The View From Down Here – Book Review ‘The Stone Cold Truth by Steve Austin (and others)

Books, Features, Reviews, Top Story

 To start with, check out this YouTube video. In an era of rubbish being ironically liked (see Black, Rebecca), or plastic bimbos, this young lady, with her guitar, is a pleasant change. But the lyrics! This is the angriest song ever, sung by an angel. Check it out, repost it wherever you want. Let’s try and get her some well-deserved success!

 

On with the show! I was recently given two books by Widro. One had not aged well, and is a strange mix of kayfabe and reality (Monsters Of The Mat by Robert Picarello [2002]). But the other is The Stone Cold Truth by Stone Cold Steve Austin with Jim “J.R.” Ross as told to Dennis Brent (2003). Whew!

 

This is a strange book. It is honest, that’s for sure, especially when it comes to how Austin feels about people and his relationship short-comings. But it sounds weird. For 90 percent of it, it was easy to hear it in Austin’s voice. It was the book of some one who had sat down with him at the pub for a few weeks and just wrote down everything he said, then put it into some sort of chronological order (for the most part). But what that means is that, unlike Bret Hart’s book or the Dynamite Kid’s book, there is not much beyond ‘this is what happened’. “I was a bit of an idiot, I did some good stuff, I did some great stuff, I’m defending stuff I did.” But that was it. It lacks a lot of that deeper insight. Sure, that’s not Austin. But it made it seem like a kid’s book written for adults.

 

Lots of stuff about his early life and his college life, and that was interesting. Then he got into wrestling because he didn’t make it in football. We find out that he does not like Eric Bischoff, that he was more disappointed than anything with Owen Hart, that he liked working with Bret Hart, that he was not a fan of Shawn Michaels, that he was a fan of Chris Benoit and Mick Foley, that he loved Brian Pillman, enjoyed working with the Rock. Yep. We learn about his injuries. Sort of. We hear very little about some of the things that happened in WCW (I wanted his take on the Steamboat injury and subsequent firing by FedEx, and the resultant match where Hacksaw Duggan squashed him like a bug). Mind you, we did find out that he could excuse himself for the infamous “taking his ball and going home” issue in 2002.

 

There are many things missing. The InVasion angle? He certainly has his say on many things, why not this? The ‘Kiss My Ass Club’? He clearly respects Vince, yet calls him out on a number of things – why not this? He states that he cannot talk about his split with Debra McMichael/Austin/Lesnar (who else?) because of legal reasons, but he feels free to whinge about his second wife breaking a court order. Mind you, he does go on for a while about his incredibly brief ECW stint.

 

This was not a deep thinking book, and actually was not that interesting, sadly. Until…

 

Chapter 38 – ‘Stone Cold’s Bottom Line On The Wrestling Business’. After reading this, I would think that he might not be such a bad guy to have running a wrestling business. He might be a few years behind the times with what audiences expect, and his ego might not let him do what he wants, but I would be willing to give him a go. Having said that, the way the WWF/E main event style was changed to reflect his diminished capacity I feel has been a part of one of the problems in modern wrestling – that it has become boring and predictable a lot of the time, that the main event brawl is standard, and that punching and kicking are transition moves instead of, you know, wrestling.

 

So, what do we have? A strange book, which is an incredibly easy read. But I felt I was being talked down to the whole way through it. He’s clearly not a stupid man, and he has a head for the business. But I think the biggest issue with this book is that it was written and printed under the auspices of WWE books. It was probably about as controversial as they would allow, but it did not feel complete.

 

What this needs is a complete update, away from the WWE and their controlling nature of protecting themselves and everything to do with themselves. Of course, you just know the chapter on Chris Benoit will disappear (after all, can’t have him praised in any way, shape or form), but maybe we’ll also hear a bit more about Booker T hurting Austin, not just that they laughed a lot when they did the supermarket brawl. Maybe we’ll hear a bit more about some of the conversations between Vince and Austin. Maybe… Maybe… Maybe…

 

But Austin is WWE through and through. No matter what happens, he always seems to end up back at the place that gave him his fortune, his name. He won’t do anything to really rock the boat. He occasionally seems to throw a tantrum until he gets what he wants, but he always goes back.

 

That sounds harsh. I do not mean to demean what he accomplished. He was at the vanguard of a revolution in wrestling that saved it from itself. He may not have the name recognition of Hulk Hogan away from wrestling. He may not be looked on as gifted as Ric Flair. But he certainly meant something. To wrestling fans from the ‘Attitude’ era onwards, he is their Hulk Hogan. And by appearing on shows like Nash Bridges and in cameo roles in films like The Expendables he is not throwing his legacy away on crap TV and movies (I even liked The Condemned). And by staying with WWE he also has a little more control over his wrestling legacy. He has listened to his body and when it said, “Stop!” he eventually did, he didn’t go off somewhere else and try to recapture that lightning in a bottle. Having him as a Tough Enough trainer is a very good move. Having him come out to pop the crowd every so often is a very good move. One or two more matches with the right opponents will not destroy his legacy.

 

I just wish the book was a bit more of everything.

 

Mildly recommended.

 

Don’t forget the music video!! Watch! Repost! FaceBook it! Whatever! Just do it!

 

Well, after going through this book, what else do we have to read in these here parts?

 

Scott Keith reviews Impact so no one else has to.

MC Brown needs some support.

CB spruiks a book or 2 and looks back.

Ivan Rushfield breaks holds.

Mike Gojira looks at the week in ‘E.

Joel Leonard contemplates change.

And Patrick Spohr looks at the latest train wreck.

 

Then, once you’ve finished reading everything here on the Pulse, go outside and do something.

 

That’s this view…

 

Australian. Father. Perpetual student. Started watching wrestling before Wrestlemania 1. Has delusions of grandeur and was known to regularly get the snot beaten out of him in a wrestling ring. Also writes occasionally in other Pulse sections.Thinks Iron Mike Sharpe is underrated. http://stevengepp.wordpress.com