In the mid to late ’90s, even if you didn’t watch professional wrestling, you knew who Stone Cold Steve Austin was; sometimes, that’s all you knew. Channeling Generation X’s rebel-ocity and brashness towards rubric and rules, the “rattlesnake” became a pop culture icon and a hero to millions who dreamed of giving their boss a wave hello in the morning with one finger or telling their peers how they really felt about things.

Embodied in the three-disc set “The Legacy of Stone Cold Steve Austin,” the WWE has done a great job making this DVD the definitive collection of one of its brightest stars. Deviating from its traditional method of story telling, it’s a refreshing departure from the “documentary on one disc and two discs of matches” formula the company uses on most of its releases, making it a truly special compilation.

As a result, if you’ve ever found yourself chanting “3:16,” this is a documentary worth owning.

Feeling like your standard WWE documentary at first, this collection spices things up by quickly getting to some of Austin’s early singles matches in WCW against Ricky Steamboat and a handful of other opponents, which Austin introduces as some of the most important of his career. Soon after, a nice transition is made to his memorable tag team run with Brian Pillman, followed up by more discussion on his time with the company and his eventual arrival in ECW.

It is here where the DVD begins to shine, as Austin’s frustration with WCW’s management is made apparent  not only by his new testimony, but some of the best promos ever produced in the history of ECW. Used by ECW chairman Paul Heyman to publicize Eric Bischoff’s tactics of keeping the young talent in WCW down, Austin not only brought an extra level of controversy to the company, it’s arguably here where the seedlings of his future “Stone Cold” character was born.

To see this development unfold is yet another reason to pick this set up.

Unfortunately, discs two and three, in spite of being chock full of content, lack the same amount of charisma and depth. While the match selection isn’t the best (his epic with Scott Hall isn’t included, while a throwaway match from a Smackdown taping between he and Eddy Guerrero, is ), there is no mention as to how Austin decided to use the stunner as his finisher, a move that essentially was just as important as his persona change.

These small missing pieces aside however, this set has virtually every memorable match featuring the quintessential anti-hero and more than enough candid conversation to satisfy any hardcore fan.

Get your Steveweisers ready, this is a compilation to have a drink with.

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