One of the questions I get a lot is what DVDs do I think are good and which should people watch.  I figured I’d put together a post going over any WWE DVDs that I’ve seen and whether or not they should or shouldn’t be looked at.  This will include both the match listings and the documentaries, although I usually skip some of the matches as I’ve seen most of what is released.

These are in order from the list of WWE Home Videos from Wikipedia.  Remember: if I leave it off, it’s because I haven’t seen it.  Let’s get to it.

Bret Hitman Hart – Best There Is, Best There Was, Best There Ever Will Be

Three hours of Bret goodness.  Do I need to explain this?  If nothing else it has his matches with Owen and Austin from Wrestlemania if you haven’t picked them up on one of the 1000 other DVDs they’re on.  You also get some good matches with Steamboat and Perfect.  Definitely worth checking out.

Brian Pillman – Loose Cannon

I saw this once years ago and I barely remember it.  The documentary was good but the matches are just ok.  It has the Liger match from 1992 and the Canadian Stampede match which are his career highlights, but other than that it’s nothing great.

Hard Knocks – The Chris Benoit Story

This was one of the better DVDs you’ll ever see and was released just after he won the title at Wrestlemania.  It covers every major match of his career and has some absolute gems, including the Owen tribute match (also on Bret’s DVD), his match with Great Sauske from Japan, his WCW and World Title wins, and an awesome documentary about him returning home to Edmonton as world champion.  If you can sit through it (and find it), definitely worth looking up.

Cheating Death, Stealing Live – The Eddie Guerrero Story

This didn’t work as well as the Benoit DVD but it’s still not bad.  The documentary is better than the match selection, as you hear about Eddie’s drug abuse and personal demons leading up to his recovery and title win.  The matches…..I’m not sure about these.  The problem with the matches is it feels like WWE pulled some random matches out of a hat, threw in the Halloween Havoc 97 match and called it a day.  It’s good, but only the documentary is worth checking out, unless you haven’t seen Eddie vs. Rey from Havoc.

Jake the Snake Roberts – Pick Your Poison

I threw this on one Saturday afternoon when there was nothing good on TV and that’s about all it’s good for.  The documentary sounds more like a plea for sympathy than anything else and I heard a few holes in the stories he told which didn’t match up with the timeline of actual events.  The match selection is also pretty weak as when you think about it, Roberts didn’t have a lot of big matches.  If you’re interested in this you can get it for about $5 on Amazon, but I wouldn’t pay more than that (and I don’t think I did actually).

Mick Foley- Hard Knocks and Cheap Pops

This isn’t much actually as it’s more of a documentary than a definitive DVD, but we’ll get to that later on.  The matches here are nothing special other than the Mind Games match which we’ll revisit later on.  As much of a Foley fan as I am, I wouldn’t bother with this as it’s just over an hour and more of a quickie job you might get for like 2 bucks back in the old Blockbuster days.

NWO – Back in Black

If there has ever been a bigger hatchet job of a DVD, I’d love to know what it is.  This has a really good start with the 1996 stuff, then 1997 is covered in about 5 minutes, we hear about a moment in September of 1998, then it’s 2002 and the NWO is in the WWF.  The NWO is a VERY interesting subject which would make for a good 9 hour or so DVD, but this is just two and a half hours and definitely not worth looking for.  I watched it on the internet and actually went around seeing where the other parts were, because I didn’t believe they cut out as much as they did.  Definitely not worth any time or money.

Ric Flair – The Definitive Collection

This was the sequel to the Ultimate Flair Collection and it’s a different look at Naitch.  This is much more about his life than his in ring work, which is a very interesting subject to say the least.  There are some solid matches on it as well though, with stuff like his 94 match with Steamboat, the 89 Bash against Funk and COTC 1 vs. Sting.  If you pick this up though, pick up the Ultimate Collection as well to get the other major stuff that is included there.  Worth seeing though for the documentary alone.

Road Warriors – The Life and Death of the Most Dominant Tag Team in Wrestling History

As a Road Warriors fan, this was a must for me.  Again the documentary is the better part as the Warriors’ matches aren’t the kind of performances that you can make a long DVD about.  The problem is they squashed most of their opponents, so how can you really get excited after seeing the same things time after time?  The good thing here is it’s only two discs, which was the right call.  Good stuff here though and worth checking out if you’re a fan of the team, which you should be.

Born to Controversy – Rowdy Roddy Piper

Now THIS is what I’m talking about.  Piper is one of the most entertaining guys you’ll EVER see and this is a great set about him.  You get every major match in his career and a good documentary, but more than that you get TWENTY FOUR PIPER’S PITS.  If that doesn’t sell you on this, you’re in the wrong place.  You can get this for like 6 bucks online and I highly recommend it.  His book on the other hand, stay FAR away.

The Shawn Michaels Story – Heartbreak and Triumph

Considering there are at least three Shawn DVDs, it’s kind of hard to remember which is which.  I do remember liking this one though as it focuses more on his life than his matches.  That being said, it’s 9 hours of Shawn Michaels.  How could this not be good?  You also get a rarity with the Rockers winning the tag belts and the Shawn vs. Cena match from London in its entirety.  Good stuff here.

The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior

Then on the other hand there’s this one.  The problem here is that the WWF’s new stance is that Warrior was garbage and a flash in the pan.  Granted they didn’t mind making this flash in the pan the main event of Wrestlemania 6, the second main event on Wrestlemania 7 and th ebig surprise at Wrestlemania 8, but what difference should that make?  This is the DVD where they criticized him for wearing a baseball hat because apparently that made people not want to see him fight Jerry Lawler.  The DVD is nothing special but it’s pathetic hearing the company dump on him after all the money they milked out of him.

McMahon

Now this is a good one.  It’s two hours of praising Vince and how amazing he is.  If you know your history, this is one of the funniest DVDs ever, as Vince talks about backing out of the Georgia Championship Wrestling deal because “they didn’t want to do business” and other gems like that.  THe quality of the set is pretty low, but it’s absolutely hilarious to hear Vince spin things to benefit him.

