WWE Live In The UK: April 2011

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 282 Minutes
Certificate: 12
Number Of Discs: 2
Studio: Clear Vision Ltd/Silver Vision
Released: July 18 2011

WWE had regained some of its edge by April 2011, largely due to the return of The Rock and the associated relaxing of certain aspects of the PG era. This resulted in Raw seeming a bit more unpredictable in the aftermath of WrestleMania XXVII, evidenced in the opening segments here which see R-Truth unexpectedly turn heel on John Morrison in a surprisingly aggressive manner. Truth even smokes a cigarette and blows the smoke into Morrison's face, and as UK residents will be aware, smoking is banned inside public places nowadays, so this was an eye-opener (in saying that, WWE probably just didn't realise the UK laws on smoking; perhaps they did when this part of the segment was originally cut from UK replays on Raw).

Otherwise, the show isn't that memorable. A main event between Randy Orton and CM Punk is superior to anything which took place on either of the UK Raw episodes from 2010, and there's a painful-to-watch segment involving the now-unbearable Michael Cole, Jack Swagger, Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler and The Queen (it isn't hard to deduce that it wasn't really Queen Elizabeth II). Otherwise, Raw had only slightly improved from its state of affairs five months earlier, resulting in a show that's only slightly above average.

NXT was now in its fifth "Redemption" season, and whilst the burial commentary was gone, the show was now completely inconsequential and serves so little purpose that it's barely worth me recapping it. Likewise Superstars which is watchable, but pretty uneventful. SmackDown has a hit-and-miss segment based around Edge's real-life retirement hosted by Alberto Del Rio and featuring cameos by Edge and Christian, as well as two title matches (one of which has a title change). There's also a good opener between Rey Mysterio and the no-longer-Dashing Cody Rhodes to further their feud. Annoyingly, every single show has an extended recap of the R-Truth heel turn; once would have been plenty. The bonus material here consists of Edge vs. Christian in a Steel Cage match for the IC Title from Rebellion 2001, which is fun to watch.

These tapings were held at a weird time; it was after The Rock had returned and after the official challenge had been made for the Rock-John Cena match for WrestleMania XXVIII, but before CM Punk cut that "pipe bomb" promo and even before the great Randy Orton-Christian rivalry took over SmackDown. It felt like WWE was in transition mode (which might be true, considering that the 2011 Draft would take place the following week), resulting in tapings that were eventful, but ultimately didn't achieve much outside of Truth's heel turn. It's an okay DVD, but certainly not the best of the Live In The UK releases.

Overall Rating: 6.5/10 - Okay

WWE Live In The UK: November 2010

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 250 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 2
Studio: Clear Vision Ltd/Silver Vision
Released: March 28 2011

The Nexus storyline was one of the best WWE plots in years when it first began in June 2010. Out of nowhere, the first group of NXT rookies suddenly destroyed John Cena, CM Punk and others while wrecking the ring and generally causing chaos. This invasion was designed for the newcomers to take control of WWE through sheer destruction. The hugely intriguing storyline took a big hit when they lost to Team WWE at SummerSlam, and the excitement had gone by the autumn months. In a last-ditch attempt to save Nexus, John Cena was made a reluctant member of the faction, with his fate to be determined in a major match between Wade Barrett and Randy Orton at Survivor Series.

It is on the road to SS where the November 2010 UK tour took place, and the Free Or Fired bout (if Barrett became WWE Champion, Cena would be free from Nexus, but if Orton retained, Cena would be fired; oh, and Cena was refereeing said match) is the focus of most of the television here. Raw builds to said bout with Cena refereeing a 10-man match involving Nexus, and he also gets a chance to face rebelling Nexus member David Otunga (another "two-in-a-row" series on UK tours). To be honest, the rest of Raw is pretty uneventful, with the only highlight being a (very entertaining) Teatime segment as Santino Marella and the now-comedic Vladimir Kozlov trying to make peace with Sheamus, but failing miserably. The sight of Divas wearing Liverpool kits made me smile, as did the unspoken irony of the Man United-clad side having to cheat to win.

