Stone Cold Steve Austin's now-infamous "What?" chant began in 2001 when he started using it as a heel tactic to annoy fans and his opponents.
Of course, most of the audience never accepted the Texas Rattlesnake as a bad guy, and his newest catchphrase got over with them in a big way. Even after his WWE departure, it was still frequently used, and babyfaces and heels alike still have to contend with hearing "What?" to this very day.
Many wrestlers have expressed frustration with the chant, as it's nearly impossible to cut a promo without hearing it at some point or another during a pause between words or sentences. The crazy thing, of course, is that it originated from a voicemail that Austin left former WWE Superstar Christian one evening as a joke.
Talking to Chris Van Vliet, Austin reflected on the "What?" chant, how his fellow wrestlers have reacted to it, and why it was such an effective tool for him when he was active in WWE.
"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."
Love it or hate it, "What?" is just another part of Austin's enduring legacy. As for his heel run, while it was a misstep on WWE's part—similar to John Cena's own heel turn last year, in hindsight—that stint as Vince McMahon's ally and, later, as a member of the Alliance has done little to tarnish his beloved image.
You can hear more from Austin in the player below.