The Best Of WCW Clash Of The Champions

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 393 Minutes
Certificate: 12
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Clear Vision Ltd/Silver Vision
Released: August 6 2012

Clash Of The Champions was the WCW equivalent of Saturday Night's Main Event. COTC was a major television special held a few times per year, showcasing top talent and major main event matches outside of the Pay-Per-View events like Starrcade and The Great American Bash. The difference between Clash and SNME was that the NWA/WCW roster was more inclined to go out and put on a great wrestling match compared to the more entertainment-based action (which I was a huge fan of at the time, by the way) you would find on SNME. Over time, the Clash would reduce in importance, but it was a key WCW occasion for many years.

This DVD, hosted by Dusty Rhodes, showcased more than two dozen of the most memorable Clash matches from its 35 specials, spanning 1988-1997. It's not a factor worth mentioning nowadays, but the DVD was delayed by several weeks in the UK due to apparent issues between Silver Vision and WWE. Whatever difficulties the two parties had must have been significant, because this would be the final year that Silver Vision distributed WWE DVDs for the European market; from January 1 2013, that task went to Fremantle Media.

Anyway, back to the review. Perhaps the most famous Clash bout is the main event of Clash #1, which opens this DVD: Ric Flair vs. Sting is a 45-minute classic (by the standards of the time, anyway), which automatically elevated the less experienced opponent and ensured that fans viewed him as a future World Champion. This was more crucial by the fact that Clash was conceived as a way to compete with the WWF: Clash was broadcast on the same night and at the same time as WrestleMania IV, and not only drew a high rating, but had a knock-on effect on the WM IV buy rate (I should mention that the WWF had already launched Survivor Series on PPV and the original Royal Rumble television special to compete with NWA PPVs Starrcade 1987 and Bunkhouse Stampede 1988, so this was a reaction rather than a new competitive direction by the NWA).

From the same Clash, we get a Tag Team Title bout between Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard and the combo of Lex Luger and Barry Windham. This and the subsequent Arn/Tully vs. Sting/Dusty match from Clash II illustrate how good a team Anderson and Blanchard were; think of the Revival on NXT today, and you'll find the blueprint set by Arn and Tully. After that, we get a fairly short Chain match between Ricky Morton and Nikita Koloff from Clash III, which has some eventful post-match shenanigans.

Strangely, the classic Flair-Ricky Steamboat 2 Out Of 3 Falls match from Clash VI is not here (the Flair-Sting opener does take up a chunk of disc one, admittedly, so a second lengthy bout may not be ideal, even though longtime fans of Clash will have been more than accustomed to long matches), so we jump ahead to a great Flair-Terry Funk I Quit match from Clash IX, rounding off what Ric's fans consider to be his greatest year ever in the ring. After that, we go to 1990 for a double-header to round off disc one: we get a brief match from Clash X between Mil Mascaras and Cactus Jack Manson, during which Cactus takes a sickening fall that sees the back of his head bounce off the concrete floor (read Foley's first book Have A Nice Day! for an interesting account of the details behind this contest), and a tag match pitting The Rock 'N' Roll Express and The Midnight Express from Clash XI, which I found to be disappointing by the standards of this vintage 1980s tag team rivalry due to some occasional, uncharacteristic sloppiness. (Incidentally, can you believe that the decade began with Rock 'N' Roll vs. Midnight and ended with Edge & Christian vs. The Hardyz? Wrestling changed so much in the 1990s.)

Disc two starts strong with a Lex Luger-Ric Flair match from 1990's Clash XII, with Flair unusually challenging for the United States crown. Both WCW and the Clash would take a dip in quality over the next few months, under the management of Jim Herd, and that comes across on this DVD: The Young Pistols and Tom Zenk against The Fabulous Freebirds from Clash XV in 1991 is alright but can't hold a candle to earlier matches here and has a contrived finish. The subsequent Battle Royal from Clash XVI, whilst a change in pace from other matches on this release, is even worse: there are notable botches, and some of the characters included are so bad that they actually made me laugh out loud when they were introduced. (Of note, Kevin Nash makes an appearance as Oz, a character that you should Google if you're unfamiliar with it; we also get one of Steve Austin's earliest WCW cameos.) Sting vs. Rick Rude from Clash XVII, which also appeared on the recent United States Title DVD, is better but doesn't last very long and is more of an angle than a match.

I can't clarify this because I wasn't regularly watching WCW at the time, but it appears that 1992 must have sucked for Clash Of The Champions (which is saying something based on the 1991 bouts that did make it in), because we have to wait more than 18 months for our next match, although thankfully the quality rises again with said match, a Two Out Of Three Falls match between The Hollywood Blondes and the combo of Ric Flair and Arn Anderson from Clash XXIII in June 1993. Flair is unbelievably over here, and the action is very good; not sure why the Blondes lost in two straight falls, even if the latter was on a disqualification, but that's WCW for you, I guess. The Blondes would be forced to split soon afterwards, to their genuine dismay, leading to the next match on the DVD, Steve Austin vs. Brian Pillman from Clash XXV. Disc two ends with two matches from Clash XXVI, held in January 1994: Lord Steven Regal vs. Dustin Rhodes for the Television Title and Sting/Ric Flair vs. Vader/Rick Rude. Bobby Heenan debuted as a WCW commentator on this Clash show, and he comes out with some priceless one-liners during both of these matches, especially during Regal vs. Rhodes.

