Stone Cold Steve Austin: The Bottome Line On The Most Popular Superstar Of All Time is actually the third DVD chronicling the life and times of the world’s favorite “Texas Rattlesnake”, but it is by far the best effort done.
The Stone Cold Truth was basically a videotaped version of Austin’s autobiography, and The Legacy of Stone Cold Steve Austin was the same thing, only with more matches. While both sets were relatively decent, the man himself was not happy. Austin has made no bones about the fact that he hated his last set, claiming it sucked and saying that other wrestlers have received much better sets. This time around, Austin was hands-on with the entire project, picking and choosing every single thing he wanted to talk about as well as hand-picking each of the matches featured on the set. The result is one of the best looks at Austin you could ever possibly hope for.
[ad#250With this set, you get the full documentary-style interview with Austin, including comments from friends and co-workers. CM Punk, the Rock, Paul Heyman, Dutch Mantell and Vince McMahon are among the numerous people to share their opinions and stories about Austin, and no one pulls any punches.
In between interviews, we hear from Austin himself who talks very candidly about his career, starting with being trained by Chris Adams up until his Hall of Fame inductions. Not only are the stories very interesting, but incredibly funny. While I’ve always known Austin to have a sense of humor, when you see it all in one collection, it’s amazing how truly funny he is. Austin has been through some of the most humorous angles in history, and listening to him and others not only recall them but laugh and enjoy them is a very fun and entertaining experience.
[ad 6]The hardest part of watching this DVD is listening to him talk about the tombstone piledriver from Owen Hart, which gets its own segment on the set. I’ve always had a very hard time watching the video from that match, and seeing it on this set is no exception. The footage is shown repeatedly, and it’s never easy to watch for me. Listening to Austin talk about it is also painful, as you learn of Austin’s fear that he would never be able to walk again, saying the first thought that popped into his head was Christopher Reeve being paralyzed.
Fortunately, this is really the only hard part to watch. The rest of the DVD is highly informative and gives you an inside look into various levels of his career, including more details on his time at WCW, as well as an extensive section on his brief-yet-groundbreaking time in ECW. Obviously, a bulk of the DVD is spent talking WWF/E, but it is still a great section to watch.
We get a lot of stuff about his feud with Bret Hart, and it’s great to hear the mutual respect between Austin and Hart (who makes an appearance), and how Hart personally chose Austin to feud with when he came back from injuries, leading to their match at Survivor Series 1996. Austin credits Bret Hart for more or less making his career in WWE and praises all of the work they did together.
While there is a lot of serious material here, like I said, there’s also a lot of humor. We get highlights of who took the best and worst Stone Cold Stunner bumps, wrestlers who were the funniest to work with and angles that made him laugh the most. You get to see the infamous “Deadpan McMahon” incident (Steve laughs while telling the story, saying how he was worried he would seriously hurt McMahon due to McMahon’s insistence on using an actual metal bedpan), as well as Austin’s heel turn in 2001, leading to the 2-Man Power Trip team with Triple H and numerous backstage comedy skits with Vince McMahon, Kurt Angle and Debra Williams. The interesting part about that angle was that, despite how funny it was, Austin hated going heel and states that he never would have if he could have done it all over again.
It was fun reliving all of Austin’s antics from 1996 until today, and made for a great reminder of just how much fun pro wrestling once was (and could be again if booked properly). Austin caps it off by thanking his fans and talking about how much he enjoys interacting with them at autograph signings, meet and greets, Twitter, etc.
There are numerous matches on disc 2 and 3 of the set. While there’s nothing on here you probably haven’t seen before, the matches themselves are some that Austin considers to be the most important of his career, including an early match with trainer Chris Adams, a rare tag team match with Ric Flair from WCW Saturday Night, the submission match with Bret Hart from Wrestlemania 13, an IC title match with Rocky Maivia from IYH: D-Generation X and numerous others. There is one match that is surprisingly lacking from this set, and that’s his final match with the Rock at Wrestlemania XIX (which I had the privilege to watch from the front row on the ramp at Safeco Field), especially when you listen to Austin talk about how important it was to him and how he appreciated everything the Rock did for him during their collective careers. While there are a couple of matches with the Rock on here, that one in particular seemed like a no-brainer for the set.
While the matches are good, the highlights here are the documentary itself and the bonus features disc. This disc features all kinds of interview segments from WCW, ECW and WWF/E, including his awesome “Monday NyQuil” bit, highlights from him taking over WWF Livewire, starting a fight with Doink the Clown at the Slammys, invading Brian Pillman’s house, and so many more.
[adinserter block=”1″]WWE is known for putting out great DVDs thanks to their insanely large video library, and Stone Cold’s latest compilation is no exception. I very highly recommend this set for anyone who is a fan of Austin or the Attitude Era period. There’s something on here for everyone, and I hope that, for future WWE documentary sets, they can continue to let the wrestlers themselves run the show and put the set together how they see fit. The set itself spans across 4 discs and runs 10+ hours, more than giving you enough bang for your buck. If you get a chance, definitely pick this one up.