Perhaps the most intriguing non-Nexus elements of Raw at this point were the ongoing developments involving certain characters. The Miz was the rising star by a wide margin, and despite being a heel, Miz was over like Rover in Manchester on this night. He would become WWE Champion within a matter of weeks via Money In The Bank, which believe it or not seemed entirely logical at the time. Meanwhile, Michael Cole was now a firmly-established heel announcer, albeit one who still demonstrated occasional babyface tendencies which was very confusing. And then there was the Anonymous Raw General Manager, who would email announcements into the show ("remember "And I quote" from Cole?), but with his identity remaining secretive. As it turned out, the saga was never properly resolved, but that's a story for another time.

All of this, along with Daniel Bryan's minor babyface push and his showstealing PPV matches, may make Raw seem really interesting. But the one thing missing from all of this was quality wrestling on a weekly basis, which we weren't getting at the time, and certainly this show had only mediocre action at best. Add to that the ailing Nexus plot and you have a show which, despite clear signs of structure and development for certain talents, was at times a chore to watch. To be honest, it was only when The Rock surprisingly returned in February 2011 that Raw became interesting again. So, don't expect much from this Raw; as noted, Santino's Teatime is probably the highlight.

NXT was based around women at this time, and if you remember NXT Season Three, you'll know that it was treated appallingly by announcers Michael Cole and Josh Matthews. Strangely, that was part of its charm: watched in mute, NXT on this DVD is uninteresting, but with commentary, you will laugh your head off. Really, as counter-productive as the announcing is, it is undeniably hilarious at times. It is still interesting to see AJ and Kaitlyn in their early days, mind you. Superstars is alright but at this point is complete filler, although Drew McIntyre (whose push was over by now) vs. Kaval is pretty decent.

As for SmackDown: it was based largely on the Edge-Kane feud, which would take a strange turn at the end of this very show when Edge kidnapped the recently-returned Paul Bearer. Yup. Before then, Edge battles Otunga in a match which had Raw/Nexus implications (the brand extension was fading by this point), and Kane takes on Big Show in an okay main event. We also see relative newcomer Alberto Del Rio take on Kofi Kingston, and an alright Intercontinental Title match between Dolph Ziggler and MVP. That's your show, pretty much. Oh, and "Dashing" Cody Rhodes insults the UK fans (in admittedly funny fashion). It was watchable and at times entertaining, but it was only the best show of the week by default. The only extra is the Kane-Undertaker match from Mayhem In Manchester 1998 (well, highlights of it anyway), which is relevant considering that Kane was just coming off a(nother) feud with Taker at this point.

I attended these tapings (I actually won the SmackDown tickets in a WWE Magazine competition), and I couldn't help but compare it to the last Manchester double-header of tapings in 2008. The number of big names who had left was shocking (Michaels, Batista, Jericho, The Hardyz), and some were off TV for various reasons (Undertaker, HHH). Their absences had yet to be filled, and the overall wrestling quality had declined, as had the number of intriguing storylines (Nexus was the only memorable plot going on, and even that had suffered since the summer of 2010). The shows were still entertaining from a live perspective, but it was clear that WWE was struggling both commercially and critically. Fortunately, things would take a turn for the better on the Road To WrestleMania XXVII.

This is worth watching from a historical standpoint, but I can't honestly say that this is a DVD that you should own.

Overall Rating; 5.5/10 - Above Average

WWE Live In The UK: April 2010

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 291 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 2
Studio: Clear Vision Ltd/Silver Vision
Released: July 19 2010

Live In The UK returns to cover the April 2010 tour, which was perhaps most memorable for the fact that the Raw crew ended up being stuck in Dublin, Ireland due to the volcanic ash incident. (You might remember it for Mark Henry being arrested in an incident involving Chavo Guerrero and some fans wanting autographs; when I heard the full details, it didn't surprise me one bit that the "heels" in this scenario were the often-grumpy Henry and Chavo.)