Greatest Stars of the 80s/90s

These are two different sets but I figured it was easier to just do them together.  The idea is you’ll see a profile of a wrestler for about 10-15 minutes then later on, you get matches from that wrestler.  It’s a good way to show every major name from the generation in one set without getting into too much detail on what’s going on and boring the audience.  These are both fun and there’s a 21st century edition that is probably the same idea.  The 80s and 90s sets are both worth checking out with the 90s being a bit better and faster paced.

Starrcade – The Essential Collection

NOW we’re getting somewhere.  This is one of the few WWE DVDs that I went out and bought as soon as it hit the shelves.  The idea is it’s the top 25 Starrcade matches ever in a countdown format, with each five hosted by someone who was famous at Starrcade.  The match selection is questionable with some headscratchers in there and I still say Tully vs. Magnum should be #1, but it’s a WWE set and we have to praise Flair (even though his best Starrcade match isn’t even #1).  The documentary is…..odd.  Basically they spend 45 minutes talking about the first three shows, then 5 minutes on the next 14 of them and that’s it.  That being said, the first 45 minutes are GREAT and incredibly interesting stuff.  This is worth checking out, but I’d have Youtube open to find some other matches to supplement it.

The Monday Night War

This is one I’ve watched about ten times and it’s still interesting today.  The set mainly focuses on WCW, which is the smart thing to do as it was the dominant force for most of the War.  The problem is once we get past Warrior in WCW, there isn’t much to talk about other than WWF pounding WCW into the ground, so you know they spend a lot of time on it.  It’s a very solid set though and worth seeing if you haven’t before, if nothing else for the matches and extras (such as Cornette’s rants).

The Most Powerful Families in Wrestling

This is a lot like the Best of the 80s and the 90s.  Not much to say here and it’s not much to watch either.  The documentary isn’t bad but it’s not worth going out of your way to find.

Raw DVDs

There are a TON of DVDs on Monday Night Raw and I really can’t remember which I’ve seen and which I haven’t, so pretty much pick and choose.  I remember the 15th anniversary being good and I think I saw the top 100 moments DVD but I can’t remember for sure.

Rise and Fall of ECW

Anyone who follows me knows I do not like ECW.  However, this is one of if not the best DVDs WWE has ever produced.  It covers EVERYTHING about the company and has some fascinating stuff from behind the scenes.  If you haven’t seen this, go find it because I can’t recommend it strongly enough.

Rise and Fall of WCW

This is almost a sequel to Monday Night Wars and it’s not nearly as good.  Some of the logic on here is laughable with Hogan and Nash seemingly being blamed for almost everything that happened to WCW, which is absurd.  This is another version of WWE deciding how history goes, which gets old in a hurry.  Not worth seeing.

Top 50 Superstars of All Time

I think I watched this but I’m not 100% sure.  The list is confusing to say the least but it’s not bad.  Assuming I actually saw it that is.

Hulk Hogan – The Ultimate Anthology

Do I need to explain this?  9 hours of Hogan awesomeness.  Yes this is good.

Macho Madness – The Ultimate Randy Savage Collection

This would be another that I ran out and got when it came out and I’m glad I did.  This is the perfect Savage set with almost every major match in his career plus a solid documentary.  I don’t have much else to say here other than watch this and you’ll see why everyone speaks so highly of Savage.

Mick Foley’s Greatest Hits and Misses

THIS is what we needed to get to.  If there’s a great Foley match you want to see, it’s on this set.  Foley does some commentary on the matches which is very interesting stuff of course.  There’s a special Hardcore Edition of this with a third disc of his mid-2000s stuff which makes it even better.  Between this and his books, you can’t go wrong.  Check it out and read all four of his books as well.  Great set here.

The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection

I mentioned this earlier so I’ll keep this quick.  It’s 9 hours of Flair matches from the 80s and 90s and has some of the highest quality matches on any set you’ll ever find, making it well worth tracking down.

From the Vault: Shawn Michaels

This was one of the first WWE DVD sets and it’s  excellent.  You get the Cell vs. Undertaker, the ladder match against Razor, the Iron Man match, the Mind Games match, the no holds barred match against HHH, and one of my all time favorites in his street fight vs. Diesel, plus some solid extras.  This is one of my personal favorites and AWESOME stuff.

The Rock: The Most Electrifying Man In Sports Entertainment

I don’t remember much of this, but it’s 9 hours of the Rock with a ton of promos.  That enough for you?

Allied Powers

This is a showcase of tag team wrestling and it’s another solid release.  The problem here is it gets repetitive after awhile as you can only sit through so many tag matches in a row.  It’s the “documentary/match” formula again so it works ok, but I’d recommend watching it over a few days instead of at once.

Best of Saturday Night’s Main Event

Another great one, features everything it needs to feature, room for a sequel, great stuff all around.

History of the Intercontinental Championship/WWE Championship

Again it’s two different DVDs but they’re grouped together here.  Both are good enough but with subjects like this, you really can’t hit every highspot (and I would know, as I wrote a book about the WWE Championship.  Details on the front page) in such a long history.  These could both get sequels very easily.

Best of Smackdown: 10th Anniversary

This is a countdown bit with a look at the top 100 moments in the show’s history.  Some are matches and some are moments, but they cover pretty much everything ever on the show.  If you like Smackdown, you’ll like this.  I can’t get much simpler than that.

That’s about it.  As is the case with everything, some are hit and miss and your enjoyment will vary based on personal taste.  The best are Rise and Fall of ECW, Essential Starrcade and Foley’s set with Flair sprinkled in there somewhere.  Anyway, go watch some of these.

Remember how the Intercontinental Title Tournament in Rio de Janeiro was rumored to be fake?  Well WWE has released the brackets for said tournament, which means it MUST be real.

http://www.wwe.com/classics/intercontinental-title-tournament-finally-uncovered-26102625/page-4

You know, because they wouldn’t lie to us.  This is awesome.

All-American Wrestling
Date: March 31, 1985
Host: Gene Okerlund
Commentators: Jack Reynolds, Jesse Ventura, Vince McMahon, Bruno Sammartino

No Mercy 03 is downloading so here’s a show you don’t often see: it’s from Wrestlemania Sunday. Who knows when this was taped but it’s literally airing hours before the biggest show ever. This should be interesting as far as seeing what they say about the upcoming show. Other than that I don’t know what to expect but the matches are taped so it’s not like we’ll be missing much. Let’s get to it.

