Review for WWE: Austin 3:16 Best of Stone Cold Steve Austin

When people talk about GOATs in the wrestling business a number of names come up: Hogan, Flair, Sammartino, Harley Race, Savage it is an endless conversation, but in 1998 if you ask anyone who the GOAT of the wrestling business was the answer was: Stone Cold Steve Austin. From 1996 to 2001 there was not a bigger star in the WWE than Steve Austin and this disk displays some of the best moments of his career in the WWE.

This does not look at his history, his time in WCW or ECW and there are many other sets that looks at this, instead we get (I will guess a fantastically intentional) three hundred and sixteen minutes of some of Austin’s best moments. The set is introduced by Stone Cold himself, but he only appears a few times to introduce some of the moments and doesn’t add much else.

Starting with Austin’s crowning as the King of the Ring in 1996, this is possibly one of the most significant promos of all time where Austin coined ‘Austin 3:16’ and also ‘That’s the Bottom Line, Because Stone Cold said so!’ It is often surprising that it still took Austin nearly two more years to win the world title for the first time, but this is where the journey started.

We then jump to the Five Star classic match between Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 13. This was an infamous match turning Bret Heel and Austin Face and is possibly one of the greatest Wrestlemania matches of all time. Austin’s first Stunner to Mr McMahon is a great moment and certainly the start of the epic Austin/McMahon rivalry.

Austin’s push is shown again his Royal Rumble win and the 1998 Rumble is one of the best in my opinion and then his win against Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 14 which was one of the most amazing. We then get four segments from Raw which again really show how important and amazing they were to watch. These include the Corporate Stone Cold, Zamboni, Paging Dr Austin and the infamous Beer Bath moment which is generally regarded as one of the best and most memorable moments in Raw history. This all leads to the Wrestlemania 15 match against The Rock which I enjoy and solidified Austin as the Champion.

Austin chasing Booker T in the supermarket is fun, but I do wish they had added more matches instead. The final match is Austin’s last official match again against The Rock at Wrestlemania 19. This is a good match, not as good as their previous matches, but it is a fitting ending to a fantastic career. Finally, we have his appearance at Wrestlemania 32 against The League of Nations and at Raw 25 which are also great moments.

There are obviously matches missing and I’m sure everyone has their own favourite Austin match. Personally, the one match that is missing is the Three Stages of Hell match against Triple H from No Way Out 2001. However, there have been enough ‘Best of’ sets for Austin and so if you are looking for particular matches then I’m sure they will be there.

Austin 3:16: The Best of Stone Cold Steve Austin certainly lives up to the title. There is nothing on this set that I didn’t enjoy reliving and though I would have loved more matches, as a one disk set I am happy with what has been given and if you are new to Austin this is a great place to start. If you want all of the best of Austin in one place then I would thoroughly recommend this… and that’s the bottom line, because I said so!