In a recent episode of Busted Open Radio, Stone Cold Steve Austin spoke about how he came up with his ‘What’ catchphrase, which is so popular it’s still used by fans today when a wrestler pauses during a promo. Here are highlights:
On the origin of ‘What’: “I did it as a, you know, I was running heel at the time and I left that message on Christian’s voicemail. Every time I’d say something, I would kinda say, ‘what?’. A long winded voicemail and I was like, man there’s something here. I just thought it was kind of a way to jab someone like, ‘Oh you’re supposed to be like the World’s Strongest Man…what?’ You know? Kinda disrespect. I’m jabbing you, right? And so I figured, hey man, as a heel, no one had done that. It was something different. So that’s the first way I was trying to use it. And then all of a sudden when I flipped back babyface and people started grabbing onto it, man it just turned into something where, you just had to put that pause in your cadence and they would come with that ‘what’ and it just kinda trained ’em to do it and they were feedin’ off of it. A big part of being in WWE or in the wrestling business is that crowd wants to participate whether they lovin’ you, hatin’ you, cheering you, booing you, or whatever. Just involved in the match or listen to a promo, they want to be engaged or involved. It was a chance for them to be involved and participate as a part of the show.”
On the fans still doing it today: “And they’re still participating and they’re saying, ‘Austin why in the hell did you invent that, I wish you wouldn’t have done it.’ I would have never thought in a million years…I wouldn’t have thought…way back in the day, that that would have the staying power or the legs that it has.”Click Here: cheap vans era shoes