The theme song is very patriotic.

The featured match is the Bulldogs vs. Goulet/Barry O. I’m riveted to see that. Yep Gene is talking about Mania which is today at 1pm. He runs down the card for today and plugs Wrestlemania whenever he can.

British Bulldogs vs. Barry O/Rene Goulet

The announcer messes up Barry’s name by calling him Bobby. Dynamite and Barry start us off and Dynamite uses the speed to escape whatever is thrown at him. Off to Davey and this must be near their debut. Jesse says he’s never seen the Bulldogs before so you know it’s early in their run. Back to Davey who hooks a crucifix for two. Off to Goulet and both guys get missile dropkicks from Dynamite. Goulet hits a clothesline to bring in Barry. Davey cleans house and the Bulldogs use their stepping stone headbutt spot to pin Barry. BIG pop for the Bulldogs.

Rating: C+. Just a squash, but man the Bulldogs were great when they started out. They were pulling off stuff that had never been seen in America so everyone reacted to them very strongly. Dynamite was so far ahead of his time it’s unreal. Can you imagine him against Jericho or Mysterio in 1996? It would have been incredible.

UPDATE! With Lord Alfred Hayes. It’s about JYD who likes to dance with kids. Ok then.

Big John Studd vs. Jim Young

Studd has $15,000 cash and Andre the Giant’s hair. Young fails at a slam and the pain begins. Andre comes out and beats Studd up for the quick DQ.

Gene sums up the big matches for Mania.

Cyndi Lauper says her girl Wendi Richter will win the title back on Sunday.

Gene is on the phone with Liberace who wants to know where Orndorff gets his robes. He has to drop the call though to talk to the camera.

Mad Maxine vs. Susan Starr

Maxine is a freak with a green mowhawk and allegedly 6’4 but that looks like a stretch. Starr runs away a lot but they spend most of the time circling each other. Starr even gets a leg lock on her. Maxine shrugs it all off and hits a suplex for the pin. This was really bad.

Gene reminds us that you have to see Mania on closed circuit.

Off to Piper’s Pit with Orndorff and Orton. They make fun of the Mania poster. Mr. T. is called a souped up spider monkey and has a banana smeared over his face. Hogan gets an egg. Orton’s arm is still hurt. It’s a very slow healing injury you see.

Mr. T. and Hogan are in New York to train. They’re on a building somewhere but Mr. T. wants to go to Central Park and beat up muggers. And that’s just what they do. Well they go to Central Park and T gives him training in “street fighting”, which means running in place. They go to the gym to train to Eye of the Tiger and hit each other in the head while sitting on the floor with their legs interlocked. Then they get on a train while people cheer. Now they’re in MSG with a piece of wood on the floor. They fire each other up, and that’s it. This was out there man.

Gene talks about Mania some more.

Greg Valentine vs. Pete Pompeii

Bruno is alone on commentary and this is joined in progress. Oh thank goodness Vince jumps in. Valentine is IC Champion here but it’s non-title of course. This is a squash and Valentine pounds him down before hooking a chinlock. He hooks a quick half crab, drops a middle rope elbow, and finishes with the Figure Four.

Rating: D. Just a squash but a long one. That being said, we needed something longer than usual to fill in the time. Vince can’t pronounce the jobber’s name, calling him Pompell which is funny to me for some reason. Other than that, not much to see here but it’s a squash so what are you looking for?

Gene runs down the card again and brings in the US Express. Albano is here too and is clean shaven. He says they’ll win and keep the titles. The champs say the same.

Gene talks about Wrestlemania a lot to end the show.

Overall Rating: C-. You can’t complain much about the show because the majority of this was to talk about Wrestlemania. It’s a big commercial and to their credit, they hyped the show up pretty well. It’s still boring but they were trying at least which is really all you can ask for. Plus if its the day of the show and you have to go somewhere to see it, you’ll already know if you’re going or not by this point.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Here’s Wrestlemania if you’re interested:

Superstars
Date: March 29, 2012
Location: Phillips Arena, Atlanta, Georgia
Commentators: Scott Stanford, Matt Striker

It’s the go home show for Wrestlemania here as we’re just three days away from one of the biggest shows ever. Since this is Superstars there’s almost no telling what the matches are going to be. You know unless you looked up the card or something like that. Anyway this is usually a pretty entertaining show but odds are it’s going to be nothing but Mania hype, which is completely understandable. Let’s get to it.

Alex Riley vs. Heath Slater

This is when Slater was still just a One Man Band instead of part of Three. The announcers immediately start talking about Mania and how it’s Once In A Lifetime….until next year of course. Slater sends him into the corner but Riley comes back with some right hands. A big running clothesline gets two on Heath but Slater kicks out the leg to take over.

It’s chinlock time and Slater hits a kind of STO to stop an escape attempt. Back to the chinlock followed by a neckbreaker for two for Heath. Slater misses a charge in the corner and there’s Riley’s big spinebuster. The A-Bomb (falling DDT out of the corner) only gets two and Slater immediately hits his jumping sleeper drop for the pin.

Rating: C-. I’m a fan of Riley but this match wasn’t their best work. There wasn’t a good flow to the match and they felt like they were just going from move to move with nothing in between. I still don’t get what happened to Riley. He was getting a push and was regularly beating Miz but then he just disappeared. I’ve heard of some backstage issues, but with the talent he has it could be overlooked to a degree.

Wrestlemania ad.

Wrestlemania Magazine ad.

We recap Punk vs. Jericho which is over who is the real Best in the World. Punk had been saying it for months but Jericho returned. He had been saying it for years and then brought in Punk’s family history of substance abuse.

Video on the End of An Era, which was the tagline for Undertaker vs. HHH in the Cell. I’m still not sure what era ended as both are scheduled for matches at this year’s Mania. We get nice history packages of both guys here. It’s set to Memory Remains by Metallica.

We recap the setup for the Divas tag with Maria Menounos.

Trailer for Edge’s movie Bending the Rules.

Tensai is coming. Now if only he would go.

We get a video on what Rock vs. Cena means to both Rock and Cena. This is from the Once in a Lifetime special. I remember watching this and getting more fired up for a match than I ever have before. I HAD to see it.

