Title: Stone Cold Steve Austin: The Bottom Line on the Most Popular Superstar of All Time

Format: Four-Disc DVD

Studio: WWE Home Video

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review by: Bill Jones

Stone Cold Steve Austin is one of the biggest stars — if not the biggest star — in the world of professional wrestling. He was at the top of the business during WWE’s most popular Attitude Era and made it incredibly cool to like professional wrestling. He was a consummate badass in the ring, and spent plenty of time making appearances and getting guest spots on television shows to raise awareness for the company, and WWE has put together a definitive DVD collection for fans to remember his accomplishments.

The first disc of Stone Cold Steve Austin: The Bottom Line on the Most Popular Superstar of All Time is the usual documentary feature WWE likes to start with. It delves into Austin’s early days, from sports to wrestling, to early bad gimmicks, to his WCW days and firing, to his brief stint with ECW, to his ascension in WWE. It’s downright fascinating, but after previous releases, there isn’t a lot of new material to be found here. And despite some recent resurgence on TV in his role as host of Tough Enough, WWE opts to leave such things out and instead focus on some lackluster movie roles he has had as of late.

The second two discs, however, are packed with one of the best collections of matches anyone could hope for in a career-spanning collection. From early fights to his game-changing submission match with Bret “Hit Man” Hart, to his first championship win, to his WrestleMania matches with The Rock. It is a fantastic collection, bookended by a final disc compiling some of his greatest moments. Again, it’s nice to see Austin get a near-definitive treatment, and there’s plenty to love about the collection; it’s just a question of whether there is enough new stuff to appease fans who have purchased previous releases, and why WWE didn’t include just a little bit more.

For more info, wwe.com

Pads & Panels received a copy of the DVD set courtesy of the studio for review purposes.