WWE Has Successfully Trademarked The Term ‘3:16’

Steve Austin made the numbers 3:16 famous — at least within the WWE Universe — at King of the Ring 1996. Austin was feuding with Jake Roberts at the time, who was a born-again Christian, and, of course, John 3:16 is sort of a big deal in those circles.

After Austin beat Roberts in the King of the Ring 1996 finals, Austin unleashed one of the most memorable promos in wrestling history. You know the one, but go ahead and revisit it anyway:

Soon after that, the Austin 3:16 shirt became a hot item that was all over WWE arenas and it became “the most popular garment of all time” according to WWE.com.

What does that have to do with WWE today? The term “3:16” has been trademarked by World Wrestling Entertainment with the idea that fans in cities WWE runs shows in can buy shirts that say “City Name 3:16” on them. Thanks to Twitter user @HeelbyNatureYT for sharing this info.

The trademark filing by WWE was done on July 26, which was last week, and is only pertaining to clothing and garments. So they’ve successfully trademarked a reference to the Bible, but for a narrow area of usage.

On June 26, when WWE was in Los Angeles there were “Los Angeles 3:16” for sale. That led to fans speculating that Steve Austin would appear on Raw, since he lives in the Los Angeles area.

Austin never appeared on the show. I remember a lot of chatter on Twitter that day from fans saying that WWE had started doing it in different cities in the last couple of months. Now that they have trademarked the “3:16” term those shirts are likely going to be more visible at WWE events in the future. It’s not known yet if it will only be where WWE has PPVs and Raw/Smackdown TV events or if it will be in every city WWE goes to.

I think it’s a cool idea that’s a nice perk for the local fans that go to the shows.

We are guessing that Kevin Love of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavs loves this idea as much as anybody. Why not? Just another way to make money. Smart move by WWE.