnt know that Gaffer. Interesting. What/Who were the references towards on ECW?

I'm not entirely sure, I think D-Von first coined the phraise when he debuted in ECW as 'The Pope of Dudleyville' its not my area of expertise tho' to be fair

Y I Man wrote:Regarding the op's point about this being the catalyst of Austins career, its interesting to see how Austin viewed the whole thing.
If you havnt seen the DVD 'The Legacy of Stone Cold' i really recommend it, its a great watch.

The following Raw after he made that promo the crowd all had Austin 3:16 signs and were going crazy for him. They recognised someone who was changing the form of the WWE at that time and it was the crowd who took him to the level that he got to.

Austin didnt expect the reaction he got after that KOTR speech but he & others soon realised the 'attitude' needed and what the crowd were crying out for at that time.

As the others on this thread have said, it wasnt just down to him though. Other superstars also had a major part to play in starting the attitude era, but it was the crowd's reaction to Austin's promo that set the wheels in motion for the attitude era.

To say the next night on Raw the place was filled with Austin 3:16 signs is another example of the wwf propoganda machine. The act caught on obviously & eventually the arenas were full of the signs but the next night? I don't think so

My only recollection of that is from the WWE themselves but it wouldn't be such a surprise if the place was filled with Austin 3:16 signs due to the popularity of that particular "3:16: phrase at that time

Its on Stone Cold's DVD Brady, Austin said it on his interview.

Y I Man wrote:Its on Stone Cold's DVD Brady, Austin said it on his interview.

I think you've just supported my argument with that last comment

Sorry, i didnt realise the illuminati were trying to change the start date of when the Austin 3:16 signs first appeared.

Y I Man wrote:Sorry, i didnt realise the illuminati were trying to change the start date of when the Austin 3:16 signs first appeared.

Just didn't think you were so gullible....

In other news... There weren't 93,000 at Wrestlemania 3 & Andre the Giant wasnt undefeated for 15 years before the main event

I think it was very likely given the time that many did latch on to the Austin 3:16 catchphrase to be fair

If its true Brady, what purpose would it serve?
Why would the WWE want to make out that the signs appeared on the next Raw when they didnt, and to what benefit?

Y I Man wrote:If its true Brady, what purpose would it serve?
Why would the WWE want to make out that the signs appeared on the next Raw when they didnt, and to what benefit?

Why would they want something to sound better than it was? I wonder

I'll try and explain a bit about the 3:16 signs, back in the early 80s into the 90 a guy known as 'Rainbow Guy' would go to all major American Sporting events like the Super bowl, NBA Play-Offs and even USA 94 and take his 'John 3:16' sign and get it on TV to 'spread the word of God'

Anyway during the mid 90s a lot of copycats started appearing at more and more televised events and you even see a John 3:16 sign at WM8 and when the WWF brought back Jake Roberts in 96 and he started quoting the John 3:16 passage, with that, more and more 3:16 signs in the lead up to King of the Ring 96 started appearing which is why i'd say its highly possible fans came with Austin 3:16 signs after he said it in an epic promo, hope that bit of trivia didn't bore you to much gents

Thanks Gaffer nice bit of trivia there... I watched Raw religously around them times & I distictly remember it wasn't the night after where the signs became a hit. But it anyones got proof then I'll back down

Austin 3:16 signs began appearing around Survivor Series 96 when he fought Bret Hart.... He was a heel when he won the KOTR in 96 if there were signs hundreds of signs for him the next night why would they not turn him babyface straight away?

I'm not sure a character like Austins was the type McMahon would ever have considered turning babyface at that time (immediately after KotR96) also, every other character in the WWF at that time was very black and white, Austin blurred the lines and for that reason alone i think they held off the face turn

I think the WWF wanted to go as far as possible with him as a heel to begin with, that's very much how he was presented all the way up to the '97 Rumble and beyond.

I assumed that when they said there were Austin 3:16 signs in the arena the next night, there were probably about two of them. And then four the next week, and so on. I think it grew gradually. Certainly when you watch WWF PPVs from mid 1996 you don't see many. The WWF didn't get entirely behind Austin even after his star-making promo; Survivor Series five months later was his first major PPV match after winning king of the ring. It definitely wasn't the case that Austin became a main eventer overnight with that promo.

However if the promo itself hadn't happened, I don't know if Austin would ever have got the same push, and I don't know if the Attitude Era would ever have happened.

Some great additional info there gaffer, I never knew the Dudley 3:16 thing.

Davieswasacrippledtart wrote:I think the WWF wanted to go as far as possible with him as a heel to begin with, that's very much how he was presented all the way up to the '97 Rumble and beyond.

I assumed that when they said there were Austin 3:16 signs in the arena the next night, there were probably about two of them. And then four the next week, and so on. I think it grew gradually. Certainly when you watch WWF PPVs from mid 1996 you don't see many. The WWF didn't get entirely behind Austin even after his star-making promo; Survivor Series five months later was his first major PPV match after winning king of the ring. It definitely wasn't the case that Austin became a main eventer overnight with that promo.

However if the promo itself hadn't happened, I don't know if Austin would ever have got the same push, and I don't know if the Attitude Era would ever have happened.

Some great additional info there gaffer, I never knew the Dudley 3:16 thing.

Excellent summary spot on Crips

I think the Austin 3:16 speech was a big deal for Steve Austin, and it came to embody the Stone Cold character, but only once he started his feud with Bret Hart. At the time, people thought it was a great promo, but the WWE-fuelled myth is that it propelled him to greater heights immediately.

It didn't.

What made Stone Cold Steve Austin was the feud with Bret Hart, there is no doubt in my mind about that. Look at what he did prior to that match, in the aftermath of the KOTR; a big bunch of nothing. Once Hart hand-picked him as his opponent for the Survivor Series, the contrast in their characters was evident and Austin began to get more and more noticed. It was only when the WWF began playing back his infamous 'Austin 3:16' speech in promos that the full effect of it could be felt. Go back to any Steve Austin promo video from back then and you'll see the "Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass!" line, that's when it started to have more of an effect and helped propel the Stone Cold character, in my opinion.