Exclusive: Stone Cold Steve Austin Talks WWE, Pro Wrestling, Racing, Beer & More On 3:16 Day

Zack Heydorn | Mar 16, 2025

Imago/Zuma Press Wire

Don't even think of continuing to read this story without an ice cold Steve-wiser in your hand.

It's 3:16 Day, after all, and "Stone Cold Said So!"

"You would have never figured it (3:16) would have turned into what it did, but the next night, which was a Monday Night Raw, you saw 3:16 signs there, and there was a change going on immediately," Austin said about 3:16 Day in an exclusive interview with The Takedown on SI.

"Would I have figured it would last as long, or have turned into like a trademark or a signature all these years later that people still remember? Hell no, but I'm glad it did."

The Austin 3:16 promo that launched Stone Cold Steve Austin as a cultural icon and into the pantheon of pro wrestlers was cut nearly 30 years ago, but the Stone Cold signature has never felt bigger thanks to social media and the mainstream impact that WWE has today.

Austin hasn't performed for WWE since WrestleMania 38, but gave an update on his health in our wide-ranging interview.

"I'm right at three months recovery," Austin said regarding his knee replacement. "I can't run on this knee. So, I would say I'm 25 to 30%. I'm just doing body weight squats and just just other stuff that my physical therapist told me. The best thing about the knee is I'm out of pain. I was in so much pain, because there was so much arthritis and I was bone on bone, so immediately when they cut all that stuff out, you know, you're dealing with the healing process, but it (sucks) being in pain for all those years. I delayed it and I'm in a good place. I just gotta get healed up."

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Austin is on the mend, but opened up about what it was like at the peak of the Stone Cold WWE run in 1998. Austin said he had a blast and that it was a lot of fun, but talked about the responsibility he had to the company and to the other wrestlers during that peak time.

"It just seemed like we were going 100 miles an hour," Austin said of the peak Stone Cold era in WWE. "The business was on fire. It didn't matter what day of the week it was or what town it was, but every seat was sold out. It was a rocket ride. And you know me, I was just riding the wave, and, hell, I was living as fast in my personal life as we were filling the arenas. So, it was a rocket ride from hell, and it lasted for a pretty good while, and it was just a lot of fun. Looking back, if I was going to do it again, I probably would have taken better care of myself from a health standpoint ... I probably would have trained a little bit harder. But I mean, like it was, what it was. It was a lightning bolt, and we were all on the edge of it. It was a ton of fun.

"There was definitely a lot of thought and consideration that went into it (his hot run) too," Austin said of the responsibility he had to the company at the time. "I'm a time fanatic. I'm a type A personality. I'm never late to anything. So, I'd be one of the first guys in the building. I always wanted to be accountable. I worked hurt. I worked with injuries until I got dropped on my head and had to take off a little bit and get fused up. But, I took a lot of pride in being the first guy there and because of the beer drinking and the main events and all the encore stuff we did, I was usually the last guy to leave the building, so that there was a lot of responsibility that went with it.

"One time we were somewhere and I think it was after a PPV or Monday Night Raw taping. And man, I stayed out there forever. And finally, Kevin Dunn gets on the live mic and says, 'Steve, we gotta go home.' And I think he said that to me once or twice and then Vince confronted me backstage. I think it was the next week. And he goes, 'you know, you cost me I think it was like $15,000 or something like that, in overtime for the people who worked at the building.' And he says, 'God dang it, you cost me like15 grand going overtime like you did.'

"So I didn't know what he was saying, so I just told him. I said, 'Well, I'll split it with you.' I was like, 'Okay, do you want me to own part of this financially? I will.' He goes, 'No, I don't want you, but I'm just telling you, you can't stay after all that long.' I said, 'Okay, I get it.' So dude, it was such a good time. And you know, we had such a deep stacked roster and I know the guys were having just as much fun as I was. So, I hope they remember good things about their runs as much as I do about mine. We did it all together, but Stone Cold was a big part of it."

Austin began his career in the USWA before moving on to WCW, ECW, and then the WWE. Like the 316 Day signature and even when the Stone Cold tidal wave began, Austin wasn't ready for what was coming.

"I didn't really sit there and think, hey, it's about to be my time, but there was a wave of momentum," Austin said. "I've always talked about Chicago kind of being a stronghold for me for some reason. And they were really catching hold of what I was doing and appreciating it.

"So, after all this trial and error and kind of, you know, getting some carpets yanked out from underneath you, you just cherish any kind of positive response to anything you're doing, and you thrive on it, because you know you've worked so hard to try to learn the things that you've learned and when you start applying them, and they start working, and you start building up this momentum and this force, it builds your confidence. And once you get your confidence up, you know you can never go back. You never want to lose it.