Justin Gabriel vs. Tyson Kidd

The high fliers take it to the mat to start and it’s a standoff. Apparently this is over a disagreement over who is the better high flier. They speed things up with both guys hitting some leg trips until Kidd is sent to the floor. Justin follows, only to get caught in a Russian legsweep to send him into the barricade. Apparently Kidd is a heel here.

Back inside and Gabriel catches him in an STO for two. Justin misses a spinwheel kick but counters a rana into a powerbomb for two. A top rope Lionsault misses Kidd but he can’t hook the Sharpshooter either. Another attempt at a rana by Kidd is countered and it’s a rollup by Gabriel for the pin.

Rating: C. Given the nature of this show, did you really expect the last match to be anything of note? This was here to set up a match on Wrestlemania as the pair would team up and somehow get a tag title shot despite never having teamed together before this point. You know, because that’s how tag wrestling works anymore.

Kidd and Gabriel shake hands post match. See what I mean?

Overall Rating: C. That’s for commercial, because that’s what this show was. Not that I’m complaining mind you because everyone should know what you’re getting into during Wrestlemania week. That being said, not a single mention of Sheamus vs. Bryan here. Bryan wasn’t seen at all and Sheamus was only used for a soundbyte in the Rock vs. Cena video. Not that I’m surprised or anything, but man alive it’s A WORLD TITLE MATCH. Come on people. The show wasn’t bad though and I want to watch Wrestlemania again so points for that one.

Here’s Wrestlemania if you’re interested:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2012/04/01/wrestlemania-xxviii-one-of-the-best-shows-of-all-time/

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Uh…..cool I guess.  He’s got the titles and all that jazz but I’m really not sure I’d call him a hall of famer.

Tonight on Raw, we saw a clip of Swagger attacking Del Rio’s left knee.  Then for Del Rio’s matchhis right knee was taped, because WWE can’t remember left and right.

Saturday Night’s Main Event 32
Date: March 18, 2006
Location: Cobo Arena, Detroit, Michigan
Commentators: Jerry Lawler, Jim Ross, Tazz

And the show is back. What used to be the biggest show of the weekend when it was on is now back! And no one cares at all. It got hype but no one watched. There’s even a main event tonight: Shawn vs. Shane. Yeah I don’t care either. It’s a build for Mania and that’s all there is to it. Let’s get this over with.

The McMahons say they’re ready for Shawn.

Shawn is ready for Shane and says a few bad words.

HHH says he’s ready for Cena at Mania. They’re using the old style of interviews to open the show which is smart. Cena, HHH’s partner tonight, runs in to make fun of it.

JBL imitates My Name is Earl. He has a drinking contest with Austin tonight.

Boogeyman acts creepy.

HHH/John Cena vs. Randy Orton/Rey Mysterio/Kurt Angle

This is Raw’s main event vs. Smackdown’s main event. That’s not terrible but there’s no realistic way that Smackdown can lose. Cena gets some hearty boos for his troubles. The remix of Rey’s music SUCKS. Cena and Orton start us off. Feel the shock! There’s a ton of smoke in the arena which makes it kind of hard to see. HHH and Angle is a big match that I would have liked to see get more time.

More or less this is just a way to get each combination of all five guys including arguing between each other. The crowd boos the heck out of Rey vs. Cena which is kind of odd. HHH and Cena argue their way into a commercial. HHH and Mysterio fight WAY too long for a multi-man match. Cena makes the Superman run and the fans openly boo.

As he goes off, naturally HHH Pedigrees him. He does the same to Rey though just to be fair. And Orton takes out Angle. No one seems to care about any of this mind you. We’re left with Cena and Orton and Cena rolls him up for the pin. That was the definition of a mess at the end there.

Rating: D+. This wasn’t interesting at all in practicality but to be fair the concept was kind of decent. Seriously though, they beat three world champions without a ton of issues and HHH leaving. How in the world does that even begin to make sense? Oh yeah it’s Cena in 2006.

We talk about the Hall of Fame inductions and list everyone off. It’s Hart and Guerrero as the headliners even though Guerrero doesn’t belong in the Hall of Fame but he died so he’s automatically great I guess.

Teddy Long checks on Booker who says he’s injured. He’s faking and doesn’t want to fight Boogeyman. I can’t blame him. I’d rather hear Sharmell shout instead. On second thought give me the worm guy.

We come back for the Cutting Edge with Foley as the guest. This was leading up to the big hardcore match that made Edge seem more legit at Mania. He of course calls Foley a coward because that worked so well in the past. Foley shows up with tacks and winds up in them. He smiles and Edge panics. It ends with Edge getting a conchairto and Foley being happy. Not bad at all and it sets up the match even more which is all I can ask for in the end I guess.

Booker was faking. Boogey is hanging upside down in his locker room and Booker runs away screaming. Now tell me what’s wrong with this. You got it. Booker is wearing the wrong colored socks. Always gray Booker. Remember that.

It’s time for the beer drinking contest between JBL and Austin.  Something tells me I know how this is going to end. JBL dances for awhile. There is a TON of beer set up in the ring. Apparently Taker is going to get called out by Mark Henry. Good to know I suppose. He runs down Detroit sports and says that they couldn’t win an inter squad game. Don’t you always lose those technically? He runs down the whole city and it’s a bit stupid indeed.

He talks about Benoit and their match at Mania and he needs to just shut up already. Finally the glass shatters and we’re ready to go. There’s actually a story here as Austin gave his list of best wrestlers from Texas and left JBL off. So they’re having a beer drinking contest. That’s completely pointless but they’re trying I guess. Austin is so smooth on the mic that it’s scary. Thankfully they point out the Texas thing. JBL says that if he didn’t have a broken hand he’s stomp a mud hole in Austin. He stomps with his hand. That’s rather stupid.

Apparently Austin has been practicing his drinking: 24 cans and 15 pitchers. Wouldn’t that like, kill him or something? It would have to bust his stomach or something. Both guys have 25 beers (Canadian apparently) and it’s the most they can drink in a minute. JBL thinks they should stand back to back and Austin doesn’t want to and JBL turns it into a Brokeback Mountain joke of all things. Austin is just destroying him here on the mic.

