Steve Austin made a lot of money from merchandise.
Throughout the history of professional wrestling, there have been quite a number of popular wrestling shirts, but many will argue that there hasn't ever been a piece of wrestling merchandise that has been as popular as Steve Austin's signature Austin 3:16 shirt.
The shirt is still popular in today's wrestling culture, as WWE has created a number of different versions of the shirt to fit certain cities around the world.
While appearing on the latest edition of the SI Media podcast, Steve Austin was asked how much he's made on Austin 3:16 shirts throughout the years.
"I don’t know how much. It was definitely seven figures, probably eight figures now. In WWE, you get your royalty checks every quarter. I remember when I first came up with that shirt. I started getting hot and I created that promo, they came out with the shirt and those shirts were everywhere. I had a conversation with Vince and I said, ‘I see a lot of t-shirts out there, my royalty check doesn’t reflect that.’ He goes, ‘Steve, what do you think we should do?’ ‘I think we need to change the percentages.’ He came up with a number, ‘What do you think about that?’ I said, ‘I like it.’ It was a fair deal. It became known as the Austin deal. Things kept going, and I’ll never forget, 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 goes, ‘Steve, I’m just giving this to you because I’ve never given out a check like this before, to anyone.’ I looked at the amount, and it was an amount. He wanted to hand-deliver that based on the amount of t-shirts that got sold with the percentage, that was a special moment. I really prided myself on being able to sell merchandise because when WCW didn’t see me as ever being a star, I figured, hey man, I never was the chosen one, but through working my ass off and trying to find an identity, I finally did, and I became a marketable entity."
Austin was then asked if there was any negotiation with Vince McMahon regarding the percentage of sales he was getting from sales of the shirt.
"He threw it out before I even asked for it. I was just thinking ‘The percentage isn’t right’ and he goes ‘how about this?’ I said yes. I hate talking about money, and that’s why I don’t throw out figures. I never like talking about money, even with Vince. I got into the wrestling business because I wanted to be a wrestler, but you have to get as good as you can for yourself and that’s what it’s about."
Elsewhere in the interview, Austin talked about a potential return to WWE. Fans can learn more here.
Fans can find Fightful's full report on WWE Night Of Champions by clicking here.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
