How A WWE Hall Of Famer Promoted His Beer Line On 'The Grandest Stage Of Them All'

If you were to ask WWE legend "Stone Cold" Steve Austin to name a few of his favorite things, chances are he wouldn't burst into a song about whiskers on kittens. Instead, he'd probably list his top three pastimes as using four-letter words/throwing the middle finger (something he could get away with back in the Attitude Era), kicking butt, and drinking beer. Well, he pulled off all of the above in grand style at WrestleMania 38, coming out of retirement after 19 years with an "oh hell yeah!!" He also managed to fulfill the fantasy of every working stiff and every wrestling fan on the planet by delivering a Stone Cold Stunner to his former boss, WWE chairman Vince McMahon (a man with a popularity rating slightly lower than that of the anthrax virus).

As for the beer drinking, Essentially Sports was keeping count, at least on Night 1 of WrestleMania. (Stunning the Chairman took place on Night 2.) Austin chugged down 22 in all, 8 of these as he battled Kevin Owens throughout the arena and another 14 post-match as he celebrated his victory in front of a crowd going totally bonkers. (Admittedly, though, quite a lot of the beer was spilled on his shirt, on the canvas, etc.) If you watched the match, you couldn't help but notice the brand of beer, too, as the cameras dwelt lovingly on the cans of Austin's newly-released Broken Skull American Lager.

Back in the day, Austin was fairly indiscriminate in his beer drinking. Redditors recalled him guzzling Miller Lite, Coors Light, Natural Light, Bud Light, and Molson Ice. After retiring, Austin briefly flirted with sobriety but also lent his name to a celebrity booze brand. He didn't go for boutique tequila, like The Rock and his Teremana, or even "a little bit of the bubbly" like fellow ring icon Chris Jericho, though. For Stone Cold it could only be beer, so he partnered with California's El Segundo Brewing to create Broken Skull IPA in 2014. This year the Broken Skull line added an American Lager that came out on Stone Cold Steve Austin Day, which is March 16, of course, in honor of Austin's gospel: "Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your a**!"

When WWE's social media team tweeted a pic of a just-stunned Pat McAfee downing Broken Skull, they called it an IPA. If you look closely at that photo or watch any video of Austin's 2022 WrestleMania moments, though, you'll see that the beers literally flying around the ring are the red, white, and blue-on-silver American Lagers instead. (The IPA cans have a yellowish-tan background and a larger skull logo.) Not that it matters, though, since after this exposure on "the grandest stage of them all," we predict sales will soar for both Broken Skull brands and Austin will earn enough to keep him in beer for the next few millennia.