WrestleMania XXVI had just gone down (I went to that Mania too), and with it, we lost Shawn Michaels to retirement. Add to that The Undertaker having his traditional break from television, and Triple H being absent due to injury (which in hindsight marked the beginning of the end of his full-time career; he competed shortly afterwards at Extreme Rules, but has only wrestled occasionally since), and the roster was looking a bit thin for this tour. It's therefore unsurprising that besides one or two moments, these tapings aren't particularly memorable.

Raw has David Hasselhoff as guest host, who at least does a much better job than Ricky Hatton did; and his cameos are entertaining, to be fair. Batista vs. Randy Orton is the somewhat underwhelming main event, and the secondary main event is John Cena against then-NXT rookie David Otunga. Yes, really. The only other notable part of Raw is an appearance from the recently-resurfaced Bret Hart, who gets a great reaction. It isn't unfair to suggest that if you had missed this episode of Raw at the time, you probably wouldn't have regretted it.

By now, ECW was gone, and in its place we had NXT. Not the NXT which stars Finn Balor, Samoa Joe and Bayley, but the version which was meant to partially resemble a reality show. The producers of NXT hadn't quite lost the plot yet, so this edition is decent for what it is, and it's cool to see Daniel Bryan, Wade Barrett and others at this early stage (well, this early stage in WWE for Bryan). Superstars is the usual average fare; you'll enjoy it if you don't expect much from it. It was silly that the main event was MVP vs. Ted DiBiase, because the exact same match main evented Superstars on the previous UK tour. At least DiBiase gets retribution from their previous meeting, giving this match a purpose (although it isn't acknowledged; I only know this from remembering the initial match). Superstars was not a priority of WWE by this point, with clips from Raw being the only presence of main event stars, and things would get worse for the show in the future.

SmackDown is the best show on this DVD, spotlighted by an exciting main event between Jack Swagger, Chris Jericho and Edge for the World Heavyweight Title. Swagger won Money In The Bank at WrestleMania completely out of the blue, and his WHC win was also a huge surprise. This was the first step forward for Swagger in his title reign, although it would ultimately prove to be mishandled, leading Swagger to achieve little in the six years since his main event run ended. This match is good, though.

The extras here consist of two retro bouts: The Rockers vs. The Fabulous Rougeaus from the first televised UK show in 1989, the opening segment of which is drawn out for far too long, and a respectable Bret Hart-Rick Martel bout from 1992.

Judged on its own, this isn't really a good wrestling compilation, if you can call it that. After watching the largely dire November 2009 output, though, this feels like a big improvement, since Raw is slightly more interesting and NXT (even at this point) is superior to the p-ss-poor ECW show. I wouldn't suggest that you should go out and buy this DVD, but I would say that you'll probably enjoy this DVD more than the previous LITUK release, even if the ratings are the same.

Overall Rating: 6/10 - Reasonable

WWE Live In The UK: November 2009

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 297 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 2
Studio: Clear Vision Ltd/Silver Vision
Released: May 3 2010

On paper, the November 2009 tapings sound like they would be very memorable. Ricky Hatton as Raw guest host (remember that concept?), DX vs. JeriShow with John Cena on commentary, William Regal challenging ECW Champion Christian in his home country and The Undertaker vs. Chris Jericho on television for the first time ever all sound like a vintage tour. But it wasn't.

Raw was ailing at this point. Sure, we had John Cena, DX, Randy Orton and Legacy, the rise of Kofi Kingston and Sheamus and other notable faces. But the show had a seen-it-all-before feel to it, especially its headline feuds which for most of 2009 were all recycled. Add to that the more-annoying-than-entertaining Chavo Guerrero heel persona (in a dire feud with Hornswoggle for much of the year) and the guest show idea which had grown tired once annoying and disinterested figures began hosting proceedings, and the show was at a low point. It could provide some entertainment, but more often it was boring or frustrating.

