Source: JR’s Blog

Here are some comments & memories that JR blogged about for the RAW 900th Episode Special:

The guttural, intense heat generated with the Austin-McMahon rivalry. It made stars of both Stone Cold, the anti hero, Mr. McMahon, the antagonist, and helped make RAW the Monday night TV destination for millions. For my money, RAW never had a better rivalry than Austin-McMahon.

I remember some great comedy…Rock ‘n Sock…Austin/Angle/McMahon…DX…among others…and I remember the head shakers. I’m not casting stones as I uttered my share of head shakers on Monday nights, too.

I miss JR on RAW. How about you?

This was the highlight of last night RAW 900th episode show that aired last night. They showed a few good clips of Austin, but this segment with CM Punk was epic!

Tonight is WWE’s RAW 900th Episode Celebration! Below are some details of the show + other information & features. And a new Twitter trend I want to start…

It’s the longest-running weekly episodic television series in U.S. history. It has brought iconic Superstars such as Bret “Hit Man” Hart, Shawn Michaels, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, The Rock and John Cena into millions of homes each week. And on Aug. 30, 2010, it celebrates an unprecedented sports-entertainment milestone – its historic 900th episode.

Now airing in more than 145 countries and reaching half a billion households worldwide, few would imagine that Monday Night Raw came from humble beginnings, emanating from a small New York City theater when it debuted on Jan. 11, 1993. But through its explosive combination of high-octane action, memorable matches, shocking moments and sensational Superstars, Raw has remained Monday night’s most exciting show throughout its 17-and-a-half year history.

To help offer some perspective on how much ground Raw has covered, WWE.com offers up the following (semi) scientifically-calculated facts and figures regarding what 900 episodes works out to. Drag your mouse over the image below to find out all the numbers, and be sure to tune in to the monumental 900th episode of Raw – featuring Superstars from both Raw and SmackDown – on Monday, Aug. 30, at 9/8 CT.

Check out some memorable RAW moments in photos featuring Austin – Part 1 & Part 2

WWEShop.com also has some great RAW DVD’s, including their newest RAW DVD, “RAW: The Beginning – The Best of Seasons 1 & 2″.

Relive the first two years of Raw with this 4-DVD set packed with more than 11 hours of matches and highlights featuring Bret “Hit Man” Hart, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels and more!

Expect to see some great & memorable Austin moments tonight. I am sure Austin will NOT be making an appearance. He’s currently headed to Texas, unless it’s a pre-recorded message (which I doubt). He Tweeted last week to a fan on Twitter that he will not be there.

What are you favorite Austin RAW moments? Let’s start a Twitter trend: #SteveAustinRAWMoments (other hashtags: #SteveAustinWeb #RAW #RAW900 #WWE)

The #1 badass action film in the land, got it’s ass kicked this weekend at the box office.

In it’s first week’s release, “The Last Exorcism” came in at #1 with $23.5 million. With “Takers” coming in at #2 with $19.5 million in it’s first opening week.

“The Expendables” is still in the top coming in at #3 with $9.2 million with a gross total of
$81.7 million.

Last week, “The Expendables” were #1 in it’s 2nd week earning $16.5 million with a gross total of $64.8 million. Leading the way from “Vampires Suck” & “Eat.Pray.Love”

Who cares if it landed at #3. It’s still badass! And that’s the bottom line.

For previews & videos, visit the official WWE Classics on Demand website.

Shorties Section – Wild Texans
On this month’s Shorties section, we head down to Texas for matches featuring top Superstars and Legends from the Lone Star State including Eddie Guerrero, Dusty Rhodes, Terry Funk, Dick Murdoch, Stan Hansen, Stone Cold Steve Austin and others.

TV Classics
The Monday Night War continues with classic Raw and Nitro episodes from 4/13/98.

*If you do not have WWE Classics on Demand, contact your local cable providers.*

Source: WWE Newsletter & K-Mart.com

WWE Special Delivery: Hall of Fame Series Collector Event!
On Saturday, August 28 at 11AM at your local K-Mart

The event will feature the launch of the Limited Edition WWE® Legends Hall of Fame Series figure assortment, which is only available at Kmart. Packed with some of your all-time favorites, the assortment includes:

* Stone Cold Steve Austin
* Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat
* “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes
* Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka
* Sgt. Slaughter
* Terry Funk

Click here for info on autograph sessions with Sgt. Slaughter & Dusty Rhodes (scroll to the bottom).

