I sense this one might open a can of worms.
Have you ever put together a list of 'must-have' wrestling dvd's, classic shows that every fan should check out at least once? It would help with my buying decisions.
I am interested in actual shows, not so much documentaries or compilations.
Well the problem here, of course, is that not everything awesome has been released on DVD to this point, and in fact there are some glaring absences even from the period when WWE started releasing everything they could on DVD.
Safest bet: The Wrestlemania Anthology. A wussy choice, but you get some great stuff and the truly great stuff is generally saved for here anyway
Stuff that should be released but isn't:
- Showdown at Shea, with Cole & Foley on commentary. They should seriously archive this in DVD format and release it, because with the comedy commentary it was one of the best shows I've ever seen on WWE 24/7 and I'd buy it in a heartbeat. Without commentary, it's pretty worthless, though.
- Great American Bash '89. You can still track down the tape from video stores, I think, but I'm hoping that someday 24/7 shows the full PPV version so I can get a proper copy of it. This is the definitive NWA show from 1989 and quite probably the best PPV ever put out, featuring ***1/2 - ****1/2 matches up and down the card and some of the most emotional and brutal battles waged in wrestling. Plus Ricky Steamboat actually carries Lex Luger to a better match than Ric Flair did, I shit you not. A miracle show in every sense, headlined by Ric Flair v. Terry Funk in a match where the audience completely bought that Funk was so crazy he just might break Flair's neck for fun.
- No Way Out 2001. I bang the drum for this one a lot but I'm guessing that we've never getting the full show on DVD for Benoit-related reasons. Anyway, you can piece together a lot of it on other releases (with Rock-Angle and HHH-Austin as the one-two punch of near-***** matches that headlined) but the shockingly great Stephanie v. Trish match is unlikely to hit DVD any time soon so it'll always be lacking.
The other problem is that WCW died before they could embrace the DVD era, so most of their major shows are lost to history now. So what we're left with is "Best WWE shows currently available", I guess. Unfortunately my enthusiasm for going back and watching a good chunk of the WWE's product from 2000-2007 has been destroyed by Benoit, as I still can't go back and watch his stuff, and I fear that might be permanent since it's been more than a year and there's no signs imminent of me suddenly wanting to watch him again.
Stuff that's already out on DVD:
- Wrestlemania X-7. A no-brainer, as Rock-Austin still feels fresh, TLC is violent fun, and Angle-Benoit rocks the mat. Something for everyone, including those who love goofy gimmick matches.
- Royal Rumble 2000, while not a transcendent show, is at least a good representative of the high quality product they were putting out in 2000 and features a ***** main event brawl between HHH and Cactus Jack and the debut of Tazz. A very fun show.
- Vengeance 2003. A tragically underrated and forgotten B-show, featuring the best Big Show match ever as goes against Brock and Angle in a triple threat match for the belt, plus Rey & Kidman steal the show against Haas & Benjamin in a tag match that almost needed air traffic controllers.
- SMW Night of the Legends. Probably hard to find, but if you're into the old school mentality of Jim Cornette and want to see Chris Jericho stain the ring red with his blood while wrestling with a broken arm, this is the show for you. Not a great show in a traditional sense of the word, but Meltzer and Cornette on the alternate commentary track is fascinating stuff and it's hard work all around.
- ROH: Joe v. Kobashi. I find most of their shows pretty interchangeable to tell the truth, but this not only had a good undercard, but featured what might be one of the greatest matches I've ever seen in the main event. When Kobashi is pounding on Joe's chest with an endless stream of chops for minutes on end, it goes beyond suspension of disbelief and into a visceral experience you rarely get in the fake world of wrestling these days.
- ECW Barely Legal. Doubt you can even find the Pioneer release anywhere but Ebay (if even then), but even with the stripped-out music it's still the best PPV introduction to the company for those curious as to why there was such a fuss about them for so long. I don't think the show holds up at all, to be honest, but thanks to my tape trading days I've seen it upwards of 100 times, so if you've never seen it before it's certainly worth a look.
Tags: Stupid lists
Interesting choices. Personally I remember thinking that Rumble 2000 sucked the big one, and was a major turning point for many people I know to abandon their on-and-off wrestling fandom after the Attitude Era. That show still gives me nightmares about Mae Young. This was also the time of The Hand. And Tazz’s debut pissed off a lot of people big-time. I still think RR 1992 was the best RR ever. And I’m not even a Flair fan. The only good thing about 2000 was HHH-Jack but that doesn’t make the show an automatic thumbs up.
It’s also funny how so many different people “carried” Luger when he had great matches. If one didn’t know better one might almost think that prior to his motorcycle accident and him losing his desire he was actually a great wrestler. Good thing Smarter people are there to point out that he was only ever carried.
There’s def some truth to that. Luger between 1987-1991 was pretty good in the ring.
I guess the biggest thing his detractors can point to is that he never really had great matches with less than “all world guys” like Flair, Steamboat and to a lesser extent Pillman.
I think ROH is deserving of at least one more review, especially after you gushed all over the Dragon Gate 6 man and Joe/Kobashi.
