Jim Ross Recalls Coming Up With Steve Austin’s Texas Rattlesnake Name, Convincing Austin to Turn Babyface

– During an appearance on The Steve Austin Show, Jim Ross recalled coming up with Steve Austin’s famous “Texas Rattlesnake” moniker and how he convinced Austin to go babyface. Austin recalled that Ross came up with the nickname out of the blue on commentary without any consulting with him. Highlights from the discussion, as well as the full podcast, are below:

On Ross coming up with the Texas Rattlesnake nickname: “For whatever reason, your in-ring image — not from a physical standpoint necessarily and obviously, because you ain’t got rattlers on your ass. So there’s no similarities physically. But the mannerisms, the motivation, the mindset, you can’t trust this son of a bitch. I also said one time later on that, ‘Rattlesnakes don’t make good corporate pets.’ So I felt that through that character, because I believed in the character. I believed in Stone Cold, and how it was evolving.”

On convincing Austin to turn babyface: “I told this story the other day, I said, Steve never wanted to be a babyface. And I remember we were somewhere, some little old dingy-ass TV thing, because we weren’t drawing a lot at that time. We were getting ready to. And you did something out there that night and I said, ‘Well, I can feel that little movement that you’re gonna be a big-ass babyface here, buddy.’ ‘Aw, bulls**t.’ I get cussed out … ‘I don’t want to be a god-damned, I wanna be a heel.’ [I said] ‘Okay, okay, okay.’ I said, ‘Hey, I’ve got an idea for you.’ Because I knew your motivation — money. [I said] ‘Here’s some numbers, next time I see you, I’ll bring you some numbers of what the guys have done on their T-shirt sales.’ And that changed the whole game. At that point [Austin said] ‘Well, you know, it might not be such a bad deal, if I ain’t gotta change my style!’ ‘Nobody wants to change your style there, Ricky Steamboat. You’re all right!'”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit the Steve Austin Show with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.