Reaction: Stone Cold DVD Listing Not Very Stunning

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In what is being billed as the ultimate (and final) Stone Cold Steve Austin release, World Wrestling Entertainment made the announcement on Monday of what will be included in Stone Cold Steve Austin: The Bottom Line on the Most Popular Superstar of All Time. Despite its long-winded title (is this seriously the best they could come up with?) The Bottom Line will arrive as both a 4-disc DVD and 3-disc Blu-ray. Steve Austin’s own involvement with the project gave fans hope that this would indeed be the ultimate Steve Austin release.

Sadly, this doesn’t appear to be the case. Well, if you are a Steve Austin fan that is. Stone Cold Steve Austin fans should enjoy.

(Read “Stone Cold – The Bottom Line on Wrestling’s Most Popular Superstar DVD Set Full Match Listing”)

It was early July when I first found out about the project. Three years removed from his last release, The Legacy of Stone Cold Steve Austin, I thought we’d finally get the career retrospective that we should have gotten then. It had the perfect title, but instead the format was an anthology of matches of the Texas Rattlesnake, from his time in WCW and ECW to his volcanic rise in WWF. Steve Austin would add comments in between matches as a means to give some perspective.

With The Bottom Line the sell factor is a two hour-plus documentary about Steve Austin’s tenure in the then World Wrestling Federation. If you want to hear about his career in WCW and short stint in ECW, it looks like you’ll have to pop in The Stone Cold Truth.

When Steve Austin said back in July that the project would be “very in depth look from start to finish,” many took that to mean his career as a whole. But reading the chapter listings of the documentary very little seems to pertain to his “Stunning” Steve Austin days in World Championship Wrestling. This is understandable, as his biggest fan base came as a result of his exposure in the World Wrestling Federation. At the very least, his PWI Rookie of the Year honor from 1990 is covered as is his days as a Hollywood Blonde.

What is really grating, however, is the lack of imagination when it comes to match selections. Only a single match from his days in WCW. Really? I guess we should be thankful that it isn’t the Hollywood Blondes vs. Dos Hombres from Slamboree ’93 again. At least give us a never-been-released on DVD match featuring Austin and Ricky Steamboat or more of the Blondes vs. Rick Steamboat/Shane Douglas series of matches. WWE has seen fit to spread The Midnight Rockers vs. Buddy Rose & Doug Somers matches on multiple DVD releases, and yet has not bothered to do the same for the Blondes’ 1992-1993 feud with Steamboat and Douglas.

That’s not to say that the Sting/Steamboat vs. Austin/Flair match from WCW Saturday Night isn’t a bad pick. I remember it being a very entertaining TV match, but why not add the Wargames match from Wrestle War ’92, arguably one of the best matches of the 1990s. Oh, that’s right. Apparently it is too good to be included in a WWE DVD release.

Of the WWE matches we get a number are repeats, but some are essential when looking at Steve Austin’s metamorphosis, going from Stunning to Superstar to Stone Cold. The finals of the 1996 King of the Ring event is a poor match viewed on its own, but the coronation did give birth to Austin 3:16. What follows next is Austin’s submission match against Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13. One of the few highlights of a dud PPV, the match successfully pulled off a character switch, where Austin went in the bad guy and became a fan favorite, while the “Excellence of Execution” became vilified, a feeling he hasn’t had since Jimmy Hart was his manager.

If you purchase the Blu-ray edition, you’ll get to see every PPV encounter between Steve Austin and The Rock. DVD owners will miss out seeing their final one-on-one encounter from WrestleMania XIX. I can’t really recall their Intercontinental title match from the D-Generation X PPV all that well so it will be good to revisit for nostalgia sake.

Austin’s first WWE title win at WrestleMania XIV made it into the set, as did his No Disqualification, Falls Count Anywhere encounter with Dude Love from Over the Edge 1998, which includes some of the best textbook brawling you’re likely to see in a wrestling match.

I’m still at a loss at why Austin’s title match against the Undertaker from SummerSlam 1998 had to be included (it’s already available on Greatest Stars of the ’90s). The same goes for his one-on-one encounter with the Big Show, from the March 22, 1999 edition of Monday Night Raw (it recently appeared on The Big Show’s DVD release, A Giant’s World).

WWE fans won’t be getting their money’s worth with the fourth disc of the DVD set. Not a single match to be found – only vintage promos and TV appearances, including some that were featured as part of the 50-1 OMG! countdown.

As someone who has most of the WWE catalog, I find repeats are only bothersome when it shows a lack of creativity. World Wrestling Entertainment has a massive video library from which to pull footage but is likely saving most of the good stuff for the eventual launch of the WWE Network. Nevertheless, this Stone Cold release will be added to my collection. And that’s my bottom line.

Travis Leamons is one of the Inside Pulse Originals and currently holds the position of Managing Editor at Inside Pulse Movies. He's told that the position is his until he's dead or if "The Boss" can find somebody better. I expect the best and I give the best. Here's the beer. Here's the entertainment. Now have fun. That's an order!