Back in Action
By Alexander Howard
Source: InterviewMagazine.com

“Working with [director] Sly Stallone was one of the best experiences of my life,” says Steve Austin, one of the starts of The Expendables, and who most will remember for his sneering caricature as a celebrity of the professional wrestling ring. When he’s not mocking you, you know something significant has happened “It was very competitive among the guys; really brutal and really realistic.”

At the movie’s meaty center is Steve Austin as the down and dirty bodyguard appropriately dubbed Paine. Austin clinches the climax of the movie with two sequences with Stallone and his UFC counterpart Randy Couture. “The first time around [with Stallone], there was too much finesse, so we just decided to make it brutal.” But brutality has its costs, and when butting heads with this particular director, the cost can be high: “I must have had a goose egg on my forehead and ended up giving Sly a few stitches. He was cool about it and only told me to bring it even harder!” For the rest of film, Austin gets certifiably ruthless with Stallone and his crew of mercenaries (including Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, and Randy Couture). But there is more to the 6’2, 250-lb former WWE superstar than meets the eye.

For instance, few would imagine that the teenager who would become one of the most recognizable faces in entertainment planned on becoming… an insurance salesman. “Well, my father was an in-surance man,” Austin emphasizes with a South Texan drawl. “So I went to junior college on my football scholarship and studied accounting—although I grew tired of that pretty quick and switched my major to P.E.” Austin burned out and left college with just 17 hours left on his degree, and wound up working his way to a top-pay forklift job as a dock worker. “The bosses at the company I was working for wanted me to become a terminal manager, but I knew it wasn’t really for me. And then one night, this commercial came across the TV for a professional wrestling school, so I enrolled and got the shit kicked out of me , day one.” Though he wasn’t exactly following in his father’s footsteps, Austin’s parents supported him through the early days.

The way to the top was (unsurprisingly) tough: “Monday night was Memphis,” Austin rattles off matter-of-factly about his early days on the local Tennessee circuit. “Tuesday was Louisville, Wednesday was Indiana, spot show on Thursday, and then we’d drive through the night to Dallas for Friday just to come back Saturday to film Memphis TV and do Nashville that same night.” After years of working the same rooms, week-in and week-out, and living off uncooked potatoes, Austin eventually became a national superstar in the WWE. Still then, there was more to fight: “At one of the few matches my mom came to see, I was wrestling with a Staph infection that had taken hold in my right elbow, and I had to do a Pay-Per-View event later that week. Seeing me so sick wasn’t a great memory for her.” The cumulative effects of a long, injury-filled career eventually brought Austin out of the ring and into acting, where he’s been happy to tap into his slightly less brutal side.

So what exactly makes Steve Austin tick? He’s still an animal in peak physical condition, but his favorite days now are spent motoring around his Texas ranch with his chocolate lab Hershey. Bud Light is still his favorite beer (Austin was renown for his tendencies to drench himself and his vanquished opponents in the suds after a match), but now he favors the subtle complexities of a Cliff Lede cabernet. “I guess I was born with the drive,” he says. “I just always wanted to be successful at what I did, and at whatever you want to do, you have to bust your ass and do it a hundred percent.” Even if you think pro wrestling is fake, his success is pretty real.

Mick Foley recently conducted an interview with MTV News talking about wrestling and “working stiff” (throwing real punches and kicks in a “staged” event). Below is an excerpt from the article:

But Foley said that there was one guy who was especially aggressive. “Stone Cold [Steve Austin] in his prime was no day at the park when he was firing up for his big comeback,” Foley said of the star of “The Expendables” and, like Foley, a former multi-time WWE Champion. “The crowd would be so enthusiastic and he would feed off that enthusiasm. Everyone would benefit except me. But the truth is, among all the wrestling opponents that Steve had, we’d all commiserate and say ‘But we can’t say anything — he’s Stone Cold!’”

For more, you can read the entire article at the link provided above, or watch the video below:

WWE RAW is having it’s 900th episode celebration one week from Monday. Austin is featured in the clip below: