10 Bizarro Commercials Featuring Wrestlers
9. Stone Cold Steve Austin And D'Lo Brown - 1-800-Collect
At least this advert takes place on familiar ground. If you watch it muted, the scuffle almost passes as a squash match between Stone Cold Steve Austin and D’Lo Brown. The strangeness emerges on closer inspection.
Austin announces he isn’t talking to D’Lo Brown in a style closer to a tiff than Austin's usual brand of aggression-fuelled wit. Austin is furious with Brown’s insensitivity in dialling 0 instead of 1-800-Collect, which would have saved ‘The Texas Rattlesnake’ “a bundle.”
The beat down includes Austin delivering a rather impressive Ceasro-esque swing, which persuades Brown to vow never to hurt Austin again via phone changes. Nevertheless, D'Lo is still fling out of the ring and through the arena ceiling.
We know that rivalries in the Attitude Era could be sparked and continued via unconventional plot points, but this whole presentation feels like an unintentional parody of late-'90s booking. Adding to the confusion is our Britishness and the advances in phone technology since the advert airing, yet it remains a quirky piece of '90s pop culture and a reminder of a time when our niche hobby was vastly embraced by the mainstream.