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Vince Russo Says Vince McMahon Didn’t Want Steve Austin To Speak, Didn’t Get the Austin 3:16 Promo

December 18, 2019 | Posted by Ashish
WWE Steve Austin Vince McMahon Image Credit: WWE

On the latest edition of Talk is Jericho, Vince Russo talked about how Vince McMahon didn’t think Steve Austin had any personality when he first came in to WWE, and told Russo that he never wanted Austin to say a word. Highlights are below.

Russo on Vince McMahon not wanting Steve Austin to ever say a word: “I’ll never forget this, Chris. Listen, I don’t mean to knock Vince McMahon, but I’m telling you the truth. And bro, Vince is a genius on a particular level and I point it out all the time because I’ve never seen anything like it, and I can get into that. But bro, here’s the thing, I’ll never forget this. When a new wrestler would come in, OK, I was writing a lot of their stuff, so I would have to sit down with Vince and say, ‘OK, Vince, what are your thoughts for so and so.’ Bro, I’ll never forget when Austin came in. I was a Stunning Steve Austin fan on WCW, you could tell this guy had personality out the ass. And I’ll never forget bro, Vince looked at me and said, ‘I don’t want Steve Austin to ever say a word. He’s the Ringmaster. He says nothing. Ted DiBiase does all his talking.’ And bro, I swear to God, in my mind, I’m like, he’s never seen Austin. He has no idea. And bro, then I would have to go to Steve, and say Steve, this is what Vince wants. But to Austin’s credit, every week, ‘Vince, you gotta give me more, you gotta give me a mic, you gotta give me more, you gotta give me more.’ And so Chris, what happened was, I was writing the show with Ed, bro, there was an opportunity to put Steve on headsets during a match. And I saw this, and I’m like, here it is. Bro, I tell everybody this, bro, in a matter of three to four minutes, Stone Cold Steve Austin made himself a multi-millionaire a thousand times over. In those three minutes, he became Stone Cold Steve Austin, and like that was it.”

Russo on how Vince McMahon didn’t get the Austin 3:16 promo at first: “Remember the King of the Ring promo, bro, see again, people, the whole thing about Vince Russo is, ‘Oh, bro, Vince takes credit for everything.’ Bro, Austin came to me with the Austin 3:16 promo, and he said Vince what, I said, ‘Steve, that’s brilliant,’ I said, ‘That’s brilliant.’ So bro, that night, he cuts the promo, and there are certain times in wrestling where I just know like, bro, that’s it. That’s it! I was so excited about Austin’s promo. I went back to the office, I was doing the magazine at the time. I put Austin on the cover of the magazine, it was a black and white, grainy, close up shot, and the blood was in red, and the headline read, ‘Austin 3:16.’ Bro, back then, Vince approved the covers. So I had to go to the television studio with the cover, bro, he looks at me, and I know when Vince is confused. ‘Austin 3:16, what does this mean?’ I said, ‘Vince, this is what he said in the promo, this is it,’ I said, ‘This is money, this is going to be huge.’ Bro, ‘I don’t like it, change it.’ And bro, if you go back, the cover reads ‘Stone Cold Killer’ or something. Bro, he didn’t get the Austin 3:16.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Talk is Jericho with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.