King Of The Ring 1996 Wasn't The Night Stone Cold Became A Star, Survivor Series 1996 Was
The wrestling career of Steve Austin truly took off in 1996 when he embraced the “Stone Cold” gimmick and positioned himself as WWE’s next breakout star. Fans were ready for an antihero character like Austin to break all the rules, and wanted to cheer him while doing it. Wrestling was changing following the generic face characters of Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and Diesel in the New Generation Era.
Austin’s time was coming with his breakout status in 1996, a strong 1997 to build his momentum, and becoming the face of the company in 1998. One aspect of Austin’s career, however, gets told incorrectly by WWE. The thought is Austin becoming a star after winning the King of the Ring tournament and cutting his Austin 3:16 promo is just not true. There were issues after that, but the night Austin truly reached that status was at Survivor Series 1996 in Madison Square Garden.
Steve Austin Only Received A Small Jump From His King Of The Ring Win
Steve Austin did benefit from winning the King of the Ring, but it was a small jump from struggling to get a character over to showing his personality for the first time. The 3:16 promo certainly made Austin come off like a bigger deal than he did a few weeks prior, but it wasn’t like fans viewed him as a future world champion immediately coming off the win.
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Austin had lackluster matches against Marc Mero and Jake Roberts to win the tournament, and neither man was necessarily over at that stage of their careers to make the wins impactful. Austin did nothing of note in the next few months after the big win. Fans did have some interest in him, but it wasn’t anything to expect a legendary run out of.
WWE even skipped out on Austin being on the next few PPV cards, as the SummerSlam 1996 pre-show match against Yokozuna was the only noteworthy match for Austin in that time frame. Yokozuna being in poor physical condition saw Austin winning in under two minutes as a relatively pointless presence on the show.
The Survivor Series Match Against Bret Hart Was Austin's Real Breakout Performance
Bret Hart returned to WWE after a long break home at Survivor Series 1996 to face Steve Austin. The WrestleMania 12 Iron Man match loss to Shawn Michaels about seven months prior led to Hart taking time off and reevaluating his future. Bret played a role in Austin getting signed when suggesting him to Vince McMahon after viewing him as a good in-ring worker in WCW.
The request to work with Austin made the timing of Survivor Seriesperfect in front of a hot crowd in Madison Square Garden. This watch wasn’t as great overall as their iconic WrestleMania 13match, but it was still an instant classic. Fans were invested in every second of the athletic contest that showed Hart’s technical skills against Austin’s rebellious attitude.
CageMatch.net even voted the match as the best overall in Survivor Series history due to the excellence of the two performers. Austin lost the match, but he looked like an equal to the biggest star in the company. Even though Shawn Michaels was in the midst of a WWE Championship reign, he didn’t match the success of Bret during that time. Austin just holding his own against such a name was going to help him more than the weak King of the Ring field.
WWE Got Behind Austin After The Survivor Series Match Against Hart
WWE realized Steve Austin had star potential after Survivor Series 1996, and the fans helped dictate it. Austin now became a weekly fixture on the show since he was too valuable to mishandle his push. The rivalry between Hart and Austin helped add more tension to the show since it felt like real fights between the two, despite getting along quite well in person.
Future segments and battles would see WWE’s faith in Austin proven correct with his performances. Austin winning the 1997 Royal Rumble after the referees missed his elimination, before going back in to toss out Bret showed just how much had changed from before the first Hart vs. Austin match to the current timeline.
The rest is history as Bret and Austin stole the show at WrestleMania 13with arguably the best match in WWE history. Austin took off and everyone knew it was going to be his time to run with the ball soon. This all started at Survivor Series 1996 when put in a sink or swim environment, where Austin delivered his best work and showed why he wanted more than a mid-card role in wrestling as the first step to changing the business forever.
