At his peak, Steve Austin was the biggest wrestling star in the world. In fact, his star shone so brightly that his popularity remains intact to this day, even though he’s wrestled just once in 20 years.
During his run at the top Austin set new records for merchandise sales, with his catchphrases being turned into t-shirts on a regular basis. Perhaps the most famous of these shirts was the “Austin 3:16” t-shirt which was created after his famous promo in 1996 after he won the King of the Ring.
Appearing on SI Media with Jimmy Traina, Austin revealed that the shirt has helped net him a staggering eight figures.
“I don’t know how much. I mean, it’s definitely seven figures, probably eight figures now. In WWE you get your royalty checks every quarter.”
Continuing on, the WWE Hall of Famer explained that the popularity of the shirt forced a change in how WWE’s merchandise royalties worked. Austin said that it quickly became apparent that the sales didn’t reflect what he was earning in royalties, so asked Vince McMahon to change the deal.
“I remember when I first came up with that shirt with Jimmy Miranda after I started getting hot and I created a promo. All of a sudden they came out with that shirt and those shirts were everywhere. I went and had a conversation with Vince. I said, ‘Hey man, I see a lot of T-shirts out there and I noticed that my royalty check doesn’t reflect that. He goes, ‘Well, Steve, what do you think we should do?’ I said, ‘Well, I think we need to kind of change the percentages.’
He came up with a number. He goes, ‘What do you think about that?’ I said, ‘I like it’, and so it was a fair deal. That became known as an Austin deal. It was time to come out with the royalty checks for that quarter and Vince wanted to hand deliver this one to me. He handed it to me and said, ‘Steve, I’m just giving this to you because I’ve never given out a check like this before to anyone.’
According to legendary announcer Jim Ross, Steve Austin rarely watches pro wrestling these days.
Hulk Hogan Wants WWE Match With Steve Austin
Steve Austin grabbed the headlines at WrestleMania 38 when he got back in the ring, ending a retirement that lasted 19 years. This led to speculation that he could repeat the trick at WrestleMania 39, and the man himself has since confirmed that he turned down more than one pitch to wrestle at the spectacular.
Seemingly taking inspiration from the likes of Austin, Hulk Hogan has revealed that he’s open to getting back in the ring for a retirement match. Furthermore, he’d like to wrestle Austin, a man he’s never faced.
H/t to WrestlingNews.Co