JBL is cheating by going early and then pouring it down his tie. Austin’s reaction is great but he gets beer thrown on him. That’s just dumb man. Benoit throws JBL back in and Austin…ok if you don’t know what he does, you have no business reading this review.

After a commercial, we’re ready for this.

Victoria/Candice Michelle vs. Mickie James/Trish Stratus

Mickie was a lesbian stalker that was hot as could be back then, including a kiss and a shower issue. Candice is on the cover of Playboy at this point also. And it’s a two and a half minute match. It’s all Trish, literally. I think the point is that they won’t let Mickie in. And Trish wins on her own anyway, only to get smacked by the hot crazy lady.

Rating: N/A. The girls looked amazing if nothing else.

Henry calls out Taker. The Druids bring out a casket and Taker beats up Henry and Daivari. Their Mania match made Henry look bad. Think about that for a minute.

Shawn Michaels vs. Shane McMahon

This is a street fight since Shane is in it. Oh I forgot to mention how amazing Lillian looks with her hair pulled back. Lillian looks amazing with her hair pulled back. Glad I got that done. We start in the aisle and Shawn is on fire. The fans want tables. Oh joy indeed. ECW is on at the moment so that makes sense I guess. Shane sends Shawn into the post to bring us to even. Vince is at ringside also.

And we have a ladder two minutes in. Well at least they’re not wasting any time with it. And Shane gets suplexed from the top of the ladder through two tables and everyone is out cold. We’re 4 minutes in mind you and it’s commercial time. Back from the break and Shawn is dominating. He goes up a ladder and Vince gets the two worst cane shots I have EVER seen. They barely made any noise!

More or less it’s a handicap match here. I was at the handicap match these guys had at Backlash and it was pretty bad. Could Ross be any more ridiculous about his insulting of Vince? It’s always freaking stupid. He has no soul and no god apparently. Yeah that’s not too far at all. More or less it’s all Shane at this point. Screw the more or less part actually. The Coast to Coast misses and Vince takes it in the face.

Never mind that it wouldn’t hurt very much at all the way they did it but whatever. Shawn makes his comeback and hits the chin music but the referee is pulled out by Vince. And then, and I can’t believe I’m typing this, Shawn is put in the Sharpshooter and Vince says to ring the bell. That’s how it ends. Yep, that’s really it.

Rating: C+. There were some good bumps but the ending made me shake my head very hard. They’re referencing it 9 years later, even though they used it a few months ago too. Anyway, other than that this was pretty good I guess but nothing masterful. Shawn can bump as well as anyone in the world and that helped a lot, but the ending was just idiotic.

Overall Rating: C+. There was one good match here and two good segments. Other than that there wasn’t much to talk about. The show tanked beyond belief so after this they more or less stopped trying to make this a big deal at all and that was likely the best thing they could have done. Not a great show, but far better than some of the others they would come out with in the future.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Toronto House Show
Date: March 15, 1987
Location: Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon, Jimmy Hart, Johnny V

Now as anyone that has read my reviews knows, I am obsessed with house shows from the old days, especially the late 80s. This is 2 weeks before Mania III, but it’s not your traditional show. For some reason, what we have here is a one night tag team tournament. Without knowing otherwise, there’s nothing on the line here and it’s just a tournament for the sake of having a tournament. This is the absolute golden era of tag team wrestling though, so this should be great. Let’s get to it.

On further review, this is for the #1 contendership. A word to those of you that might not get how this is possible. Back in the day, there were FAR fewer house shows, but they had bigger cards. For TV, rather than having a show like Raw or Smackdown, a lot of the time you would have guys in a studio who would show matches from house shows with dubbed in commentary.

They would edit some stuff out and air it on TV. Since most fans hadn’t seen the show or didn’t get what was going on, they thought these were matches taped for the TV show rather than recycled house show matches, which is what they were. This is a complete (I think) house show from a WWF stronghold: Toronto. These are the things I’m talking about when I mention the Boston shows on the Superstars reviews.

Here are your brackets.

Demolition
British Bulldogs

Can-Am Connection
Allen/Spivey

Paul Orndorff/King Kong Bundy
Muraco/Orton

Kamala/Sika
Killer Bees

Could be worse. No Harts so maybe this is for a title shot? No Rougeaus either, but that was a tag title feud at this time so that might explain it.

Quite a commentary team there.

First Round: Kamala/Sika vs. Killer Bees

Sika is more famous for being in the Wild Samoans. Has Kamala ever actually won anything? I don’t remember a freaking thing that he actually accomplished. The camera angle is odd at this show as it’s from an angle and the ring is kind of up on a platform if that makes sense. The crowd is kind of small too. The ring looks small too. Valiant isn’t a good talker but he’s very energetic. Sika and Brunzell start. For some reason Kamala starts climbing the ropes. Ok then.

No clue why the heels are teaming together. Oh apparently they’re a semi-regular tag team. As always the idea of them registering for a tag team is very funny. Their manager, the Grand Wizard, would be replaced by Mr. Fuji, who Shawn Michaels LOVES. They get a double slam on Kamala which was kind of cool. We get to the formula stuff here as Blair, the less talented of the faces, gets beaten down a lot.

That ends though due to the first instance of something I’m sure you’ll hear a lot of tonight: heel miscommunication. A hot tag to Brunzell and a quick dropkick gets the win for them. On replay, you can see how awesome that one was. He kicked Sika right in the freaking face.

Rating: C+. Not bad for an opener at all. They used your standard formula here but at an accelerated pace. To be fair though, the heels are pretty much crap here though and that’s hurting things. Bees were their usual solid selves, but they were being held down here by bad opponents.

First Round: Jerry Allen/Dan Spiver vs. Can-Am Connection

This is a very odd choice for a team here. Mike Rotunda had left and Spivey had no partner. Allen on the other hand….was a jobber. He’s kind of like the Carlito of his day, minus the credibility. Yeah think of him like that. Allen and Spivey get no reaction. Can-Ams are the young pretty boys who get big girl pops. Jimmy talks about his clients’ three matches at Mania, including saying that Alice Cooper couldn’t carry a tune if it had handles on it.

That line would be in Honky Tonk Man’s future song, so I wonder who wrote that one. Valiant is REALLY annoying. Allen and Zenk start us off. Wow I’d be so riveted to this match. They botch a leap frog. That’s hard to do. Jimmy lists off some songs his band had. For those of you that don’t know, Hart was in a mainstream band called the Gents and they actually weren’t that bad. They toured with the Beach Boys in the 60s.

