KB Recommends WWE DVDs

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.