The Piledriver Report 12.02.11: Reliving the Glory of the Stone Cold Era in the WWF

The WWE released a new DVD this week about Steve Austin called “Stone Cold Steve Austin: The Bottom Line on the Most Popular Superstar of All Time.” J.D. Dunn wrote a fabulous review of the DVD in his column “Dark Pegasus Video Review” that is featured under the Wrestling Video Review section of our website. Thanks to his terrific review, I’m not going to give a blow by blow detailed account of everything in the set.

However, I am going to share my thoughts that I had while watching the WWE’s latest DVD offering. Usually when I watch the biographies that the WWE puts on their DVDs, I love them. Most of the biographies that I own feature wrestlers that I have watched since I was a kid. Since I started to watch wrestling as a full-time fan in 1984, most of the biographies show pre-1984 footage. Dusty Rhodes, Jake Roberts, “Superstar” Billy Graham, Hulk Hogan, among others, allow me to see these wrestlers careers before I was as fan. While I already know their pre-1984 histories, I still enjoy seeing how they started out in the indies, leading up to when I started to watch these stars.

MY FIRST INTRODUCTION TO STEVE AUSTIN

As great as those DVDs were, this new Steve Austin DVD seemed different to me. I followed Steve Austin’s career from the beginning. Thanks to magazines like “Pro Wrestling Illustrated,” I was able to follow Austin from his early days in the USWA when Austin was embroiled in a feud with Chris Adams. I remember reading how Chris Adams’ ex-wife and his current wife were added to the feud. I was pretty much there from the beginning of Austin’s career. He wasn’t the only wrestler whose career I followed from almost the beginning. Shawn Michaels was another one. I loved his biographical DVD as well, but like I said, this DVD felt different.

Unlike the Michaels’ DVD, and others before it, this DVD did something that no DVD since “The Rise and Fall of ECW” did. While watching this DVD, the memories started flooding back to me. Granted, I was never the biggest WCW fan. I was a loyal WWF fan. Despite my allegiance, I still was in front of my television every Saturday night at 6:05pm tuning into TBS. Was I being disloyal to the WWF by tuning into the NWA/WCW? I didn’t see it that way. To me, I looked at it as if I was scouting their talent for when the WWF would eventually sign them. This way, when they did arrive to Titan Towers, I already knew if they could “go” or not.

WCW IS LOOKING STUNNING

When I heard that WCW signed Steve Austin, I was excited. For once, I would be watching WCW to see a wrestler that I wanted to see, and not one that I was “scouting.” After reading about Steve Austin, I would finally see him in action. I would not be disappointed.

In the summer of 1991, I decided that I was going to go to my first, and turned out only, WCW live event. They held one of their Great American Bash events at the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, NJ. This card was held on July 3rd,a couple of days after WCW and Ric Flair decided to go their separate ways. In this pre-Internet era, nobody knew about this until we were at the arena. As disappointed as I was not to be able to see Ric Flair in his home promotion, I was extremely happy that Steve Austin was on the card. He was in an undercard match, where he defended the Television title against Bobby Eaton in a fifteen minute time limit draw.

By the end of the year, Austin was placed into WCW’s top heel faction called the Dangerous Alliance. This is the one part of the DVD that I was disappointed with. I was and still am a big Paul Heyman (E. Dangerously) mark. I loved the Dangerous Alliance. Since Ric Flair left for the WWF, the Four Horsemen stable was disbanned. The WCW created The Dangerous Alliance stable, which featured Rick Rude, Steve Austin, Bobby Eaton, Larry Zbyszko, Arn Anderson, and Medusa Micelli. This was probably my favorite heel faction in wrestling, because each performer were really good workers. Austin and Rude were great singles wrestlers. Anderson, Eaton, and Zbyszko were really good tag team wrestlers. Medusa, despite being a really good women’s wrestler, did a really good job as Rick Rude’s valet in the group. Of course, Paul E. Dangerously as their manager was one of the best in the business.

I was hoping to hear some stories about Austin’s time in the group. However, the DVD barely glossed over his stint in the Dangerously Alliance. The only time they mentioned it was went the discussion led to Austin’s firing, and Heyman called him to bring Austin into ECW. It was here that Austin mentioned that he was good friends with Heyman from his days of working together in WCW as part of the Dangerous Alliance.

