Stone Cold Steve Austin explains how he has made "eight figures" from just one part of his deal with WWE

Stone Cold Steve Austin recently revealed how he made "eight figures" from his iconic Austin 3:16 t-shirt sales thanks to his deal with WWE.

The Rattlesnake was among the most popular stars in the WWE's Attitude Era. However, he wasn't always the most popular guy in the company, but that changed at King of the Ring 1996.

After winning the tournament in 1996, Austin gave one of the most infamous interviews in WWE history. During this interview, he coined the phrase Austin 3:16, which became synonymous with him over the years.

After that interview, fans wore the Austin 3:16 shirts at every show. The sales for the shirt were through the rough. During the recent interview with Jimmy Traina of the SI Media Podcast, Austin revealed that he made eight figures from that t-shirt alone.

“I don’t know how much. I mean, it’s definitely seven figures, probably eight figures now. In WWE you get your royalty checks every quarter.” [H/T WrestlingNews.co]

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Stone Cold Steve Austin struck a new deal with Vince McMahon regarding his merchandise sales

During the same interview, Steve Austin said that he noticed his royalty checks didn't reflect the t-shirt sales.

Hence, he went to Vince McMahon to change the percentages. Vince agreed, and he came up with a fair number that the Rattlesnake liked:

“All of a sudden they came out with that shirt and those shirts were everywhere. I went and had a conversation with Vince [McMahon]. I said, ‘Hey man, I see a lot of T-shirts out there and I noticed that my royalty check doesn’t reflect that. He goes, ‘Well, Steve, what do you think we should do?’ I said, ‘Well, I think we need to kind of change the percentages.’"

Steve Austin continued:

"He came up with a number. He goes, ‘What do you think about that?’ I said, ‘I like it’, and so it was a fair deal. That became known as an Austin deal. 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 said, ‘Steve, I’m just giving this to you because I’ve never given out a check like this before to anyone.’” [H/T WrestlingNews.co]

Stone Cold's Austin 3:16 shirts are still one of the most popular wrestling t-shirts sold, which shows just how big of a deal it was in the attitude era.

What do you make of Steve Austin's earnings from just one shirt? Sound off in the comments section.