So I picked up the Piper DVD in the $5 bin at Wal-Mart, which is a rarity because they usually discontinue the expired WWE DVDs instead of putting them in with such classic titles like "Son In Law" and "Janky Promoters".
I was going to make it my practice rant before doing my Summer(fest)slam Main Event project, but it's really too long and not worth it. I think I'm leaning towards Insurrextion 2000.
But here's a quickie cheat rant for those of you that wonder if the Piper DVD is worth checking out.
Disc 1 -- Story & Extras: The story is good. Piper has a great way of telling tales and he always seems to have a smile on his face. I'm not sure if it's a smile because he's happy, drugged or fighting some inner pain though. Probably a combination. Doesn't break any new ground although they go pretty deep (by WWE terms) into the controversy of the Bad News Brown feud. Weird thing though, the talking heads refer to him as "Bad News Allen" the whole time...a moniker he never used in the company. Still it's a perfectly fine little bio wrapped up in about an hour and 40 minutes.
The Matches are from Portland and the NWA. Two from Portland which I can't remember, a pretty good match with Jack Brisco from Mid-Atlantic and the Dog Collar Match which still holds up well in my eyes. Not a bad Disc.
Disc 2 -- Matches: As the master of the non-conclusive finish the guys picking the matches found all half dozen of his matches that DID have blow offs. And a bunch of other junk. Only things missing were a Snuka match (and really any sort of Snuka mentioning) and something from the old Coliseum Videos...maybe the Texas Tornado match with Piper/Orton vs. JYD/Snuka or the Piper/Schultz vs. Andre/Snuka match. Otherwise nothing new here other than a Steel Cage match with Rick Rude in 1989 at MSG. It was around *** I suppose. The Bret Hart match is here and by leaps and bounds it's the best match on the DVD. The I-C title match with The Mountie is included too and it's great if only for the post-match reaction. For as much time as they spent talking about how Piper didn't need a title, his reaction was one of sheer joy. Very genuine stuff. Matches are incredibly out of order too with the Hart match coming before the Mountie match, etc. etc.
Disc 3 -- The Pits: A full disc of Piper's Pits and most of the old ones are entertaining with anything he did past 1988 being pretty outdated and lame. The live ones at MSG are especially good and my personal favorite is him and Orton attacking the Haiti Kid.
All and all if I paid full price for this I'd be angry, but for $5 it does the trick.
This gets me to my latest and greatest idea for a WWE DVD.
The Piper's Pits leading into the first Wrestlemania were terrific and this is back before the internet and insta-build feuds. I'd love for the WWE to release "Road to (event) DVDs" maybe as a special repackaging of the original event.
Say for example Wrestlemania III: They can devote a full DVD to the buildups for the card. All the Piper's Pits that led to the Hogan-Andre showdown and the SNME Battle Royale. I think there was a Snake's Pit where Heenan introduced the "new" belt that fit Andre. Maybe even show the Wrestlemania III PC in full. Then get into the Savage-Steamboat stuff with the match that led to the larynx injury. Rehash all the Piper-Adonis stuff including the match that Adonis accidentally cut Brutus Beefcake's hair that brought his involvement into the match. Even turn on the wayback machine for the Hercules-Billy Jack Haynes angle and the JYD-Race stuff. Obviously the Snake's Pit where Honky Tonk Man whacked Jake Roberts over the noggin with the guitar. We could easily fill up three hours with that stuff.
That's all I got, have a fantabulous weekend 
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Tags: Daniel Bryan for no other reason than because his name draws more attention to the post, Discount DVDs, Piper's Pit, Roddy Piper, Roddy The Piper, The Haiti Kid, Why my ideas are better than yours
Maybe I need to rewatch it, but I sincerely thought the Piper DVD set was as good as anything the WWE had done to that point. I really enjoyed it, and while the “match section” may have been lacking a bit (aside from the WM match with Bret and the dog-collar match with Valentine), the full DVD of old Piper’s Pit skits was fantastic and the documentary portion was quite good.
The lack of Snuka sort of bugged me. I mean that was THE hot feud of 1984 and 1985 and did it even get a mention outside of the famous Pit?
I really dug the documentary… I usually like what WWE puts out for their main feature on these discs, with I think the sole exception being the Perfect doc (the glossing over of the way he died really bugged me). I agree that Piper’s isn’t the greatest they’ve ever done, but c’mon – it’s Roddy Piper for god’s sake. He could read me my grocery list and turn it into an awesome twenty minute promo. Probably go off for five of those minutes about how nobody needs to drink as much Gatorade as I do.
Also, I love the idea for “Road to…” DVDs. That’s a much better idea than the extra disc they added to the Foley DVD. As much as I’d love to have the Edge and Orton matches, the whole disc isn’t worth repurchasing the whole set. Plus on the newer, 3-disc Foley set they took out his WWF Cactus Jack music! What the eff?
“Say for example Wrestlemania III: They can devote a full DVD to the buildups for the card. All the Piper’s Pits that led to the Hogan-Andre showdown and the SNME Battle Royale.”
They kind of did do that, WrestleMania III Championship Edition, it had the battle Royal, some promos, and some other matches. And you could choose to watch the PPV “pop up video” style with facts popping up during the show. I own it, and wish they would release more.
Piper DVD was really good, I love watching the old Pit’s from MSG, crowd heat was insane.
I too enjoyed the Piper DVD. Good doc, didn’t care about Snuka because…well he sucked. Horrible mic skills, bad wrestler with one move that in today’s wrestling world doesn’t even look impressive. Once you see Snuka hit with a cocoanut, who really needs anymore?
By the way, Son-in Law is worth full price, much less a bargain bin. I’m certainly not a Pauly Shore fan, but that movie is frickiin hilarious.
I’d buy the hypothetical “Road to WM” DVDs for a lot of years where I wouldn’t even buy WM itself.
So weird TPrincess – I had the same idea a while back. I would completely dork out for a dvd having the history leading up to the show. I’d even love a disc of the fall-out stuff from the Manias. Take Mania 23 for instance – Vince beating Lashly, the Cena-Michaels classic from Raw, Edge beating Kennedy for MITB and then cashing it in on Smackdown, the Originals vs New Breed hardcore match from ECW, Booker & Sharmell having problems, and maybe even a Backlash match or three. Ahh…perhaps one day.
I’ve mentioned an idea similar before, TPrincess. I thought they could do a 3-disc set similar to the god awful DX one from a few years back.
BUT, I really like your idea of building up to, say, Wrestlemana. Imagine if there were disc sets that included several FULL episodes of Superstars and SNME that build up to, say, WrestleMania 5. Or at the very least, include all the important segments, matches and interviews for the Mega Powers and a few other key big matches on the card.