This is demonstrated on this edition of Raw because, besides a mildly entertaining opening segment involving Hatton (who is awful on the mic), JeriShow and DX, and an okay main event between those two teams, the show is complete filler. Even Ricky's "MMA" match with Chavo falls flat, partly because his "Blue Moon" theme is edited out. Add to that overly-edited crowd reactions at various points of the show, and it results in an entirely missable episode of Raw. The show just feels lifeless. Almost every episode of Raw in the last year has been superior to this one from 2009 (that being said, at least it doesn't drag on for three hours like Raw does today). By the way, this was the last episode of Raw to feature the "To Be Loved" theme by Papa Roach, in a little trivia note.

ECW boasts the aforementioned Regal-Christian match but, otherwise, it is even worse than Raw. In fact, it cannot honestly claim to be main roster television, because much of the quality is so poor. Never mind the "ECW" name of the show; you could have called it anything and it would still be atrocious. No wonder ECW was cancelled a few months later. Superstars is better, as the matches are actually fairly decent. None are particularly memorable, but at least the show doesn't reach the depths of ECW.

SmackDown is the best show on this DVD, but whilst the show had shone in the ring throughout 2009, this particular episode was just okay. Undertaker vs. Jericho is the best match, but it's missing something to make it a classic TV bout. John Morrison vs. Dolph Ziggler is alright but has a poor ending. And segments involving CM Punk, Batista and Rey Mysterio are decent, but none justify purchasing this DVD. Finlay vs. Drew McIntyre is worth watching too, I suppose, but McIntyre hadn't properly developed his "chosen one" character, so even this feels a bit lacklustre.

The best part of this DVD could be the bonus material. The wonderfully nostalgic 20-man Battle Royal from the Royal Albert Hall in 1991 felt massive at the time, even if it was barely acknowledged on television back in the States. A handicap match between Brock Lesnar/Paul Heyman and Edge from Rebellion 2002 is surprisingly good, too. When this DVD was released, few could have imagined that Lesnar, at this point the UFC Heavyweight Champion, and Heyman, essentially barred from WWE for life, would ever return to the company.

This DVD does have its moments (Christian vs. Regal, Undertaker vs. Y2J and the bonus bouts), but on the whole it's actually a fair portrayal of WWE television at the time; namely, it could have been a lot better. And the same applies to these particular tapings, especially Raw which just about reached the level of "run of the mill" (ECW was traditionally awful at this point, and with Christian-Regal, the episode here was arguably an improvement). Only get this DVD if you see it for a low price on eBay, but it might actually be worth watching to relive a time when the landscape of WWE was a lot less interesting than it is now, even if we're hardly in a vintage era as we speak.

Overall Rating: 6/10 - Reasonable

WWE Live In The UK: April 2009

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 282 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 2
Studio: Clear Vision Ltd/Silver Vision
Released: July 20 2009

With WrestleMania in the rear-view mirror, WWE was back across the Atlantic for its April 2009 UK tour.

To be fair, WM 25 wasn't particularly good; besides the all-time classic that was The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels, much of the card was a disappointment. Fortunately, the television shows were still worth watching, and this set of tapings in London bridged the gap between the 2009 Draft and the era in which the roster changes would be implemented. This leads to some pretty star-studded bouts across the board, although the match quality isn't quite to the standard of the November 2008 UK tour.

From Raw, we get a good Triple H-Randy Orton No Disqualification match, although this occurred at the height of the never-ending HHH-Orton conflict. Rey Mysterio meets Big Show in a short David vs. Goliath bout. Batista makes short work of Chavo Guerrero. Kane faces CM Punk. And John Cena takes on Chris Jericho in front of a crowd who detests Cena, even more than what fans largely did at the time. It's packed with big names, though as I said, even the best match is only adequate.

ECW is completely skippable, and is only worth watching if you fancy seeing the recently-returned Christian and Jack Swagger sign a contract for their ECW Title bout at Backlash (or Hornswoggle vs. Natalya). I should mention that by now WWE had added Superstars to its weekly slate (just one week prior, in fact), so we get that taping here, which includes Edge vs. Kofi Kingston and Rey Mysterio teaming with CM Punk against Big Show and Kane. Superstars wasn't actually on a UK channel at this point, so this would be the only presence of Superstars in the UK until late 2009. Incidentally, this was (supposedly) the only weekly show to feature talent from all three brands, but despite its general insignificance to the scheme of things (it would be a C- or a D-show by late 2010), it played a role in creating the feeling that there is far too much WWE television output, which as we all know applies to a great degree today.