The seeds of the new WCW were planted at Clash XXVII in June 1994 as Hulk Hogan made his first appearance in a WCW arena (to heavy boos, by the way). That segment isn't here, but disc three does kick off with Sting vs. Flair from the same show, which sets up Hogan confronting Slic Ric in the post-match. After a strong Austin-Ricky Steamboat match from Clash XXXII (which I believe was the match where Steamboat suffered a back injury that ended his career, save for a few appearances in 2009), we once again have a long wait for the next action, which comes from Hogan and Randy Savage taking on Flair and The Giant at Clash XXXII in January 1996. Yes, WCW had now changed a lot, but the biggest change was the introduction of Nitro four months prior. As a result, the Clash no longer held great significance, since Nitro was far more of a priority; for instance, the night before this particular Clash, in the same arena (MGM Grand in Las Vegas), Savage actually beat Flair to win the WCW World Title on Nitro. And yet this show was called Clash Of The Champions, so wouldn't you think ... never mind.

WCW had changed even more by August 1996, due to Hogan's stunning heel turn and the official formation of the nWo at Bash At The Beach the previous month. So, there's a weird vibe to Clash XXXIII as fans are adjusting - yet remain incredibly excited - about the new direction for the company. Strangely, whilst Hogan's contribution to that particular Clash is a DVD extra, three other matches from the same Clash are instead in the main feature: a short Madusa-Bull Nakano bout, an enjoyable yet also brief Diamond Dallas Page-Eddie Guerrero showdown and an intriguing yet confusing three-way tag between Harlem Heat, The Steiners and the team of Sting and Luger (which was a few weeks before Sting temporarily left WCW, only to return as the mysterious Crow character).

After that, we have a great Cruiserweight Title match between Ultimo Dragon and Dean Malenko from Clash XXXIV in January 1997; unlike many Cruiser matches from this era, the fans are well up for it, and go insane when fan favourite Malenko comes out on top. Nevertheless, the Clash felt as insignificant as ever since more would happen on a typical episode of Nitro than all of the year's Clashes combined by this point. This probably explains why Clash XXXV in August 1997 was the final edition, and we get two matches from the last Clash to close this DVD: a good Eddie Guerrero-Chris Jericho showdown and a decent DDP/Luger vs. Savage/Scott Hall tag match, followed by a belated birthday celebration for the nWo which ends with Sting looking on at the new World order whilst holding a vulture. What a weird end to the history of the Clash, especially since it appears that alternate audio is dubbed over this moment (that Sting's real nemesis Hogan wasn't present at the Clash for this angle emphasises how COTC was not at the top of WCW's to-do list by the summer of '97). It would be a lie to say that fans really missed the Clash when it went off the air because Nitro had taken the Clash formula (major matches and big angles on free television) and delivered more excitement than ever for WCW fans, every single week. But it's telling that in August 1997, WCW could afford to drop the Clash, and yet by August 1998, it was consistently losing the Monday Night War to the WWF, and just over 2 ½ years later, the company was a goner.

As mentioned earlier, Hogan's match from Clash XXXIII is here as a DVD extra, as he defends the WCW Title against Flair. It's weird to see a Flair-Hogan match where Ric plays the babyface and Hogan plays heel, but even weirder is how Hogan still Hulks Up, as if it were 1991 and the match were taking place in Madison Square Garden. This combined with the poor ending makes one wonder how Hogan's matches attracted such high ratings for WCW in 1996/1997, since many of his bouts had similarly frustrating outcomes. The other bonus match is The Midnight Express vs. The Fantastics from the first Clash, which starts as an unhinged brawl that seems years ahead of its time, only to suddenly turn into a regular tag bout. How strange.

Unusually, the two bonus matches on the DVD are different to the extra matches on the Blu-ray version. They are Flair and Barry Windham vs. The Midnight Express from Clash IV, Sting/Steamboat vs. Rude/Austin from Clash XVIII (ah, a 1992 match is in then!) and a Thunder Cage match pitting Dustin Rhodes and Sting against Vader, Mr. Wonderful and Barry Windham from Clash XXII. It's a reason for you to buy both the DVD and the Blu-ray, you see, since to have all the matches in your collection, you would require both (or the WWE Network, which has been launched since this was released and includes every Clash event in their entirety). Oh, those cheeky scamps at WWE.