In January 1993, Austin formed the “Hollywood Blondes” tag team with Brian Pillman. What a great tag team they were. Not only could both men work, but their personalities gave them an added element that made them appear as main event level talent. WCW always seemed to be littered with great tag team talent. From the Road Warriors to the Midnight Express to the Freebirds to Steve Williams/Terry Gordy to DOOM and to the Steiner Brothers, WCW presented some of the best tag team action in the industry. When Steve Austin and Brian Pillman joined forces, the tag team ranks were given another top caliber tag team in the long, illustrious history of that company’s tag team division. Within two months, their hard work paid off, and they were given the WCW World Tag Team championships. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t be given the same type of long run as a team, like the Steiners or Road Warriors enjoyed.

Despite WCW killing the tag team, what they didn’t kill was Austin’s career, as he captured the WCW United States Heavyweight title at Starrcade 1993 against Dustin Rhodes. By July of 1994, I pretty much stopped watching WCW. At this time, Hulk Hogan and “friends of Hogan” started to arrive onto the scene. The same crap that I had to watch during Hogan’s WWF run, I now had to put up with in WCW. I wasn’t about to bother watching the WWF Version 2.0, so I tuned out. Unfortunately, I missed out on the Austin/Steamboat series of matches. If you haven’t seen their matches, don’t look to this DVD to help you get caught up in their rivalry, as the only match involving the two was part of a tag team match where Austin teamed with Ric Flair against Steamboat and Sting.

THE SUPERSTAR GOES EXTREME

After suffering an injury that put him on the shelf for a while, Steve Austin received a phone call from Eric Bischoff letting the future “Stone Cold” know that his services would no longer be needed. This led to Austin’s short stint in Extreme Championship Wrestling. I loved Austin’s run in ECW. I remember his anti-WCW skits like if I just saw them last night. Actually, I just did, but you know what I mean. His imitation of Eric Bischoff ranting about “Monday Nyquil,” and his imitation of Hulk Hogan was hilarious. Austin was so pissed off at WCW at the time that it was a huge surprise to hear Steve say that looking back on the situation, he now understands why Bischoff fired him. He was being used at a certain level, was making a lot of money, and they had others at the same level that WCW could just insert into Austin’s spot.

I really enjoyed Austin’s short ECW stint. While must people remember Austin’s backstage skits the most, I loved his interaction with the Sandman and Woman just as much. I liked his November to Remember match against ECW World Champion Mikey Whipwreck most of all. The one thing that I hated during the whole “Superstar” Steve Austin phase was when he got the buzz haircut. I couldn’t believe it. That wasn’t the Steve Austin that I knew. Where did the long blonde hair go? The funny thing is that looking back at the old Austin footage, he looks strange WITH the long blonde hair. Even though his ECW stint was very cool, I never thought that he would be in the bingo hall for long. I thought that ECW was nothing more than a pit stop until Austin was healthy enough to jump to the WWF.

AUSTIN ARRIVES IN THE WWF

I couldn’t wait for Austin to arrive in the WWF. Of course, they screwed it up. This was one of the highlights of the DVD for me. Joey Styles describes how the people in the WWF probably never watched Austin’s ECW stuff, because they saddled him with Ted DiBiase as his manager, and at first didn’t allow him to speak on the mic. I remember the first day that I saw Austin wrestle on WWF television. They kept on pushing the “RingMaster” name. What the hell was that? Sure, he was a great technician in the ring. However, he was not the f’n “ringmaster!” He was “Stunning” Steve Austin. Where did the former “Hollywood Blonde go?” Where’s the Austin that was awesome? Because I was a fan of Austin’s work, I still kept a close eye on him during his early days in the WWF.

Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one who hated the whole “ringmaster” gimmick, as Austin himself hated it. The DVD told the famous story of how Austin was watching an HBO documentary on the “Ice Man,” and realized that this was the type of character he wanted for his wrestling persona. While I’ve heard about the WWF suggested names for Austin’s “new” character, it was still surprising to see these god awful names typed up on a WWF letterhead for Austin to look over. Otto Von Ruthless, Ice Dagger, and Fang McFrost! WOW! And we bitch about the WWE’s creative team today! Can you picture Steve Austin as the WWF World Heavyweight Champion Otto Von Ruthless? Yeah, neither can I. Those names are career killers. Sounds like something out of NXT. Thank God, Austin’s wife came up with the “Stone Cold” moniker, or who knows what we would be calling Austin. “That’s the bottom line, cause Fang McFrost said so!” Not quite the same ring to it.

