Steve Austin Reveals Who Came Up With The Idea For The 'Smoking Skull' Belt

WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin revealed on his most recent podcast the inspiration behind the ‘Smoking Skull’ belt, Jim Ross coming up with his nicknames and his thoughts on WWE dropping the term "Diva" to refer to their women wrestlers.

On The Origin of The Smoking Skull Belt: “Yeah, the [prior] belt, I didn’t like. The idea for the ‘Smoking Skull’ belt was The Road Warriors, Animal and Hawk. They called me over and said, ‘hey Steve, you know you’re ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin. You ought to have your own belt.’ That was The Road Warriors’ idea and I give them credit for it.”

On Jim Ross Coming Up With All Of His Nicknames: “As far as JR calling me all those cool nicknames he called me, that was just him being the best commentator in the history of pro wrestling. And he made all that stuff up on the fly. And I would never think, ‘hey JR, going out tonight, can you call me ‘The Texas Rattlesnake’?’ Sure, you could do that on the DL, you could feed it to an announcer, but I didn’t. I was out there being ‘Stone Cold’. I was from Victoria, Texas. Hell, they came up with the name for the ‘Stone Cold’ Stunner. I didn’t. I didn’t like it at first, actually, but it worked. And, boy, did it have a ring to it. It was effective and I’m glad it turned out that way. But JR was simply shooting from the hip and making up those nicknames on the fly. And I am eternally indebted to him for his commentary and him helping to get the ‘Stone Cold’ persona over the way he did.”

On WWE Dropping The Term Diva: “They’re not divas anymore,” Austin said. “Now the women are Superstars. No, no, no, there [has] been a whole women’s movement. I mean, the women’s wrestling scene has evolved tremendously. I was so glad when they dropped the ‘divas’ moniker because, man, I’ll tell you what, they have spun up and they have some talented women down there. So, no, they’re WWE Superstars just like the guys. The [term] ‘diva’ no longer exists.”

Check out a special look at the night where The Rock threw "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's Smoking Skull Title Belt off a bridge.