Summing this one up, longtime fans of the NWA/JCP/WCW will love this DVD; there are plenty of high-quality matches, especially in the 1988-1990 period. The in-ring highlights are less frequent as the Clash goes into the 1990s, but selected Sting matches, DDP vs. Eddie and the Cruiserweight matches towards the end are well worth watching too. Not to mention that two of the most famous Clash matches ever - Flair vs. Sting and Terry Funk from March 1988 and November 1989 respectively - are included. It's a shame that the epic Flair-Steamboat showdown from April 1989 isn't here, and for unintentional comedy value if nothing else, I would have enjoyed reliving the Pillman-Guerrero match from January 1996 due to Bobby Heenan's genuine "What the f--k are you doing?" reaction to Pillman going off-script under his Loose Cannon persona and teasing that he would touch Heenan's legitimately injured neck. (By the way, this is on the Network, and is completely uncensored, despite that show having a PG rating on the Network.) But you can't have everything.

On the down-side, some of the action from the early 1990s is very hard to watch, and several matches on the final disc either have a phoned-in feel to them or they have annoying finishes. Mind you, they both embody their respective eras: the 1991 version of WCW was the pits, if we're being honest, and the mass interference during nWo matches was a big part of their appeal in 1996/7, as strange as it may see today. And since the Clash is (obviously) the subject of this DVD, these particular encounters almost had to be included in order to cover these periods of the Clash's history. Oh, and Jesse Ventura's commentary and Michael Buffer's ring announcements are dubbed over, which becomes bizarre when we can see them actually on-screen (in Buffer's case, we get full-on close-ups during certain ring entrances).

Although the Clash was never as memorable or as meaningful as its counter-part Saturday Night's Main Event, it nevertheless had a major role in the WCW calendar for almost a decade, and during its peak years, it was probably the best wrestling television programme that fans who appreciated the actual art of wrestling could find. Maybe WWE will live up to this legacy with its Clash Of Champions (what happened to the "the"?) PPV event on September 25, which promises several potentially great matches that would have been right at home on a Clash show back in the day, as the old-timers would say.

So, should you buy this DVD? If you have a fondness for WCW or you just want to watch some great 1980s wrestling, then this is a very good DVD to purchase. It isn't the best by any means, due to the quality drop-off on discs two and three, but there's plenty to savour for longtime fans, and it completes the WCW set, so to speak, if you already own the Best-Of compilations for Monday Nitro and Starrcade.

Overall Rating: 8/10 - Very Good

United We Slam: The Best Of The Great American Bash

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 430 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: July 14 2014

Similar to the WCW PPV compilation released a few months earlier, United We Slam (hosted by Dusty Rhodes in his own unique, at times confusing yet ultimately entertaining way) is a straight-forward collection of matches from the history of The Great American Bash. The artwork of the DVD is quite nice and somehow fits with the theme, and I liked the minor touches, such as the fireworks going off during transitional scenes. The DVD does not cover the WWE years (2004-2008, or 2009 when the event was simply renamed The Bash), which is probably a good thing: few fans want to relive the abomination that was the Concrete Crypt, or the excitement of the original Punjabi Prison match (I jest).

Anyway, TGAB actually began in 1985 as a tour of Jim Crockett Promotions/NWA wrestling shows held in the summer rather than a stand-alone card. Some were filmed, and some were not. Of those that did make it onto camera, we get some worthwhile action, as the DVD opens with Ric Flair defending his NWA World Title against Nikita Koloff, following a spectacular helicopter entrance for The Nature Boy. Dusty and Larry Zbyszko provide new commentary for this match, which becomes bizarre when Dusty openly states "I don't care about this match". Better is The Rock 'N' Roll Express challenging The Andersons for the Tag Team Titles in 1986, which is your typical logical and well-executed doubles outing from the mid-1980s NWA that has your classic 1980s post-match hand-slap by Rock 'N' Roll, to celebrate their, erm, non-victory (by the way, Dusty and Larry commentate on this one as well; it's worth remembering that both had announcing experience from the Nitro era of WCW). Next, it's a Flair vs. Dusty Cage match from 1986, but this has clearly the version that we had on Dusty's own DVD, released in 2006, because it has commentary from Rhodes, Steve Romero (who left WWE years ago) and Mike Graham (who passed away in 2012, nearly two years before this DVD was released). It's always amusing to hear Dusty mention his "belly-welly" though, so I'll give them a pass on that.

Then, we're taken to the first (or one of the first; the timeline is confusing) War Games match from 1987, which sees Dusty, Nikita Koloff, The Road Warriors and Paul Ellering battle The Four Horsemen and JJ Dillon in a great brawl; it makes one wish for the return of War Games in the modern era, although most followed the basic same formula and weirdly enough, the match usually ends around five minutes after the final participant enters, which nowadays would have fans shouting "Refund!" Anyway, the first disc concludes with The Road Warriors battling Sting and Lex Luger in 1988, as a part of the Bash tour but not as a part of the Bash PPV, as the show made its Pay-Per-View debut that year. Confused? Never mind. The match is alright, and we have Dusty and Larry commentating once more, with Larry randomly mentioning that he once saw Hawk slap some guy in an airport. (By the way, original match listings for this DVD had the inclusion of a Dusty/Sting vs. Road Warriors match from Starrcade 1988, which would have made no sense; fortunately, it was an error by those reporting on the DVD rather than an inexcusable mistake by the producers of this collection.)