AUSTIN 3:16 ARRIVES

One of the great things about this DVD is that it was pretty “inside-ish.” They discussed how Triple H was the “favorite” to win the King of the Ring in 1996, but due to the “Kliq Goodbye” incident at Madison Square Garden, Vince McMahon’s future son in law was removed from the spot in favor of Steve Austin. It was interesting to hear the story behind the Austin 3:16 promo. I always thought that it was something that Austin prepared in advance. To hear that he asked Michael Hayes what Jake Roberts said in his promo, and then he knew exactly what he would do was fascinating. Can you imagine that happening today? Maybe hearing someone like The Rock or CM Punk deliver a spontaneous promo off the cuff like that. However, I highly doubt that the WWE would allow a non-main event level wrestler deliver an unscripted promo like that by just winging it in today’s WWE environment.

The moment that Austin uttered that promo, you knew that you were witnessing something special. The next night on RAW, “Austin 3:16” signs started to appear in the crowd. It was unbelievable how a small line in a promo caught fire. It wasn’t pushed “Boots to Asses” line that the WWE was trying to get the fans to chant. Instead, it was an innocent quote of brilliance by Steve Austin that helped ignite the “Stone Cold” rocketship.

The next highlight in Austin’s career centered on his feud with Steve Austin. It was really nice to see the respect that both men have in each other to this day. When you think of the greatest WrestleMania matches in the franchise’s existence, you have to put the WrestleMania 13 Bret Hart/Steve Austin match in the Top Five. I loved it when Austin compared the match to the best orgasm. PG this DVD is not! I wonder if he just finished watching “Pumping Iron” with Arnold Schwarzenegger, as he compared getting a “pump” better than “cumming.” LOL!!! One thing that I quickly noticed during the Bret/Austin section of the DVD was when they aired clips of their classic WrestleMania 13 match-up. The footage of Austin bleeding like a Jason Voorhess victim in a “Friday the 13th” movie kind of made me sad. It’s such a great visual when you see blood pouring down Austin’s face and then dripping from his teeth. The match was so great, but the use of blood added a whole other dimension to the match. It’s a shame that the WWE is so paranoid today when it comes to the use of blood. The Austin/Bret match is the perfect example of what blood can mean in the right situation. If there ever was a career defining match, this was it. It’s a match that, almost fifteen years later, stands the test of time.

From here, the DVD skips over the initial Austin face run, and talks about his SummerSlam 1997 match against Owen Hart. I attended this show (second row seats), and remember when Owen leveled Austin with the piledriver. I didn’t need an announcer to tell me that something was wrong. I knew immediately that something wasn’t right in the ring at that moment. The weak pinfall cover by Austin confirmed it.

I was surprised to hear Bret on the DVD talk about how he told Owen to call Steve Austin after he was out with the injury, and he never did. I remember hearing at the time that Owen felt so horrible about the incident, but I always thought that he eventually manned up and apologized to Austin. To hear Bret say that Owen never did left a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t care how bad Owen felt. He was being selfish by not putting his own feelings aside and apologizing to Austin. I’m sorry that made it onto the DVD, because I liked Owen, and want to remember him for everything good that everyone says about him, and not this one negative.

STONE COLD! STONE COLD! STONE COLD!

This leads us to September 1997 at Madison Square Garden. Once again, I attended this show live. I remember this show so vividly that I can even tell you that the Monday Night Football game that night featured the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Jacksonville Jaguars. It was the game where the Steelers’ head coach, Bill Cowher, was so ticked off at a turnover, that he was about to tackle a Jaguar that was running down the sideline.

