Austin

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Austin's "big break" came win he won the 1996 King of the Ring tournament. That event was originally slated to be won by Helmsley. Helmsley's push was nullified by the MSG Incident.

The incident occurred at a house show at Madison Square Garden (MSG) on 05/19/96, hence the name MSG. Helmsley was part of a quintet of wrestlers known as the "Clique" along with the Razor Ramon (Scott Hall), Diesel (Kevin Nash), Shawn Michaels and the Kid (Sean Waltman aka X-Pac). The group became notorious for their friendship and power behind the scenes of the World Wrestling Federation. This New York house show was to be the last WWF appearance for Hall and Nash as they were slated to begin work for rival World Championship Wrestling.

On this show, the "Clique" was given their send-off as they participated in the final two bouts on the program. In the tenth of eleven matches, Helmsley defeated Razor Ramon. After selling the Pedigree for a few minutes, Razor awoke to chants of "You Sold Out!" Razor pantomimed that his decision was based financially. He grabbed the microphone and instructed the audience to "Say goodbye to the Bad Guy." In the next and final match, Michaels defeated Diesel in a steel cage match to retain the WWF championship. After the match, Michaels celebrated with his Clique. While Diesel was selling Shawn's "Sweet Chin Music" superkick, Ramon returned to the ring to celebrate with Michaels. Then Michaels woke up Diesel and the three of them hugged and celebrated. Then Helmsley entered the fold and the four of them broke kayfabe and celebrated in the ring. Then Ramon, Diesel and Helmsley left the ring while Michaels grabbed the microphone and announced that "the Clique loves each and every one of you."

WWF owner Vince McMahon was incensed by this unprofessional behavior which was generally regarded as an inexcusable egotistical act by all involved. He had a meeting with them the next day (05/20/96) to discus the situation. Helmsley was the only man involved who was in a position to be punished. McMahon could not punish the two departing stars and it would be illogical for him to punish Michaels as he was the reigning WWF champion. This left, Helmsley to take the brunt of the punishment and his push was derailed. He was reduced to a JTTS for the better part of a year. This punishment began at the King of the Ring tournament.

The first round of the tournament was taped on 05/27/96 from Fayetteville, North Carolina, and aired on the 06/03/96 edition of Raw. Helmsley did a clean job to Jake "The Snake" Roberts' DDT on this program, beginning his punishment. Austin went on to win the tournament finals over Roberts at the Mecca in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on 06/23/96. The victory is remembered more for Austin's post match tirade as his victory at the event, notably because it is where Austin 3:16 was coined and a star was born. Here is a transcript of Austin's speech:

"The first thing I want be done is to get that piece of crap [Roberts] out of my ring! Don't just get him out of the ring, get him out of the WWF, because I've proven, son, without a shadow of a doubt - you ain't got what it takes anymore.

You sit there and you thump your bible and you say your prayers, and it didn't get you anywhere. Talk about John 3:16, Austin 3:16 says: 'I've just whipped you ass!'

All he is got to do is buy him a cheap bottle of Thunderbird, and try to dig back some of that courage, he had in his prime.

As the King of the Ring, I'm serving notice to everyone of the WWF superstars. I don't give a damn what they are, they are all on the list, and that is Stone Cold's list, and I'm fixing to start running through all of them.

As far as this championship match is considered, son, I don't give a damn, if it's Davey Boy Smith or Shawn Michaels. Steve Austin's time has come, and when I get the shot, you are looking at the next WWF champion, and that's the bottom line - cause Stone Cold said so!"

Stone Cold's time had come. An example of how far he had risen came in his place on the cards. At the Madison Square Garden card in which the "Clique" broke kayfabe, Austin defeated Roberts in the fifth of eleven matches. He was immediately positioned as a main eventer after his performance at the King of the Ring pay-per-view.

Helmsley later lamented his predicament after finally winning the King of the Ring a year after he was originally supposed to. On the 06/09/97 Raw, the night after he won the 1997 tournament, Hunter did a memorable shoot interview on live television from the Hartford (Connecticut) Civic Center. When McMahon questioned him about his actions the previous night, Helmsley said he should have been KOTR a year ago but did not due to "politics." He said he took his frustration out at the pay-per-view and he was now unstoppable. He issued a challenge to anyone. Mankind appeared on the Titantron and proclaimed, "Knock Knock, I want a rematch!" HHH said that Mankind was unworthy of a rematch because Mankind had enjoyed everything he had done to him the night before. Helmsley asked Chyna what she thought about the situation and she told Mankind to come to the ring and kiss her rear end. Mankind responded that it was her lucky day because he is a good kisser. Mankind came to the ring and Helmsley beat him down with the crown but left the crown in the ring. Mankind recovered before HHH could retrieve it and put it on as HHH left.

Any ill will Helmsley may have harbored over the incident appears to have disappeared when he reached superstar status. In fact, he and Michaels played handheld footage of the incident on the Titantron during Raw on 10/06/97 and mocked the fact that the men hugged despite some being "good" and other being "bad."