From there, disc two brings us into the PPV era, and to the 1989 Bash, often considered one of WCW's greatest ever shows. Two reasons come on this compilation: a Sting-Great Muta clash, which is a little on the short side, and an intense Flair-Terry Funk main event, with the four aforementioned names having one hell of a post-match brawl (this would set up a tag match at Halloween Havoc later that year). Although it's a familiar match, Flair-Sting from 1990 had to be included for historical value, and it's a very good match in its own right. The 1991 Bash is skipped over, possibly because many considered it to be a dire show (even though Luger-Windham from that event made it onto WCW's Greatest PPV Matches), so we go directly to 1992 with a double-header: an entertaining tag match pitting Rick Rude and Steve Austin against Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham (the presentation of the match ending is handled clumsily by WCW), and a very enjoyable main event between Sting and Vader which has a shock outcome.

For some reason, WCW abandoned the Bash tradition in 1993 and 1994, but the card was resurrected in 1995. That being said, the Bash felt like a B-show for the next few years judging by the absence of certain key players, although '95 did feature a Ric Flair-Randy Savage clash. Flair-Savage opens disc three, but whilst entertaining, it's clear that Flair had passed his prime by this point; the match can't hold a candle to the earlier Flair-Funk showdown. The year 1996 is represented by a short yet momentous angle that saw The Outsiders attack Eric Bischoff (the great Dean Malenko-Rey Mysterio Jr match from the same event is a notable absentee), before we're taken to 1997 and a wild clash between Diamond Dallas Page and The Macho Man. From the same card (but held earlier that night), we have an awesome cruiserweight battle between Psychosis and Ultimate Dragon, which benefits from a hot-as-hell crowd, making a nice change from the WCW audiences that would generally sit in silence for most of the high-flying clashes.

After that, we have three 1998 matches: Chris Jericho vs. Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr and a dream tag match pitting Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Bret Hart against Randy Savage and Roddy Piper. All three are worth watching, but they still have a slight filler feeling to them, as none are really classic encounters. Perhaps this is partly to cover the gap left by the DVD not including any matches from 1999, held at a time when WCW was firmly on the proverbial slippery slope (the most memorable part of that event was probably Sting supposedly being attacked by a bunch of dogs, which says it all really). That being said, the DVD closes with two matches from 2000, when WCW was even further in the s--t, and the booking of the final two bouts emphasise why: a needless betrayal on DDP (the third in as many WCW PPVs at the time on poor Page) and other interference overshadows the action in his Ambulance match with Mike Awesome, and a Jeff Jarrett-Kevin Nash main event is highly overbooked (the wealth of interference does provide us with perhaps the only appearance by an unmasked Rey Mysterio on a WWE DVD compilation), and ends with the ridiculous-in-hindsight Goldberg heel turn on Nash. One could say that turning its only true remaining babyface superstar into a villain was the moment when WCW entered the point of no recovery, but that probably came a month later with the Bash At The Beach 2000 fiasco. I know Goldberg loathes Vince Russo for switching him into a bad guy for no reason, and you wouldn't want to disagree with Da Man, right?

Anyway, the Bash ended along with WCW after that, but WWE brought back the Bash name in 2004 for its annual SmackDown PPV each summer. Unfortunately, the 2004 Bash was atrocious, and the 2005 Bash wasn't much better. The 2006 Bash was a slight improvement, and with all brands contributing, the 2007 and 2008 Bash cards at least provided some memorable moments. But after "Great American" was dropped, the 2009 Bash marked the end of the tradition, besides a one-night return for a random 2012 edition of SmackDown, which was hosted by Zack Ryder (don't ask). And so marked the end of The Great American Bash, unless WWE brings it back again (which it might just do, since we're apparently getting 19 PPVs a year in this Brand Extension II era).

Summarising the DVD, then: it's obvious to say, but if you were a die-hard fan of JCP/NWA/WCW, then you'll get a real kick out of reliving the matches and moments which formed the legacy of The Great American Bash. Newer fans will get a good education of why the event meant so much to fans of World Championship Wrestling, too. But I felt the WCW's Greatest PPV Matches set was superior (as it should be, when you think about it), as it boasted several matches that were true classics, whereas on this DVD, the action only reaches the "Outstanding" mark on one or two occasions; and whilst the spectacle of nWo-era WCW is always fun to watch back, the two 1997 bouts are arguably the only two really good encounters on the final disc. Nevertheless, if you're a longtime fan, you'll probably enjoy this DVD, and if nothing else, you'll get a chuckle from the random yet endearing comments made throughout by the late, great American Dream.