Finally, there's SmackDown. Again, it's star-studded, and features The Undertaker against Big Show in his first SD match post-WrestleMania. The outcome is unexpected, and this would actually mark Taker's removal from television until he resurfaced at the end of SummerSlam 2009. The tag main event sets up the 6-man match at Backlash (Batista and Shane McMahon vs. Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase), but it just feels weird, not least because none of the four were or would be on SmackDown roster-wise.

The bonus material here is decent. We get two dark matches (William Regal vs. Dolph Ziggler and R-Truth vs Umaga), a photo recap of the tour, and the unforgettable main event of One Night Only 1997 between Shawn Michaels and The British Bulldog (which was very controversial and annoying, but I'll cover that another time).

This is a pretty good series of tapings, although nothing is massively memorable. In some ways it marks the end of an era, along with Backlash the subsequent Sunday, as the subsequent changes made by the Draft led to a pretty poor time for Raw, but a great time for SmackDown from a wrestling standpoint. It's safe to say that WWE would love to have this many bona fide headliners on its television shows today.

Overall Rating; 7.5/10 - Good

WWE Live In The UK: November 2008

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 233 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 2
Studio: Clear Vision Ltd/Silver Vision
Released: February 9 2009

WWE were back in the UK for its November 2008 tour, which was very memorable to me as I attended both nights of tapings, and mingled with many of the wrestlers in their hotel (well, I say mingled but it was really just getting the chance to meet some of them, but there were truly spontaneous moments, such as a moment when trouble nearly kicked off between the WWE stars and a group of kickboxers, and the alleged visual of JBL being so drunk that he collapsed; all of this is true, by the way).

At this point, we were into the PG era, although it wouldn't be until 2009-10 when WWE's lack of creativity and minimal progression of mid-card stars led to fans bashing the PG nature of the product. The shows were more than reasonable at this point, if not quite to the level of, say, 1998 or 2005. Fortunately for UK fans, the crew must have been looking to prove something whilst they were in Manchester, because all three tapings are well worth watching and were the best overall set of UK tapings to date.

Raw looked to bring an end to some long-running feuds, following the popular resignation of bumbling GM Mike Adamle the previous week, and Chris Jericho regaining the World Heavyweight Title from Batista that same night. To that end, we get a fun Kane-Rey Mysterio match, a teased Batista-Randy Orton confrontation, and a very good Last Man Standing match between Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho to officially end their superb rivalry. In addition, we get the end of Santino Marella's Intercontinental Title run at the hands (or the knee) of home country hero William Regal. This was probably the best episode of Raw in months, even without John Cena (who would return from injury shortly afterwards at Survivor Series) and CM Punk (who wasn't used even though he was there, for some reason).

ECW had long evolved into something only slightly more important than Heat or Velocity, but this particular edition of ECW had arguably the brand's best match of the year. Matt Hardy's ECW Title defence against Finlay (another UK rep) was an incredible match, which was a bigger achievement when you consider that Hardy was working through an injury). And SmackDown had a strong Extreme Rules main event between Jeff Hardy and The Undertaker with a surprising outcome. (Although it isn't included here, WWE actually recorded two episodes of SmackDown on that evening; on the second episode, Jeff pinned Triple H in a non-title match, making this the best night of Jeff's career before he would become WWE Champion at Armageddon the next month.)

The DVD is rounded off by two retro matches from past UK tours: The Undertaker vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan (HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!) from 1991, and Shawn Michaels vs. Crush from 1993. Neither is a great match, but both are fun to revisit, especially for Bobby Heenan's outstanding and hilarious heel commentary. The presentation is to the usual WWE standard by this point, following major problems with the first LITUK DVD and minor issues with the second one, and so it shan't be brought up again in this series of reviews.

