WWE released a DVD set in late 2003 celebrating the company's first fifty years of existence. It was a bold undertaking, trying to cover that amount of time and do it justice. But, on the whole, WWE did a fantastic job with the documentary. They covered most of the major events and paid tribute to the stars who helped make the company what it was. With one exception. While WWE were liberal with their praise for Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan and John Cena, there was a Texas Rattlesnake who was surprisingly downplayed in the feature. Austin's contributions to the business were not given any where near the amount of credit as they should have and Austin appeared infrequently as a talking head interviewee. Why would WWE do that? Everyone knows that it was Austin's Stone Cold character, and subsequent feud with the evil Mr. McMahon, that set the WWF on fire in the late 90s and led to wrestling's biggest ever boom period. Nobody got bigger pops, sold more tickets and shifted more merchandise than Steve Austin. WWE did do Austin's career justice on a previous four-disc DVD release. The two and a half hour documentary was more than adequate. That WWE glossed over Austin in the WWE 50 documentary is not only nonsensical but also disrespectful.