This Monday Night RAW telecast was historic on many levels. Before the show, Vince McMahon told Bret Hart that he could no longer afford his contract, and he should see if the WCW offer was still on the table. On this RAW, the Cactus Jack character made his WWF debut in a street fight against Triple H. Finally, this was the night that featured the “stunner heard around the world.” I remember the crowd buzzing before the show. It was on the Internet earlier that day that Steve Austin was going to stun Vince McMahon on this night. Remember though, this was back in 1997. The Internet was still relatively new as an information tool. At the time, most of the news that was put on wrestling message boards was 95% bullshit. It was these lies that made you take the news of a possible Vince stunner with a grain of salt. That didn’t stop the crowd at the Garden from anticipating one of the most famous angles of the “Attitude Era.” As everyone knows, that rumor became reality as Austin delivered the stunner to McMahon, as Vince took one of the worst bumps in the history of the business. Chris Jericho mentioned that if he took the bump like that, Vince would have yelled at him when he got to the back. What I remember about that magical moment was the response from the crowd. To say that the roof was blown off the building would have been an understatement. I can’t remember hearing a louder crowd. I was at this past Survivor Series, and nothing on that show delivered the response from the fans that Austin stunning Vince did back in 1997.

FOREVER A MAIN EVENTER

I remember that it was a forgone conclusion at this point that Steve Austin was the number guy in the WWF. All that was missing was the WWF World championship belt around his waist. After the dust settled from the Survivor Series Screwjob, two things happened. The first was that the Vince McMahon started to morph into the evil Mr. McMahon character. This DVD was the first place that I ever heard the WWE admit that due to what happened in Montreal, the evil Mr. McMahon character was created. Sure, they have mentioned that Vince turned heel because of the crowd reaction to him at this point in time. However, if you were on the fence regarding whether or not Montreal was a work, which I never thought, you may think that it was by the way it was discussed on this DVD in using the incident to create Mr. McMahon.

Besides creating the Mr.McMahon character, the second thing that happened at this time was that the WWF brought in Mike Tyson. This was a huge signing by the WWF. Mike Tyson did for the “Attitude Era” what Mr.T did for the WWF during the “Rock n’ Wrestling Connection.” When Tyson arrived on the scene, all the major media and sports outlets picked up on it. The DVD discusses this at length. However, what the DVD doesn’t go into is the amount of talk that this received because people were wondering for a couple of weeks as to what Tyson’s role at WrestleMania would be. Many news outlets thought that Tyson would be fighting Austin at the show. On the DVD, Austin said that if the headlined a pay per view with Tyson vs. Austin, it would still hold the pay per view buyrate record. Seeing the pay per view drawing power of both men, I can not deny this claim.

The Austin/Tyson storyline was so great. Jim Ross talked about it being a “watercooler” moment. He was right on the money, as everyone was talking about the Austin-Tyson brawl. Tyson was worth every penny that they paid him. I remember reading at the time that WCW discussed stealing Tyson, but Bischoff didn’t think the WWF using Tyson would mean much. Opps! When showing the segment on the DVD, they talked about money falling out of Tyson’s coat pocket during their brawl, and his entourage was busy trying to pick up the money in the ring, instead of maintaining their role in the brawl. Very funny. One of the things that I remember about Tyson’s WWF run is that they indirectly had a hand in Tyson’s break up with Don King. Apparently, Shane McMahon was talking to Tyson about royalties he would get for action figures, or something. Don King knew about this additional money, and failed to tell Tyson. “Iron Mike” believed that Don King was going to try to steal that money for himself. Thus, the fight between Tyson and King, and their breakup occurred.

Of course, the DVD went into a discussion regarding the Austin/McMahon storyline. There were some great angles to come out of their rivalry. Talk about bringing back memories. They showed clips of the time Vince peed on himself when he thought Austin was going to shoot him. They discussed the beer truck beer bath with Vince “swimming” in the ring. Of course, this led to the bed pan incident that took place after the debut of “Mr. Socko.” Man, that was some great TV. However, I wonder if John Cena was doing this today would it get over as well.

I was hoping that they would cover the Austin/Undertaker feud. Unfortunately, they didn’t. Instead, they went right to Austin’s rivalry with The Rock. Some more great television was shown. The Rock and Austin played off of each other so well. Despite anything negative that WCW may have done during that time to lose viewers to the WWF, the WWF had one major advantage. They had the two biggest stars in the last twenty years in the industry. Plus, they were both in their prime at the time. WCW didn’t stand a chance.

This led to a discussion regarding their match at WrestleMania XV. I was there in the front row for this match. I was rooting for The Rock in this match. This was not the best of The Rock/Austin WrestleMania trifecta . However, it was very entertaining, and the fans loved the match. It was here where Austin talked about going through a divorce, and being pissed because he forgot to pack his vest for the match. I found this interesting, because I attended the WrestleMania Party that the WWF held the night before. After the party, I went to the hotel the wrestlers were at, and hung out at the bar with the wrestlers. I noticed, at the time, that Austin was huddled the whole time talking with Debra. I few weeks later, the news broke that they were a couple.