Overall Rating: 7.5/10 - Good

WCW's Greatest Pay-Per-View Matches - Vol. 1

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 437 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: May 5 2014

Back in 2003 or 2004, the concept of a compilation featuring the top Pay-Per-View encounters from the rich history of WCW would have been extremely tantalising. By the time such a DVD was released in 2014, though, so many classic WCW battles had already been released and interest in the WCW brand lies solely with longtime fans wishing for a slice of nostalgia, which reduced the appeal of the three-disc set.

However, whilst the collection feels like it was released a decade too late, this is still a very enjoyable DVD compilation. Around 80-85% of the content has already been seen on past DVDs, but that fact doesn't hinder the entertainment value of this set too much.

Hosted by Booker T, the DVD begins with Ronnie Garvin vs. Ric Flair from Starrcade 1987, the first official NWA/JCP PPV (Starrcade had first aired on closed-circuit television in 1983); Booker notes that the WWF aired the inaugural Survivor Series on the same night solely to ensure that Starrcade 87 would not be a huge success. This competition would continue via television in 1988 and 1989, but that's another story. Garvin vs. Flair is okay, but the negative reaction to babyface NWA Champion Garvin is a sign that fans rejecting a top babyface was happening long before the days of John Cena and Roman Reigns. This was also held in a cage, as most Starrcade main event matches were in those early years.

Dusty Rhodes vs. Barry Windham from The Great American Bash 1988 and Dusty teaming with Sting against The Road Warriors (in a rare heel role) from Starrcade 1988 are okay, but neither can hold a candle to the first really good match on the DVD, a classic Ric Flair-Ricky Steamboat showdown from Chi-Town Rumble 1989 in the first of their epic trilogy. Given how many great WCW matches were held on PPV in 1989, Lex Luger vs. Brian Pillman from Halloween Havoc is perhaps an odd selection. Definitely worthy of inclusion is Flair vs. Sting from The Great American Bash 1990, which officially marked Sting's permanent ascendancy to the main event level and closes disc one on a high note.

Lex Luger vs. Barry Windham from The Great American Bash 1991 has a weird feel to it as it comes on the heels of Ric Flair leaving WCW; envision a WWE PPV held days after John Cena leaving the company on bad terms and you have an idea of the vibe in the air here. Even without Flair, though, WCW could still provide great supershow battles as evidenced by the next two bouts: a fantastic Jushin Liger-Brian Pillman match from Superbrawl II, and an incredible War Games between Sting's Squadron and The Dangerous Alliance at Wrestle War 1992.

Next up, we finally get an unreleased match, and it's a very violent battle between Vader and Cactus Jack from Halloween Havoc 1993, during which Vader lands with all of his weight on Cactus on the hard ramp in a spot which Mick Foley says in his first autobiography Have A Nice Day that he came up with to deliberately suffer a career-ending injury, having been so miserable in WCW at the time (as we know, Foley would continue wrestling long beyond HH 93). We then get a good Steve Austin-Ricky Steamboat clash from Bash At The Beach 1994, and there's a real big-fight feel to Flair vs. Hulk Hogan from Halloween Havoc 1994 (Muhammad Ali is in attendance for this one), although their initial meeting at BATB 94 was arguably the bigger match and thus perhaps should have been here instead.

Onto disc three and we come to a landmark match: that main event from Bash At The Beach 1996 (you know the one) which sees the official formation of the new World order. Strangely, besides making a cameo later on, we don't see Hollywood Hulk Hogan again on the main DVD, which is odd given that he is the main cover star (some would say that this isn't a bad thing). The topnotch action doesn't end there, though, as we get an intense brawl between Randy Savage and Diamond Dallas Page from Spring Stampede 1997 and the classic Eddie Guerrero-Rey Mysterio Jr battle from Halloween Havoc of the same year.

The next few matches have a filler feeling to them (Booker goes a long time between introducing bouts during this section, suggesting these matches may have been a late addition), but at least Bret Hart vs. Randy Savage (Slamboree 1998) and Chris Jericho vs. Juventud Guerrera (Road Wild 1998) are first-time releases. A more familiar match is Goldberg vs. DDP from Halloween Havoc 1998, an infamous match due to that particular PPV running overly long to the point that most fans didn't see it; re-airing it on Nitro the next night earned the show its final ratings win over Raw during The Monday Night War, but upset the fans who had already paid for the match, since this meant that millions more saw it for free.