We hit the formula stuff so that’s fine. They mention Allen isn’t Spivey’s full time partner. At this time, Valiant is Demolition’s manager. This isn’t very interesting at all. To be fair that could be due to a lack of heel talent. There’s a lot of that going around tonight apparently. This match has been 80% rest holds. Everyone comes in at once and in a pretty weak looking spot, Martel hits Allen with a cross body for the pin.

Rating: D. Just boring as possible here. It was mainly due to the terrible heel team though so I can’t complain much there. The Connection was pretty solid though so I have to give them the benefit of the doubt here. Just a bad match overall though.

First Round: Demolition vs. British Bulldogs

Valiant is at ringside for this. I think Demolition has been around about a month at this point and Smash isn’t the one that he would eventually be. The Bulldogs had just lost the tag belts to the Harts in a screwjob so they have a reason to go after Hart and to win the tournament here. At this point it’s next to impossible to tell Demolition apart as Smash really does look like Axe at this point.

It’s been all Demolition so far but to be fair it’s only been a few minutes. Dynamite is the one getting beaten down. I’m stunned too. Davey gets a hot tag and the fans are INTO it. Valiant trips Smith up so like idiots, Dynamite throws a chair in and Davey hits Axe with it RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE REFEREE. Seriously, that was idiotic. Gorilla says he can’t blame them. Uh, I can.

Rating: D+. This was short but it was intense for what it was. Demolition was fast on the rise at this point so the result doesn’t surprise me at all. This really could have been good if it had gone a few minutes longer.

First Round: Don Muraco/Bob Orton vs. King Kong Bundy/Paul Orndorff

Heel vs. heel here which is really rare to say the least. I don’t think Paul and King teamed together many more times after this. Valiant suggests that these are four of the best wrestlers in the world today. That’s very funny. The announcers call over Mr. Fuji to say a few words. Nothing of note even though I just noted it. And let’s talk about Hogan vs. Andre. Sure why not. Wow the dynamic here is just weird.

I think Orndorff is heel here. He would have been face in the fall but heel late last year. Fuji throws in the cane and it hits Orton in the head. I mean Muraco had it but I figured I’d cut out the middle aspect to save some time. Orndorff gets the pin.

Rating: D. I know I’ve used that a few times but this just hasn’t been that good of a show at all. The screwy finishes aren’t helping things out either so that likely has a lot to do with it. The matchup here wasn’t going to work no matter what though so I’d chalk it up to that.

The Semifinals are now set.

Demolition
Can-Am Connection

Orndorff/Bundy
Killer Bees

I think I know the finals already. We have an hour left and that’s all that’s on the card? Really?

Semi-Finals: Can-Am Connection vs. Demolition

Demolition is kind of popular here, foreshadowing their face turn…a year and a half from now. Ok so it’s not foreshadowing at all. This is apparently a main event in any arena in the entire world. When anyone says that, the first thing that comes to my mind: WHY IS IT NOT MAIN EVENTING THIS SHOW THEN??? Demolition is dominating for the most part here as you would expect them to. What follows is more or less as basic of a match as you could possibly ask for.

This simply isn’t much to talk about but it’s not bad. Demolition dominates for a good while until Martel gets the hot tag. Everyone comes in, the legal guys go to the floor, Zenk hits the post, and there’s your countout to put Demolition in the finals.

Rating: C-. Not as bad, but still not very good whatsoever. The screwy endings continue here which is rapidly getting on my nerves. It’s another formula match here which is fine but it’s getting very repetitive.

Semi-Finals: Killer Bees vs. Paul Orndorff/King Kong Bundy

Bundy says that they should just get the titles now. Thanks for that Mr. Bundy. The Bees have their trademark masks which is a nice face acting heelish move. There’s no way to tell them apart at this point so I’m not going to try. Again, why is Bundy getting cheered? Apparently Brunzell is in the ring at the moment. This is another quick match as the heels beat down one of the Bees but as they brag to the crowd the Bees do the switch. A rollup ends it.

Rating: D+. Again, just nothing to talk about here. This was maybe 3 minutes long and I have no idea how this is going to end up. This wasn’t great or anything at all but the ending sets up the showdown with Demolition I guess.

We have 38 minutes left and Demolition vs. The Killer Bees? That’s it?

Sivi Afi vs. Red Demon

Uh, ok then. Can you spell filler? If you can’t, pay more attention as I just wrote it out for you. WOW the crowd is dead for this. I can’t blame them either. This would be the equivalent of a jobber lower than Santino vs. Santino but without the interesting aspect of it. See what I mean? Demon has some tape or a rope or something to choke him out with. Yeah Idon’t care at all. This is just a waste of four minutes as Afi hits a cross body off the top for the win.

Rating: F+. Uh yeah. Let’s get to the next match please.

Finals: Killer Bees vs. Demolition

So it’s a 32 minute final. Yeah I’m thinking NO on that one. Smash and Brunzell start us off as we’re talking about Elvis for no apparent reason. This is very reminiscent of all the other matches, with nothing of note happening and this just being your standard match that could have been on a regular TV show. And this is the final match right? Got it.

Demolition is dominating of course and here come the masks. Gorilla said those exact words but I typed them first. I BEAT MONSOON!!! And a sunset flip off the top by Brunzell ends it? Ok then.

Rating: C+. A bit better but still nothing at all to write home about, let alone write a review of 23 years after it happened. Oh never mind. Anyway, nothing great here at all but it could have been much worse I guess.

And we have 24 minutes left in the tape.

Hillbilly Jim vs. Dino Bravo

Both guys aren’t anything special but Jim was Hogan’s buddy so he’s of course over as all get out. I wouldn’t go messing with a country boy. He had been around about a year and a half at this point and his biggest feuds were behind him. That sums things up rather well for him. Oh and Bravo has brown hair and is wearing the same tights that Spivey was wearing earlier. Hart mentions his accomplishments in music including the tour with the Beach Boys. He really was a huge asset to Vince.