"So it's a hell of a feeling to gain momentum and be able to control the crowd and the fact that you know, in an organic fashion, they appreciate you for what the hell you're doing, whether you're working heel or baby, you know they've gotten behind you. So you don't take that for granted. You just keep working your ass off and trying to make the right decisions. But, it is a feeling. It's a feeling that everybody's working for. "

Is what Austin mentioned there the art of pro wrestling? He made it clear that grabbing the crowd and earning a reaction is the goal, but Stone Cold doesn't consider himself an artist.

"Shit no, man. I was out there just working on the fly," Austin said when asked about if he was an artist. "I started off in the business and I didn't have enough training when I had my first match. I didn't catch on to the business like some people do -- like a Kurt Angle. I was a slow learner. When I got out there, I sucked. And you're just going out there because you're put in a frying pan and you better do something ... When you're starving and your paycheck depends on your performance it forces you to try a lot of things and try to learn as fast as you can, because your life literally depends on it."

The interesting element to this notion of being in a frying pan as a pro wrestler, was how Austin talked about it when pertaining to being a veteran. He said it's very much still a thing, but just different.

"You can still say you're in the frying pan, but you're used to it and at that level (Stone Cold), you are the teacher. After everything that you've learned, everybody else was the teacher, and the crowd was the teacher. You needed to learn what they wanted, when they wanted it, and why and how you were going to give it to them. And so you control that crowd and you take a lot of pride in being able to take a crowd up and down.

MORE: Stone Cold Steve Austin Reveals Why He Can't Give Heel Turn Advice To John Cena

"So yeah, when I turned into Stone Cold, that was seven, eight years in the making of being on the road and kind of reaching some mid-card status in WCW, going down to ECW, and getting to experiment a little bit. When you start cooking and you know what you're doing, absolutely everything is playing. And don't get me wrong, I still flew by the seat of my pants because I love the ad lib factor and being able to call things on the fly. But, you are controlling that crowd and that is what's up. They're doing what you want them to do."

The WWE has a Performance Center in Florida where the company trains its future stars. The company has three different developmental shows where talent can try and cut their teeth and jump into the frying pan. Because the business has evolved and changed, Austin says the frying pan doesn't quite look the same as it once did.

"The referee would come give each of you the finish, and you would go out there," Austin said. "Traditionally, the heel calls the match and you go out there and work on the fly to that finish. That doesn't really exist anymore. Can it? Sure, but between two badass veterans who know how to do that.

"The business has evolved into faster, more motion, more motion. Higher risk, thrills, chills, spills, and excitement. You can't just call that all out there in the ring and I can appreciate it from a performance level of what its turned into, but they're not learning like I learned. They're learning a new system and a new way that the business has evolved to. And that's neither good nor bad. That's just where the business has gone to and that's the state of affairs. I have no problem with it. It's just 100 years ago, things were different, and so if I was getting into business right now, and I was 20 years old, I would be learning this new method, and I wouldn't have any problems with it. That's just the way things are."

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Austin may not want to admit it, but he's a pro wrestling artist. He's also a 10-year veteran of the beer business and now fully submersed in the off-road racing game.

"Coming up in November of this year, I will have been in the beer business for 10 years," Austin said. "We're in the craft bear market. I partnered with El Segundo Brewing Company and they're in El Segundo California, about six miles from my house in Marina Del Rey ... It's a passion, and so I'm very proud of the beers that we've come up with. I wouldn't call mine a celebrity beer, because the beer that we make stands on its own merit. It tastes good. We take a lot of pride in brewing it."

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The off road racing is a new endeavor for Steve Austin and fills the role of doing something competitive in his life -- a role once occupied by professional wrestling.

"I started racing two years ago," Austin said. "I won rookie of the year my first year racing when I was 58 (years old) the next year. I won my division this year. I'm ran in the pro division in the mint 400. That's my biggest race to date, with some really talented people. And it's just like wrestling. You kind of get some people who kind of tell you about things, but you really got to go out there and do it and experience things ... It gives me something to fulfill my competitive nature. Because pro wrestling might be at work, but you're competing to be at the top of that card. And racing is the real deal. You're competing to be on the top of that podium."

Austin has done a lot in his career in and out of the ring. Plenty more to go as well. Legacy? What legacy? Stone Cold has no interest in talking about that.

"I can't get too philosophical about anything I did," Austin said. "When I decided to get into the business of pro wrestling, my mom and dad shook their heads because they didn't get it. They didn't like it. They didn't watch it. I did and I fell in love with it. Nobody had any plans for me a lot of the times. I just kept finding my way and catching breaks here, there, and then hitting on the Stone Cold thing and just knocking a couple of grand slams.

"I don't like to even speak about legacies or any of that stuff anymore. Just it was what it was. I had a good time. If you want to remember me, you can, if you don't, you don't. I was around for a period of time and it didn't last a long time. I had some really good matches. There was more guys out there that have some better matches that then than I did, although I had some classics. I had so many moments. Those character building moments that they had planned for Stone Cold and I think that's what people will remember. But to make it any more important than that, would be silly."