Disc 1
Football and Wrestling
Rookie of the Year
From Hollywood California
A Platform
Fang McFrost
Main Event Momentum
1% Tough, 99% Lucky
Raising Hell
Tyson & Austin
Austin Era Has Begun
Cultural Phenomenon
Stooges
The Boss
Rattlesnake vs. Brahma Bull
Difficult Decisions
Return to Mania
Stone Cold Comedy
Really? I’m Not Coming!
One More Round
The Law of Monday Night RAW
The Show Never Ends
New Horizons
Somewhere Down In Texas
Disc 2
Stunning Steve Austin vs. Gentleman Chris Adams
USWA – May 1990
Stunning Steve Austin & Ric Flair vs. Sting & Ricky Steamboat
WCW Saturday Night – July 30, 1994
King of the Ring Final
Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Jake The Snake Roberts
King of the Ring – June 23, 1996
Submission Match
Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart
W/ Alternate Commentary By: Steve Austin & Jim Ross
WrestleMania 13 – March 23, 1997
Intercontinental Championship Match
Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Rock
In Your House: D-Generation X – December 7, 1997
WWE Championship Match
Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels
W/ Alternate Commentary By: Steve Austin & Jim Ross
WrestleMania 14 – March 29, 1998
Disc 3
Hardcore Match for the WWE Championship
Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Dude Love
Over the Edge – May 31, 1998
WWE Championship Match
Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Undertaker
SummerSlam – August 30, 1998
Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Big Show
RAW – March 22, 1999
No Disqualification Match for the WWE Championship
Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Rock
WrestleMania 15 – March 28, 1999
No Disqualification Match for the WWE Championship
“Stone Cold” Steve Austin vs. The Rock
W/ Alternate Commentary By: Steve Austin & Jim Ross
WrestleMania 17 – April 1, 2001
Disc 4
A Flare for the Old
WCW Saturday Night – June 5, 1993
A Bunch of Violent Crap
ECW Hardcore TV – October 10, 1995
WCW Monday Nyquil
ECW Hardcore TV – October 31, 1995
Flat Out Disgusted
ECW Hardcore TV – December 19, 1995
My Exact Opinion of Bret Hart
In Your House: Mind Games – September 22, 1996
Stone Cold on Livewire
Livewire – October 19, 1996
Home Invasion
RAW – November 4, 1996
1996 New Sensation Award
Slammy Awards Show – March 21, 1997
Freedom of Speech Award
Slammy Awards Show – March 21, 1997
Ambulance Attack
RAW – April 21, 1997
The World’s Most Famous Stunner
RAW – September 22, 1997
Tyson and Austin!
RAW – January 19, 1998
The Easy Way or the Hard Way
RAW – March 30, 1998
Zamboni 3:16
RAW – September 28, 1998
Paging Dr. Austin
RAW – October 5, 1998
McMahon’s Cement Corvette
RAW – October 12, 1998
Bang 3:16
RAW – October 19, 1998
Beer Truck
RAW – March 22, 1999
The Funeral of Stone Cold Steve Austin
RAW – April 19, 1999
Austin’s Revenge
Survivor Series – November 19, 2000
Jim Ross Interviews Steve Austin and The Rock
SmackDown – March 22, 2001
Gift Giving Mood
SmackDown – July 5, 2001
Mr. McMahon’s Alliance Woes
SmackDown – July 12, 2001
The Old Stone Cold
SmackDown – July 19, 2001
Whataburger
RAW – January 14, 2002
The Highlight Reel
SmackDown – June 7, 2003
Blu-ray Exclusive Special Features
“Stone Cold” Answers Your Twitter Questions
The Sportatorium
The T-Shirt
The Broken Skull Ranch
Blu-ray Exclusive Matches
No Mercy – May 16, 1999
Triple Threat Match for the WWE Championship
“Stone Cold” Steve Austin vs. Triple H
Raw – Oct. 8, 2001
WWE Championship Match
“Stone Cold” Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle
No Mercy – Oct. 21, 2001
Triple Threat Match for the WWE Championship
“Stone Cold” Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle vs. Rob Van Dam
WrestleMania XIX – March 30, 2003
“Stone Cold” Steve Austin vs. The Rock
Blu-ray Exclusive Moments
WCW Saturday Night – May 15, 1993
A Flair for the Gold
Superstars – Nov. 17, 1996
The Biggest Draw in the World
Superstars – March 23, 1997
The Foundation of the WWE
Raw – Aug. 18, 1997
You Want a Pear? You Want an Apple?
Raw – March 17, 2003
Post-Raw: “Stone Cold” Has Some Words with The Rock
WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony – April 4, 2009
Vince McMahon Inducts “Stone Cold” Steve Austin into the Hall of Fame
WrestleMania 25 – April 5, 2009
“Stone Cold” Steve Austin Salutes Texas
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-Dustin
Stone Cold Steve Austin: The Bottom Line on the Most Popular Superstar of All Time
Stone Cold Steve Austin: The Bottom Line on the Most Popular Superstar of All Time [Blu-ray]
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