Stone Cold Steve Austin has made eight figures in merchandise royalties over the years.
Austin is one of the most recognizable professional wrestlers of all time and has found incredible success in the industry and that translates to high merchandise sells, even long after Austin left wrestling full time in the early 2000s.
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 during his long career.
“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.”
“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.”
Stone Cold Steve Austin
Stone Cold last competed in a wrestling ring at WrestleMania 38 when he faced Kevin Owens in a No Holds Barred match.
H/T to Fightful
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