The what phenomenon

[Guest]

I remember in an interview with Steve Austin, he stated that one time, in a promo he used the What? catchphrase and it worked so well that one time, that he decided to stick with it.  Does anyone know what promo he first tried it out in?  Where did it all begin?

[Guest The Electrifyer]

From what I remember, it was from when Austin was in the Alliance. He was playing this "paranoid rattlesnake" character and doing a damn good job of it too. In the promos, he started to just say "What?" and repeat his previous sentence. I think in one promo, he did it a little too much, but it really cuaght on. He started doing it in his promo's and everything as a heel, but when he turned face, the fans caught on too and now there going "WHAT?" crazy.

[Guest Lord of The Curry]

*Side note related to topic*

 

When Austin was "feuding" with Tazz, he said "WHAT!!!???" to Tazz and Tazz looked him straight in the eye and said " I didn't stutter!". Biggest crowd reaction in the history of Tazz's WWF career. Every single person in that arena was screaming "Ohhhhhhhhhh!"

[Guest]

The first WHAT? moment came when Austin was raggin' on the entire Alliance in the ring.

 

Austin: Is your name Hugh Morrus

Hugh:Yes

Austin:What? Is that supposed to be humorous. What?

 

Then he did something similiar to Raven about losing to Saturn. Or so the legend goes.............

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

I dont really know when Austin started it (I recall an incident with Scotty 2 Hotty being an early one), but I know when the fans started to get into it.

 

"The Rock/Austin duet" had the crowd saying "What" to Austin and Austin PLAYED IT PERFECTLY by adjusting his pace to allow for the 'whats' to flow.

[Guest]

the real question is when the fuck will it end

[Guest]

On an interview with wwf.com in the summer he said he made it when he was leaving a message on Christian's answering machine and it just came into his head.  So we can all blame Christian not being home for what has got to be the most annoying thing ever on WWF tv.

[Guest redbaron51]

the real question is when the fuck will it end

Totally agree with you

[Guest Some Guy]

I think the first time that the whole crowd was playing along was in Boston at the Raw before Surivor Series when Austin and Rock were singing.  I was there and evryone was doing the What? thing and really enjoying it.  It's fun live but gets really annoying on TV.

[Guest KOR420]

I think it's annoying when the crowd does it during every segment,but when Austin does it for some reason it's always funny to me,but yeah it should stop soon

[Guest Jack Tunney]

The first time I remember hearing Austin do the "what?" thing was during a promo he was doing on RAW.It was the one where he was on a bridge ready to throw Angle's medals into a river.

[Guest FakeRazor]

I hate "What?" as much as the next guy, but I'll admit it's died down a lot.  It's not in EVERY promo (and the national anthem) now.

[Guest jaCko]

The first time I remember hearing Austin do the "what?" thing was during a promo he was doing on RAW.It was the one where he was on a bridge ready to throw Angle's medals into a river.

 

 

That's one of the most memorable WHAT promos. I think that was on an episode of SmackDown! that was taped in Toronto. It was a "tribute" to the Rock/Austin IC feud of late '97.

[Guest hobu0]

When Austin was a heel and was doing that "What?" shit, it was hilarious. I was the only person doing it last time WWF came into town. Now he just fires it off on purpose, and it doesn't have the same effect anymore. I still find it humorous.

[Guest 5_moves_of_doom]

It's funny when the crowd says it in an Austin interview or an interview about Austin. However, If Jericho's talking about beating Rock and the crowd is shouting "WHAT!?" after everything he says then it just sucks.

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

i hate WHAT now, but i thought it was funny when they did it on smackdown when tajiri was chewing out torrie

[Guest Anglesault]

Son of a bitch! You have my fat Christian! Is nothing sacred anymore?

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

Son of a bitch! You have my fat Christian! Is nothing sacred anymore?

Be careful soon everyone will be steeling your style of posting.....

 

actually no one would ever do that

[Guest Anglesault]

Do you remember the orginal Fat Christian? There was a group of like five people in one thread just going off on it. It will always be a sort of inside joke.

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

never heard of it

[Guest Anglesault]

Just ask one of the older posters on the board (Maybe bps) about Fat Christian. The basic story is I had that avatar for like two days and no one knew what it was.

[Guest RickyB]

I don't see what's wrong with "what", I mean it's fun for the live audiance and that's what counts really.  They pay for the ticket so they should be able to do whatever they want, if you don't want to shout "what", then fine don't.  But those fans pay for their tickets so they should be allowed to do whatever they want.  If the Wrestlers were good on the mic then they'd be able to stop the what chants.

[Guest Anglesault]

I just really hate them doing it during the National Anthem at MSG. I'm looking at YOU, Bob_Barron.

 

 

And Damnit, give me back Fat Christian!

[Guest]

Sorry about ganking Fat Christian (yoink!).  I just saw it on an avatar list and I loved it.  Besides, you have the hardcore title, you should be fine with it.

 

By the way, the first time I can think of Ausin using it was when he was berating Hugh Morrus and Raven.  But I figured that he did use it before that.

[Guest goodhelmet]

Yeah let GorewasRobbed have the damn toad. And Anglesault, I even tried to get you a new avatar so you wouldn't be ridiculed but it didn't work.

 

As for the What chant I know it was in full swing during the Sep. 10 RAW but not yet at annoying every interview proportions.

[Guest]

Olympic Slam nailed it. That was the first time that I remember the 'what' word being used in a promo. I thought it was hilarious at the time. Now I wish Austin never would have started it.

 

"If the Wrestlers were good on the mic then they'd be able to stop the what chants."

 

If the Undertaker would follow through on his comments from last Monday it may eventually die down.

[Guest]

Of course I do still find it funny when Austin, AND ONLY AUSTIN, does it. The segment where he was talking about being in a bar was hilarious.

 

'I told the bar tender that I was going to enter the Royal Rumble'

 

*crowd chants what*

 

'That's what he said, he said what?'

[Guest treble charged]

The first time I can really remember the crowd chanting "What?" was during the live SmackDown from Toronto.  It's also on the WWF Funniest Moments tape, where he's in the ring and just starts yelling, "What? What? What?" until the crowd starts, then he goes, "You're doing exactly what I want you to do.  You dumb bastards!".

[Guest godthedog]

oops, i fucked up.  see below.

[Guest godthedog]

when austin does "what", it's funny.  when the crowd does "what", it's annoying.  it's because austin was using it just to antagonize & totally fuck with whomever he was talking to, & it was hilarious.  when he turned face & the crowd caught on to it, he couldn't really do it anymore because THEY would say "what" and antagonize whoever was talking.  now austin basically does a sing-along with the crowd and he's just become a human thesaurus.