From an in-ring standpoint, WWE had been enjoying one of its best ever years on PPV, and this is showcased by the fact that all three television shows here have at least one really good match. Ironically, the PPV which these tapings were setting up, Survivor Series, was the only card all year to be largely panned, partly due to the Jeff Hardy angle (or the presentation of it, anyway) and the dull-as-f--k Triple H-Vladimir Kozlov action from said show.

Nevertheless, this is by far the strongest of the initial Live In The UK DVDs, and possibly the strongest of the entire series. No doubt these episodes will end up on the Network, but while you wait for this development, I would definitely recommend getting this DVD. Note: JBL's drunken collapse is not included.

Overall Rating: 8/10 - Very Good

WWE Live In The UK: April 2008

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 217 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 2
Studio: Clear Vision Ltd/Silver Vision
Released: September 15 2008

The second Live In The UK DVD takes in the April 2008 tour. This was coming off a tremendous WrestleMania XXIV (I attended it so I'm biased, but even if I hadn't it was an incredible Mania to watch), which combined with the return of many stars from injury, and other recent comebacks for the likes of Chris Jericho and Big Show, raised hopes that the UK tapings would be superior to those held the previous October.

As it turned out, any improvements were only slight. Granted, Raw does feature a title change (when Beth Phoenix defends the Women's Title against Mickie James), a pretty good angle involving Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho (which helped to sow the seeds for their outstanding feud later that year), William Regal challenging for Randy Orton's WWE Title in his home country, and a first-time match between Triple H and John Bradshaw Layfield. ECW has a reunion of The Brothers Of Destruction as they tackle John Morrison and The Miz, who by now are a well-established combo as WWE Tag Team Champions. And SmackDown is alright, which even has a Batista-Undertaker main event, even if it ends in a dissatisfying manner and can't hold a candle to their other battles during this era.

Generally, though, there's still nothing massively appealing on any of the shows. The content of Raw is fairly good, but the best match is probably Orton-Regal, and even that is only decent (Regal nearly breaks Orton's neck with a botched suplex during this match; incidentally, Orton's long WWE Title run began right before the October 2007 tour, and would end shortly after this tour). The aforementioned ECW tag bout is a cool spectacle, but that particular show has no other stand-out moments. And SmackDown has its moments, but again it's not really a vintage episode.

There was still the feeling at this point that WWE television tapings in the UK had a second-rate feel to them, which by and large they had ever since they began in October 2004. SmackDown had usually done the better job of trying to make English tapings fairly memorable (Eddie Guerrero turned heel on one such taping in April 2005), but with the exception of Cena-Michaels from April 2007, the Raw tapings almost all felt insignificant; as if you could afford to skip them and watch the US episode the next week to find out what happened. Not least because John Cena and Mr. Kennedy were both absent from Raw due to filming commitments. Admittedly, they would miss other Raw events while attempting to play the real-life role of The Rock, but it speaks volumes that the film productions were timed so that both men just happened to miss the UK tour. Jeff Hardy was also missing, but that was his own fault due to a drug-related suspension.

Fortunately, the presentation is better here; it was the final few weeks before the PG era began, but of the slightly violent action that we do see, nothing is edited out. The screen quality seems a bit off, perhaps because it isn't in wide-screen as most WWE television was at this time, and there's a weird screen effect to the O2 Arena-filmed scenes, as if everything moves a little too quick (which I can't explain). As bonus footage, we get some quick clips of the tour (including one of The Sandman mingling with UK fans, even though he was fired the previous September).

WWE television in spring 2008 was a big improvement on that of October 2007 due to the return of many big names and, in the case of SmackDown, the surprisingly entertaining Edge-Vickie Guerrero romance. And the PPV events from around this time were of a high standard, with some ranking amongst the greatest WWE supershows of the era. The TV shows were still only fair, though, with the occasional great episode here and there. This is a much wiser purchase than the October 2007 Live In The UK release, but it's still only average.

Overall Rating: 5/10 - Average