As far as matches go that would be on the best ever of wrestling.
Ricky Steamboat Vs. Ric Flair (any of the three)
Rock Vs. Austin (WMXVII)
Shawn Michaels Vs. Undertaker (Badd Blood)
Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi Vs. Toshiaka Kawada and Akira Taue (6/9/95)
Ted DiBiase Vs. Jim Duggan (cage tuxedo glove match)
Wargames I
The Rock N Roll Express Vs. The Midnight Express (pick one)
Terry Gordy Vs. Steve Williams (Their last title match in Mid-South. I’m not sure on the date)
Steamboat Vs. Savage (WMIII)
Bryan Danielson Vs. Nigel McGuinness (ROH Driven)
Jerry Lawler Vs. Terry Funk (empty arena)
Stan Hansen Vs. Genichiro Tenryu (pick one)
that’s just a random list really, but it’s all must see.
Sean, I completely agree with you about ROH. I went to Glory By Honor VII (at the ECW Arena) for my first live ROH show… Wow, I know I’ve been gushing about it a little too much to my friends, but it really reminded me of why I love wrestling.
“Unfortunately my enthusiasm for going back and watching a good chunk of the WWE’s product from 2000-2007 has been destroyed by Benoit, as I still can’t go back and watch his stuff, and I fear that might be permanent since it’s been more than a year and there’s no signs imminent of me suddenly wanting to watch him again.”
I’ll take another look to be sure, but doesn’t that contradict what you write near the end of Dungeon of Death?
I thought I’d remembered you saying that you still watch his work…?
Just throw this out there, the store is either way overpriced or has some really good deals, but F.Y.E. in the US carries SMW Night Of The Legends for about $20 and all four of the ROH KOCH releases for $10 a piece. And Barely Legal was included as a bonus disc for the 2nd One Night Stand DVD.
Yes I know, I might be saying things everyone knows, but I’m just throwing that out there.
“…ECW Barely Legal. Doubt you can even find the Pioneer release anywhere but Ebay (if even then)”
That’s why Amazon New and Used is such a Godsend for stuff like this. Oh yeah, the same holds true for SMW: Night of the Legends, which is still available at a fairly inexpensive price.
One great DVD that has yet to receive mention is..
* WWF Summerslam 2000. – This is a criminally underrated show. With a great TLC match, a great triple threat and a 2-out-of-three falls match between Jericho and Beni—ummm—well, you know. Anyhow, this show was strong from top to bottom.
I guess you could also cite ECW Heatwave ‘98. Sure, the IWC loves this show, but even then it still doesn’t appeal to a good portion of wrestling fans.
Unfortunately my enthusiasm for going back and watching a good chunk of the WWE’s product from 2000-2007 has been destroyed by Benoit, as I still can’t go back and watch his stuff, and I fear that might be permanent since it’s been more than a year and there’s no signs imminent of me suddenly wanting to watch him again.
He’s not on any show from mid 01-mid 02 because of his injury, and there are many shows where he’s not really a focal point. And thanks to DVD chapters, you can just skip over his matches.
Also, I thought Steamboat let Luger call those matches, so how was it a carryjob?
The abuse (albiet mild) of Luger in this post (has he reached the point of pity-sympathy yet? is he even working still?) reminds me of my favorite recurring article from a late lamented wrestling fanzine (’Piledriver’ mag, out of Australia back in the early 90s, if you can believe) – namely ‘best matches from worst performers’. See, there’s puh-lenty of Luger matches I enjoyed over the years. Sting/Luger vs Steiners, or even Luger/Yokozuna is perfectly acceptable wrestling(tm). Hell, there’s even some good Ultimate Warrior matches out there. Ditto Andre the Giant, even *after* he started getting sick. Jeebus, even Hacksaw Duggan and Dino Bravo once shocked the hell out of me by putting on a decent-to-above-average brawl at one of the Wrestlemanias (seriously – who knew they had it in them!)
As for Mark Henry… still can’t think of one. Sorry, big guy!
Scott: your picks for worst performer in a decent match..?
Is there a reason NWO 2001 was never released on DVD after the event? I got WWE DVD’s older than that in my collection, and we’re still 6 years from the Benoit incident, so it couldn’t have been about Benoit back then.
Yea, they need to release all the ECW/WCW PPV’s on DVD.
I’m all for more alternate/wrestler specific commentaries, as they could provide more insight into what they were thinking during their matches, or at least provide some comedy for us if the match was bad. If Foley/Cole could (but can’t now) do one for the entire Wrestlemania 9 event, I would actually bother watching it again.
“Is there a reason NWO 2001 was never released on DVD after the event? I got WWE DVD’s older than that in my collection, and we’re still 6 years from the Benoit incident, so it couldn’t have been about Benoit back then.”
From 1999 (when WWE started making DVDs) until 2001, they only released these shows on DVD:
WrestleMania XV
SummerSlam 1999
Royal Rumble 2000
WrestleMania XVI
King of the Ring 2000
SummerSlam 2000
Survivor Series 2000
Royal Rumble 2001
WrestleMania X-7
Starting with Backlash 2001, WWE released all PPVs on DVD.