It's telling that no matches from 1999 are included (the Blu-ray does include Savage vs. Dennis Rodman from Road Wild 99) so we jump right to Jeff Jarrett vs. Booker T at Bash At The Beach 2000, a good match overshadowed by the bizarre situation earlier that night involving Jarrett, Hogan and Vince Russo (a planned Jarrett-Hogan bout didn't happen with Jarrett laying down, Hogan walking out as if it were a shoot, and Russo cutting a genuine shoot interview on Hogan; nobody knew what was real and what wasn't, with the consensus being that Russo's promo wasn't planned and with that leading to a later lawsuit, but confusingly Hulk has since said he didn't even know Jeff would lay down despite Eric Bischoff saying that he did, so who the hell knows for certain?). The DVD ends with an exciting six-man Ladder match from Starrcade 2000 and, fittingly, the final PPV match in WCW history as Scott Steiner battles DDP at Greed in March 2001 (during which Steiner berates fans with a very offensive f-word more than once), with WCW having run its final show under WWF control eight days later.

I really enjoyed this collection a lot more than I thought I would considering that much of the content had previously been released. If you wanted to pick hairs, another Flair vs. Steamboat match, Flair vs. Terry Funk from 1989, Sting/Flair vs. The Steiners from 1991, another Rey Mysterio cruiserweight stunner and Goldberg vs. Steiner from Fall Brawl 2000 should have been included, and for historical purposes Hogan vs. Sting from Starrcade 1997 should have been here too, despite the blown finish (which is a story in itself that I'll recount another time), but one can't complain too loudly about what we get here. There is enough material in the archives to warrant a Volume Two, and the name implies that a sequel would be forthcoming, but the fact that all WCW PPVs can be viewed at one's leisure on the WWE Network makes a second release less likely.

Even if there isn't a follow-up, though, this is a great introduction to WCW for newer fans and a fun trip down memory lane for longtime followers, and a nice reminder that there was far more to the history of WCW than Nitro, The Monday Night War and the weekly adventures of the nWo.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10 - Excellent

Raw's Most Memorable Matches

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 86 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 1
Studio: Clear Vision Ltd/Silver Vision
Released: April 3 2007

Raw's Most Memorable Matches followed the similar SmackDown release, and again offers a few matches at a budget price. Given the long and eventful history of Raw, it was always going to be a stretch to suggest that the show's most memorable matches are within this 90-minute DVD, but there are some gems nonetheless.

The first is Jeff Hardy challenging The Undertaker for the Undisputed WWE Title in a July 2002 Ladder match. It's a very dramatic bout, and you would never know from watching this that Hardy was as stale as an old piece of toast at this point in time, as he delivers his last truly great performance before leaving WWE for the first time in 2003. Match two pits Triple H against Ric Flair in May 2003, culminating a one-night storyline where Flair (then HHH's chaperone, no pun intended) looks to prove to HHH that he really was and is The Man.

Triple H returns to face Kane in June 2003, in a bout which is fairly good but is more memorable (and is genuinely memorable) for Kane finally unmasking in the aftermath, as per the stipulation. (Some people thought this meant the end of the Kane character; how wrong they were.) Following this is a Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho match from July 2003 which is very good, but a slight notch below expectations; it certainly isn't a disappointment, but it follows and would be followed by superior HBK vs. Y2J collisions. The DVD ends with a brilliant Michaels vs. Shelton Benjamin clash from May 2005, with one of Shawn's greatest ever superkicks providing an incredible finish.

Only the first and last matches have been released in full on other DVDs, so this is a nice little release to pick up while we wait for 2003 episodes of Raw to be added to the WWE Network. Considering that it is a bargain-priced DVD, and assuming that you don't take the title too seriously, this is well worth picking up.

Overall Rating: 7.5/10 - Good

Nature Boy Ric Flair: The Definitive Collection

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 482 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Clear Vision Ltd/Silver Vision
Released: September 15 2008

Whooooo! Ric Flair remains an iconic name amongst wrestling fans today, despite it being a long time since the man was "The Man" and in his prime. But he remains popular due to his legendary status and because his last WWE match was only in 2008 (which we'll come back to later). This DVD has a documentary which covers Naitch's entire career from when he got his start to the end of his active WWE run over the weekend of WrestleMania XXIV, as well as including ten matches, bonus interview footage and several promos and segments. It has some nice old-school artwork on the DVD box and on the menus, which I personally felt was a good little touch.

The main feature clocks in at around two hours, and does a good job of highlighting Flair's highs and lows from his long and glorious career. As well as archive footage and stories from Slic Ric concerning key events in his life, we hear from talking heads spanning Ric's entire career such as David Crockett, Greg Valentine, Dusty Rhodes, Arn Anderson, Jim Ross, Ricky Steamboat, Triple H, Randy Orton, Batista, Shawn Michaels and many others, as well as members of his family. Flair is very honest, at times too honest, and on occasion painfully honest about his own perceived failings as a father and a husband. Fans of the Nature Boy should get a kick out of this documentary, which to be fair doesn't offer a great number of revelations but is an entertaining watch that covers most aspects of Flair's legendary body of work in pro wrestling.

