Steve Austin Reveals Major Regret From Legendary Career: “It Didn’t Work”
Steve Austin had a legendary career in WWE, but there’s something about it he didn’t like.
The Texas Rattlesnake made an appearance on the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast at Broken Skull Ranch, where he discussed the origins and impact of his “What?” catchphrase.
Steve Austin explained it began during his heel turn as part of the Two Man Power Trip with Triple H, inspired by a voicemail to Christian where he repeatedly said “What?” to irritate and belittle opponents, aiming to generate heat.
He admitted it was an overcompensation for struggling to get boos as an anti-hero, regretting not abandoning it sooner. He wished Vince McMahon had vetoed it, as it diluted his natural draw.
Steve Austin “Would Not Have Done” The What? Catchphrase
Steve Austin said:
Yeah, a lot of people wish I wouldn’t have done that. But it just turned into something to do, because when I turned heel, not everybody wanted me to turn heel, but I was just set on turning heel, because I’ve always liked working heel so much. [That was your call?] Yeah, and I wish Vince would have shot me down, or I wish I felt it in the ring at night. I should have just said, ‘Hey, man, we’re changing this. Watch the stunner.’ And I should have just stunned his ass and never went down that road.
But as a means to an end, I was leaving Christian a voicemail and kept saying, What? What? I just turned it into this thing to berate somebody, to belittle somebody as a heel. So I use that as a mechanism to do that as a means to an end, to try to get heat. And that whole attempt was over-trying just to compensate and gain ground on getting heat.
I remember Hunter and myself as a Two Man Power Trip just whacking people with chairs. I mean, you know, trying so hard through violence to get heat, which is not always the best way to get heat, and by laying stuff in. It was an interesting period, the heel thing. If I could go back in time, I would not have done it, because I didn’t need to.
I think Jim Ross said it best, nobody ever wanted to hate John Wayne. I wasn’t John Wayne, but I was the anti-hero. I got over by being the way I was. So to turn bad, to try to do worse things, I don’t know, just it didn’t work. It wasn’t successful. We got a chance to push the character in different directions, in different dimensions, but I don’t think we were really ringing up the box office doing that.
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