We’re almost four minutes in and I don’t think anything past a headlock has happened. Ah here we go as Bravo is actually doing some stuff. It’s boring as heck but he’s doing something at least. And there goes the referee. That’s good enough for the DQ. Scratch that. It’s bad enough for the DQ. Nothing good about this match.

Rating: F. Again, this is pure filler and it was bad filler at that. I want this show to end like NOW.

Tag Titles: Killer Bees vs. Hart Foundation

Well ok then. Apparently this is the reward for the win. Better than nothing I guess. The Harts try to walk off since the Bees are wearing their masks but they’re declared legal. This should be a good match if nothing else. The masks are removed and we stall some more. Apparently the match has been signed already. That’s impressive since the other match ended like 8 minutes ago. Those are some fast lawyers.

Danny Davis is with them and isn’t wrestling tonight yet he’s wearing the shorts anyway. Ok then. Anvil and Brunzell start us off. Anvil takes his straps off at the very beginning for no adequately explored reason. These four always had solid chemistry together and this doesn’t seem to be any exception. A fan jumps the railing for reasons of genuine idiocy. Brunzell runs into Anvil and everyone is down.

We get a lot of standard tag stuff, such as the hot tag with the referee not looking and the slam getting dropkicked for a cover for a long two. The masks go back on and we get a double sleeper. Brunzell gets a small package on Hart but Davis turns it over, allowing Hart to get the pin and keep the titles. Post match the Bees beat up Davis to an ERUPTION.

Rating: B-. By far the best match of the night. I think Brunzell once said these two teams wrestled between 300 and 600 times and it shows. This is one of their weaker matches but it’s still pretty decent stuff, given that they had like 8 minutes to do it in. Not great, but good enough.

Overall Rating: D. If you enjoy either 80s tag wrestling or the Killer Bees, GET THIS IMMEDIATELY. Other than that, this is pretty weak to put it mildly. Now to be fair with the apparent total lack of star power and the tournament to hold things together, this wasn’t terrible, but dang it wasn’t anything good either.

I know Mania was coming up, but seriously, the biggest stars on the card were I guess the Harts? This was pretty sad but to be fair it was a house show, so I can’t complain that much about it. Actually I could but I can give it sympathy here.

I’m not sure I agree with #1.Disc 1

Chemistry

#25 – Triple H vs. Mick Foley

#24 – Tazz vs. Sabu

#23 – Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero

#22 – Bruiser Brody vs. Abdullah the Butcher

#21 – Hulk Hogan vs. Roddy Piper

Radioactive

#20 – CM Punk vs. John Cena

#19 – Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar

#18 – Randy Orton vs. Triple H

#17 – Verne Gagne vs. Nick Bockwinkel

#16 – Mankind vs. The Undertaker

Underground Laboratory

#15 – Tommy Dreamer vs. Raven

#14 – Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker

#13 – Triple H vs. The Rock

#12 – John Cena vs. Edge

#11 – Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage

Combustible

#10 – Tully Blanchard vs. Magnum T.A.

#9 – The Undertaker vs. Kane

#8 – Edge & Christian vs. Hardy Boyz vs. Dudley Boyz

#7 – Dusty Rhodes vs. Ric Flair

#6 – Von Erichs vs. The Fabulous Freebirds

Quintessential Elements

#5 – Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Rock

#4 – Andre the Giant vs. Hulk Hogan

#3 – Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat

#2 – Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart

Nucleus

#1 – Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Mr. McMahon

Interaction and Reaction

Disc 2
WWE Championship Match
Hulk Hogan vs. “Rowdy” Roddy Piper
The War to Settle the Score • February 18, 1985

“I Quit” Steel Cage Match for the NWA United States Championship
Tully Blanchard vs. Magnum T.A.
Starrcade • November 28, 1985

Bruiser Brody vs. Abdullah the Butcher
World Class Championship Wrestling • July, 1987

Badstreet Rules Match
Kevin & Kerry Von Erich vs. Terry Gordy & Buddy Roberts
World Class Championship Wrestling • February, 1988

Hulk Hogan & “Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase & Andre the Giant
SummerSlam • August 29, 1988

The Undertaker vs. Mankind
King of the Ring • June 23, 1996

Disc 3
Grudge Match

Tazz vs. Sabu
ECW Barely Legal • April 13, 1997

The Final Battle

Tommy Dreamer vs. Raven
ECW WrestlePalooza • June 6, 1997

“Winner Take All” Handicap Ladder Match
Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Mr. McMahon & Shane McMahon
King of the Ring • June 27, 1999

WWE Championship Match
Triple H vs. The Rock
Backlash • April 30, 2000

WWE Championship Match
Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Rock
Rebellion • November 3, 2001

WWE Championship Match
Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar
SummerSlam • August 24, 2003

Steel Cage Match for the WWE Championship
John Cena vs. Edge
Raw • October 2, 2006

Blu-ray Exclusives
Shawn Michaels’ Tribute to The Undertaker
SmackDown • March 27, 2009

Six-Man Tag Team Match for the WWE Championship
Triple H, Batista & Shane McMahon vs. Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase
Backlash • April 26, 2009

WWE Championship Match
CM Punk vs. John Cena
Night of Champions • September 16, 2012

Saturday Night’s Main Event 20
Date: March 11, 1989
Location: Hersheypark Arena, Hershey, Pennsylvania
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Jesse Ventura

We close it out with this. This would be the go home show for Mania 5. The Mega Powers have officially split and tonight Liz has to pick one of them. I feel like I’m on Springer or something. We also have Hogan vs. Bad News Brown which is kind of a controversial match as it more or less caused Brown to realize he was never going to be a main event guy. He wound up leaving a year and a half later but this was kind of the first straw. Other than that we have nothing of note, so let’s get to it.

We recap the Mega Powers breaking up about a month or so ago and the show is titled the Decision of a Lifetime.

Jesse sort of takes over the intro and sends us to Gene which makes Vince upset.

Bobby says he wants to get rid of Beefcake to protect the image of Rude.

Beefcake threatens to cut Rude’s hair.

Brutus Beefcake vs. Rick Rude

This is like the dream match of the 80s midcard. I mean think about it: these two were the guys that were always dominating either side of the midcard and yet they never got a huge feud together which is a shame. Rude has Warrior’s face on his tights, which I guess means the feud hadn’t started yet since Jesse isn’t sure why it’s there. Beefcake gets the sleeper early but lets it go for no apparent reason. I guess you can chalk it up to a lack of intelligence.