Some faults are that we're given the impression that Flair was still a top-level wrestler when he was in his 50's, which besides one or two great matches simply wasn't the case. Also, two key issues surrounding Flair (the 1991 jump to the WWF and his problems with WCW head honcho Eric Bischoff in 1998) aren't explained very well. And whilst we do see clips from WrestleMania XXIV weekend, the talking clips were clearly recorded before Flair's three-day retirement ceremony. It would have been good to use this and then see Flair comment on the events afterwards, but we have to just assume that the whole weekend lived up to Flair's expectations (which it did, to be fair. Or fair to Flair for you Bobby Heenan fans).

Overall, though, it's a good documentary; it isn't one of the very best WWE has produced, but it does cover most aspects of Flair's decades-long stint in the industry, and is engaging enough that it merits a second viewing sometime down the road.

The match choices are interesting. Since some of Ric's greatest bouts were on The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection (and by the way, I think the two DVD names are too similar; I'd have called the product under review "Whooooo! The Ric Flair Story" to differentiate it more), it reduces the number of epic clashes available for this release. That being said, Flair had so many memorable matches that it wouldn't have been stretch to find enough to make this another vintage DVD.

Instead, though, we get a selection that does cover Ric's decades in the field of sports entertainment, but from which very few are what you'd class as being amongst his best work. A 1982 TV bout with Jack Brisco is fairly entertaining and historically interesting. A two-out-of-three-falls match with Kerry Von Erich is typical for the era in showcasing Flair's ability to lead a less talented opponent through a long match, and make him look good in the process, but has a poor finish and, as good as the match is, their Cage match on Christmas Day 1982 was their most famous meeting and perhaps should have been here instead. It does, however, show how Flair could go into any territory and prove that he was The Man.

Flair vs. Harley Race is actually the match which set up their Starrcade 1983 meeting where Ric won his second NWA title. It's good but it would have been more at home on the first Flair DVD; here, you watch this match and then you want to see the Starrcade bout, but it isn't on this release. Instead, we next get a six-man tag that highlights the Four Horsemen before a hot-as-hell crowd. I liked it, but as I had noted for the recent Wrestling's Greatest Factions DVD, the best way to spotlight the Horsemen is with their specialty match, that of course being War Games.

Next up is one of the two highlights of the DVD in terms of matches, that being a truly great battle with Sting at the first Clash Of The Champions. This went head-to-head with WrestleMania IV on live TV and did a great rating (which shows how much more popular wrestling was then than it is now), and is a classic in its own right that, as they say, "made" Sting. They would go on to main event many future shows, but this meeting is their most famous and arguably their best. Disc two ends with a very good and intense showdown with Terry Funk at the 1989 Great American Bash. We had their I Quit match on the last Flair release so it's good to get their other high-profile meeting here. There is a void before this match selection-wise which I will touch upon shortly.

After concentrating on the 1980s on disc two, disc three enters the 1990s and opens with Ric's MSG meeting with Rowdy Roddy Piper in 1991. It's an enjoyable match and is interesting to note for the babyface reaction Flair receives when he walks down the aisle at Madison Square Garden (a rarity for heels during this era). However, I don't understand why this is the only meeting from Flair's first proper WWF/WWE tenure on the DVD. Surely we could have had Flair's WrestleMania VIII showdown with Randy Savage, a WWF Title match against Bret Hart or his Loser-Leaves-Town clash with Mr. Perfect on Raw from January 1993, which ended Flair's run in the company (and by the way, none of these feuds were referenced in the documentary, which is particularly disappointing for the memorable dispute with the Macho Man), or at least something else from this chapter of Flair's career.

The next match we do get is his Spring Stampede 1994 main event with Ricky Steamboat. It's a very good match, but again I hold my hand up to ask: why don't we get their first 1989 match from Chi-Town Rumble? For those unaware, Flair and Steamboat had a truly classic three-match series in 1989, two of which we got to see on Flair's first DVD (Clash Of The Champions VI and Wrestle War 1989), so by rights we should have gotten the bout that completed the series on this release. Fair enough, we do get an unreleased meeting of Ric and Ricky, but while it's a good effort (and Bobby Heenan comes out with some of his trademark wit on commentary), it can't compare to their 1989 feud. Plus, the ending here is a mess; we're under the impression that Steamboat pinned himself in a submission hold when he actually did not, and there are no post-match replays to back up the confusing decision. Plus, I think the commentators get mixed up with the move that The Dragon used to beat The Nature Boy in their 1989 series; a minor thing, but slightly distracting nonetheless.