I think either Backlash or Judgment Day from 2000 are a must-see for wrestling fans that want to know why the WWF in 2000 ruled so hard. I’m partial to Backlash since I attended but they both ruled the world.
I’d also throw in SummerSlam 2002, almost at a look at what the WWE COULD have been. With the Smackdown Six in their glory, the Rock passing the torch to Brock, HBK’s return, Rey’s WWE PPV debut and the last good Triple H match (in my opinion) for at least a year. But show itself is pretty awesome.
Are the old SummerSlams on DVD yet? I know the old Rumbles are because I think SummerSlam 1991 is a pretty definitive show, a point at which everything was clicking. Except the Slaughter thing in the co-main event, ironically enough.
Yes, the WWE released a summerslam anthology, but I don’t think they’ve released them in smaller 5-disc sets like they did with WM and Summerslam.
http://www.amazon.com/WWE-Summerslam-Anthology-Hulk-Hogan/dp/B00120LPR4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1224866469&sr=8-1
That’s lame. I liked how they broke up the Royal Rumble anthologies since I really didn’t want all of them at all since 1993 until 1999 sucked in my opinion….but it was good to get the first 5.
I think they’re going to release them in smaller packages as well, if they haven’t done so already. That’s been the pattern with the Rumble and WM box sets, so I don’t see why they’d stop.
I’ll plug my employer here and say that no DVD collection is complete without “Lou Thesz: Matches for the Ages” which includes the only Thesz-Buddy Rogers match known to exist on film, along with highlights of Thesz vs. Gene Kiniski. Available at http://www.wrestlingmuseum.org
Sweet gig, man.
Just so people know, WWE released Barely Legal 97 on DVD, as a bonus disc for the ECW One Night Stand 2006 DVD. So, if you want to check it out, look for ONS 06.
WWE has shown Barely Legal at least 3 times on 24/7, and I disagree with Scott. It still holds up, even without the music. By the way, Scott never covers it here, but does anyone else watch the weekly ECW Hardcore TV shows on 24/7? It is one of my personal favorite shows on 24/7. Joey Styles and Taz’s banter is hilarious, and they also provide alot of great historical background context to put things in perspective. They’re up to June of ‘96 at the height of the awesome Raven/Sandman feud.
I second that, those ECW shows on 24/7 are awesome. I always heard about how cool ECW was when those shows first aired, but I didn’t have access to them. So it’s nice to finally get around to seeing what everyone was talking about. I disagree about Tazz and Styles though, I think their little “banter” is god awful. Cringeworthy. Not nearly as good as Foley and Cole on the Shea Stadium show.
While the ECW 24/7 shows are fun, what gets me is all the generic stock music piped in and the missing t-shirts and VHS adds, and the missing title cards for upcoming shows they’d throw in during every commercial break. They also cut out most of the music video packages Heyman did to get his guys over. So imagine how good the show is even with all that missing, then imagine how much more awesome it was 12 years ago with all that stuff still there. I get why they do that but it ruins the nostalgia for me just a bit when I don’t hear Whipwreck coming out to “Loser” or Dreamer missing “Man in the Box.” Same goes for the intro video. “Thunderkiss ‘65″ will always be imprinted on my mind as ECW’s theme song, even if they themselves later changed it.
Trish vs. Stephanie from No Way Out 2001 is on the Divas: Tropical Pleasure DVD from 2002.
For what is definitely out on dvd, this year’s No Way Out probably makes my personal top 15 or 20 list for ppv’s I’ve ever seen. 2 chambers plus 2 title matches, and 2 great endings on top of that (the end of the Orton/Cena match almost made me stand up and cheer at home, and the uber-cool UT rope flip into a tombstone was pretty inovative stuff). I also remember loving Unforgiven (or was it No Mercy) from ‘06, with the Trish farewell match, the TLC between Edge & Cena, and the Cell with DX vs McMahons & Show (of course, I really enjoy Big Show’s work, so I might be a little biased there).
What no love for Canadian Stampede – great top to bottom card played in front of an insanely hot house. Plus every fan should have the ten man tag in their collection, even if it is a tear jerker seeing many of the participants are dead / crippled / retired.
I’d also strongly recommend one of the ROH / Dragons Gate shows from Wrestlemania weekend. This years’ (Supercard of Honor III) has an breathtaking Dragon’s Gate six man, an insane building-wide brawl between the Briscos and Age of the Fall and a none too shabby Nigel vs Austin Airies ROH Title match.
If you can find it, the original One Night Stand (the only decent PPV the Fed has done for the UK) is a worthy addition to any collection. Three great matches (Bret / Taker, Owen / Vader and Shawn / Bulldog) in front of a craxed wrestling starved UK audience.
the SummerSlam anthology is available in five-ppv packages (at least in Europe. check http://www.silvervision.co.uk for details).
and the UK PPV mentioned here was called “One Night Only” (don’t want to be nitpicky but help if someone wants to check it out. it’s been released on DVD in EU, too – although just in B quality).