Ok so apparently Rude vs. Warrior is already set. Rude takes over for a little while and here comes Andre, perhaps looking for a hot sandwich or maybe a side of beef. I love Rude’s overselling of atomic drops. Andre gets Brutus on the floor and chokes him. Cue Jake for the run-in and the natural DQ. John Studd, who would ultimately referee Andre vs. Roberts, makes the save.

Rating: D+. This never really went anywhere as it just couldn’t get off the ground. The whole run in ending didn’t help this either. There was no real structure and definitely no story going on in it. I really would have liked to see a long program from these guys but alas it never happened.

Hogan says he’ll win.

Brown says Hogan needs to worry about Savage. There’s also a hint of Liz sleeping with Tunney for helping Savage. That went nowhere.

Hogan says stuff about Savage.

Hulk Hogan vs. Bad News Brown

Liz is with Hogan. The arena is weird looking as there’s no entryway but rather what looks like a hockey board that they open up. Brown takes over to start as is the tradition for a lot of Hogan matches. This only lasts a few minutes as I’m amazed at what Brown was back in this era. If he had been around say 8 years later, he would have been pure gold. Hogan goes to the head but it doesn’t work, making me really wonder how many of these stereotypes were unintentional.

Brown accidentally punches the post and this has been pretty one sided so far with Hogan dominating for the most part. Hogan no sells a chair shot and Brown leaves, saying hang on a second. He comes back shortly….with a broom? It goes nowhere and Brown FINALLY takes over with a clothesline. Brown gets a legdrop for two but it’s only kind of a power kickout.

Hogan gets beaten up and then Brown grabs the mic and goes Rock, talking to Hogan and telling him it’s Ghetto Blaster (his finisher, a running enziguri) time which of course misses. Maybe it would have hit if he hadn’t told him that. Hogan hits a high knee to set up the leg drop to end it. Well that’s different. He and Liz pose a lot.

Rating: C+. Not bad at all here. Again, Brown was an AWESOME character and could have been a great heel both here and ten years later. Him vs. Rock or Austin would have sold great and the fact that he was a legit fighter (Bronze medal in judo in the Olympics) would have easily opened the door to MMA if he wanted to go there. Decent little match and different than what you’re used to from Hulk which is a nice change of pace.

Savage wants Liz’s answer.

Ted DiBiase unveils the Million Dollar Belt.

Blazer says he’s going to fly, even from the rafters if he has to. Hokey smoke.

Ted DiBiase vs. Blue Blazer

Blazer is a kind of superhero character played by Owen Hart. Blazer backflips into the ring and DiBiase just drills him with a clothesline. This is more or less DiBiase being his usual awesome self and Blazer trying to get out of the blocks. He manages to land on his feet coming out of a backdrop which was very nice. Cross body gets two and DiBiase is in trouble. In a very quick ending, Blazer is dominating but gets caught in a powerslam for the pin.

Rating: B-. Given that this was less than four minutes long, this was very good. Owen had a knack for fast matches that only went a few minutes and making them awesome. This was a great example of that as in less than four minutes there are two distinct advantages and then an ending which makes sense for the match as Blazer said he would go higher and higher but DiBiase caught him going too high and got the win because of it. And that my friends, is why DiBiase was one of the best ever as far as psychology goes.

Liz comes out for the announcement and cops out by saying she’ll be in both. At first she says no about Hogan so Savage comes out and is a jerk, so of course she says no to him too. Savage’s insanity was just perfect, especially since he could more than back it up in the ring. Hogan comes out and we have the big standoff with Liz in the middle. It’s still an awesome visual to see this showdown. If Savage had held the belt at Mania, the rematch could have drawn MILLIONS.

Quick cameo: Pat Patterson (with BLACK hair) stops Savage from going insane. Well more insane I guess.

Heenan is tired of the Rockers and the Brainbusters are going to win the titles. Odd that the last show was their exit and this is their (TV) debut.

The Rockers, also in their national TV debut, say they’ll steal the show.

Brainbusters vs. Rockers

Slingshot suplex is countered maybe 2 seconds in. This is insanity from the get go. Shawn nips up and catches Arn coming off the top. Just incredibly fast paced stuff here with Shawn and Tully putting on a clinic out there. One of the reasons the Brainbusters were awesome was that they could wrestle absolutely any style from fast to slow to ground to aerial to submission to brawling or whatever. Heenan pulls the top rope down and Shawn goes over so Brain is tossed.

After a break the Busters get a blind tag and Arn drills Jannetty to take over for his team. Marty gets beaten down for a little while but the hot tag to Shawn evens things out all over again. It falls apart and Shawn freaking DIVES over the ropes to get at Arn, throwing punches as he goes down. It’s a double count out but that’s fine as neither team should lose here.

Rating: B. I really liked this and thought about going a bit higher. This was a very fast paced match and a way to show off both of these teams for how awesome they really were. The Rockers would remain awesome for a good while as would the Busters. How did the Rockers never officially win the tag belts? It’s saying a lot that the Harts and other teams were that much better.

We recap Red Rooster turning face with even less people caring somehow. This led to the Brooklyn Brawler joining the Heenan Family in one of the funniest backhanded compliments ever. Heenan picked him to push against Rooster because he could take anyone and make them as good as he made Rooster. In other words, no talent required!

Heenan says Brawler is a bigger and better nobody than Rooster. This was probably a rib somehow but it was great.

Rooster says he’s a somebody. And he’s good enough, he’s smart enough, and doggone it, people like him.

Red Rooster vs. Brooklyn Brawler

The match starts while we’re in a break and it’s a squash. It’s a minute long and Rooster wins with a small package. I think that’s longer than the “blowoff” of Rooster vs. Heenan at Mania.

Savage is ticked off and says he doesn’t need Liz to end the show.

Overall Rating: B. This is a fairly high grade but this was a good show. Four matches and a minute long whatever with some nice build to Mania thrown in. What more can you ask for, including a rather good tag match. This worked all around and is a great way to cap off this series. This was kind of a weird time for the company as Mania 5 kind of sucked but better days were coming. Good way to close this out though.

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