From this point, the classics became less frequent for Slic Ric (a fact not acknowledged in the documentary, as alluded to earlier), so our next featured match is over a decade later, at Taboo Tuesday 2005. This is a very bloody steel cage match between Flair and Triple H which Flair somehow wins despite being 56 at this point. The best way I can describe it is that, for a Flair match by 2005 standards, it's good. I personally enjoyed their subsequent Last Man Standing match at that year's Survivor Series more, but that's just splitting hairs. One very deserving inclusion, and the last match on the release, is Flair's bout with Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XXIV. This is brilliant considering Flair had not long turned 59, but even if you ignore Flair's age, this is an excellent and very dramatic match with Flair's career at stake. I mentioned this in my review of WrestleMania XXIV, but it's worth saying again that Shawn's "I'm sorry. I love you" before superkicking Flair into retirement is as emotional and heart-stopping a moment as any in wrestling history. Plus, we get the pre-match promo video which is awesome.

The other extras consist of 1980s-era Flair promos which emphasise how good he was on the microphone, although I feel he was slightly overrated, He was undoubtedly charismatic, but considering that he was king heel at this point, there are too many instances of Ric trying to pander to the crowd. The Rock could get away with it as a heel because he included enough insults to ensure that he kept receiving boos, but if you didn't know better, one would assume from these segments that Flair was actually the lead babyface for the NWA/JCP/WCW in the 1980s. The other bonus segments are some extra interview chapters for the documentary (plus Flair being present for when his home state declared a "Ric Flair Day", during which I thought "I hope Flair doesn't start crying again" ... and he does start crying!), and the excellent retirement ceremony for Flair on Raw the night after Mania 24. Billed as his Farewell Address, it ends up being a half-hour tribute where the entire WWE roster at the time, as well as a number of legends synonymous with Flair's career and of course the thousands of fans in attendance, simply say "Thank you Ric!" It is very touching, and is the perfect way for Flair to say goodbye to pro wrestling after his retirement.

But of course, as you may know, Flair would wrestle again, firstly for the very short-lived Hulkamania promotion in Australia in November 2009, and then in TNA from 2010-2011. Without being harsh, Flair didn't have one good match in either group, and at times was simply embarrassing. This was obvious at the time, and before Flair donned the tights again, but it bears repeating that Flair really shouldn't have come back to wrestling after WM XXIV. Nevertheless, Flair hasn't wrestled for WWE since his meeting with Michaels (some might say that Flair had a match on Raw with Randy Orton in 2009, but it was a brawl rather than a match and, to me, does not count as a match), so the whole retirement weekend still holds weight, at least within WWE lore.

As for the DVD as a whole? Now, I have to be honest: I'm not that much of a Ric Flair fan, and never was. I respect his accomplishments and his talents when he was at his peak, but I always felt that he was a bit overrated, and it annoyed me how he would denigrate his counterparts like Hulk Hogan, Bret and Savage, even after they were no longer at the top of the mountain, but praise himself and his friends within the business. This leads into my feeling that Flair was and remains somewhat egotistical. Case in point: Flair, at age 66 and decades past his prime, during which time many wrestlers have proved to be as good as or even better than Flair, appeared on Raw this past Monday and stated that he was "God" and the greatest of all-time. For another wrestler, I would say that the lines were scripted, but with Flair you truly believe that he believes those statements. Hulk Hogan is classed as being very egotistical to many, but even he wouldn't call himself God, especially when trying to provoke cheers from an audience.

There's also the fact that Flair, throughout his career, only ever played one character, that being the confident and arrogant ladies' man, and only changed the formula based on whether he was a face or a heel. Some might say "well, it was a great gimmick so why change it?" True, but look at Triple H, who went from a blueblood to a degenerate to a corporate sell-out to a hard-man to, well, a carbon copy of Flair in Evolution, to a somewhat older degenerate to a corporate figure in the form of the COO. Shawn Michaels was at various times a high-flying youngster, a cocky punk, a degenrate, a religious goody-two shoes and other things. Hell, even The Undertaker at one point was Undertaker in name only when he began riding motorcycles. Therefore, as good as Flair was, I would have liked to have seen if he could have pulled off a different character, because almost all of the other all-time greats played various characters to show their versatility.

Nevertheless, this DVD emphasises just how good Flair was and that he does deserve to be in the conversation for being the greatest wrestler of all-time. And I think that shows how good this DVD is: if it can convince me, someone not very fond of Slic Ric, that Flair was one of the best ever, then it must be an effective presentation. I still don't think he's the best ever, but I do think that if you're compiling a top ten, Naitch will be a part of it. To be fair, it does have a very good documentary and a good if questionable match selection. One thing it does lack, perhaps due to time constraints, is Flair's Hall Of Fame induction, a notable absentee since we get literally every other aspect of Flair's retirement weekend. But since it went on for nearly 90 minutes, I can understand why it wasn't here.

To conclude, if you're a Flair fan, you'll love this DVD, although it is a step down from his first DVD. But even if you're not a Flair fan but you are a wrestling fan, like me, you'll still enjoy this release and realise why, despite the criticisms and his shortcomings, Ric Flair at one point truly was, and to some will always be remembered as being, The Man.

Whooooo!

Overall Rating: 8.5/10 - Excellent