The DVD glosses over 1999, and went right to the Survivor Series where they wrote Austin out due to his neck injury. Unfortunately, I was hoping to hear a discussion regarding his feud with Vince and Shane McMahon for control of the WWF. They had a Ladder Match at the King of the Ring, where the McMahons won control of the company back after the briefcase was moved when Austin tried to retrieve it. I was hoping that they finally confirmed who the hell moved the briefcase.

During this time in the WWF, there was a perception that the reason why the WWF was so great behind the scenes was due to the lockerroom. There were no egos in the lockerroom, and everyone played as a team because they knew that the more stars that were made, the more money there was to be made. Unlike in WCW, where politics held everyone in the undercard back. At least, this was the perception.

To hear Triple H talk about it, the scene was very different. He said that when Steve Austin was out due to his neck injury, it was like sharks circling the water, as people were lining up to take Austin’s spot. I was surprised to hear this revelation.

The height for me in Steve Austin’s career came at WrestleMania X-Seven. For one, this WrestleMania is widely considered the best WrestleMania in the company’s history. It was headlined by the best of the three Austin/Rock WrestleMania matches. While it has been widely accepted that Austin’s heel turn was far from successful, it was interesting to hear Austin say how the idea for the heel turn was his (which I remember was the rumor at the time). He also said that if he were to do it all over again, he would do the match exactly the same, except he would stun Vince post-handshake.

They briefly talked about the Two-Man Power Trip with Triple H, but I was hoping they would have talked more in-depth regarding where the storyline was heading. They ignored the Chris Benoit/Chris Jericho/Steve Austin match at the King of the Ring, but I expected that.

Next, came talk of the InVasion angle. This brought back so many memories for me. For an angle that totally sucked ass, there was some great stuff during the Austin heel turn. I loved the stuff between Austin, Vince, and Angle. There was some comic gold in their segments. Watching the clips last night, I was laughing hysterically at seeing Kurt Angle wearing a little kid’s cowboy hat. I was pleasantly surprised to see the WWE give Kurt Angle such major props in this part of the DVD. Seeing Steve Austin singing, and the birth of the “What?” chants was terrific to see again. This DVD lacked the Steve Austin/Booker T supermarket brawl. That was another great Austin angle.

I loved the honesty in this DVD. They brought up the whole Brock Lesnar/Steve Austin situation where Austin walked out on the company. Even before Steve Austin gave his side of the story on this DVD, from everything that I previously read on his walk out, I totally agreed with him. The WWF was going to have them face one another on RAW with no build-up. The match wouldn’t pop a rating. It wouldn’t get a huge buyrate. The WWF was only going to use it as an unannounced King of the Ring qualifying match. That’s just dumb.

Another area that I was impressed with the honesty was when they discussed WrestleMania X-8. You could tell that it still bothers him to this day that he fought Scott Hall instead of fighting Hulk Hogan. As much as I loved The Rock/Hogan match, they could have saved that bout for Mania XIX. Looking back, I wonder what would have happened if Hogan and Austin faced each other at WrestleMania X-8. I don’t think the crowd would have turned on Austin the way they did The Rock. Unfortunately, we will never know.

Austin had his final match at WrestleMania XIX against The Rock. More insider information was provided, as not only did they discuss Austin’s health scare from the night before, but they also talked about what The Rock said to Austin in the ring that night.

From here, the DVD closed by talking about Austin’s non-in ring role, as well as his roles in “The Condemned” and “Tough Enough.” This was a great DVD. Besides Steve Austin, I thought that Paul Heyman and Chris Jericho were really great on this DVD. It was nice to see new interviews included in this set. I hope the WWE can take a good look at this DVD, and try to use the same style in future DVDs. Hearing the “inside” stories that you wouldn’t normally hear on a WWE DVD was very refreshing. Sure, we heard behind the scenes stories before, but this was on another level. For a couple of hours, the WWE took me back to my twenties when “Attitude” was king, and “Stone Cold” was the bottom line in the industry. Because “Stone Cold” said so.