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Post by DiBiase is Good on Oct 18, 2011 20:42:01 GMT -5
Apologies if this kind of thread has been done to death but I don't really follow this section religiously. Also, if I'm just re-iterating an opinion that has been voiced repeatedly, again I apologise.
But I'm really disappointed in the quality of WWE DVDs recently. I remember that golden period when just about every DVD release they put out was gold. Rise and Fall of ECW, Spectacular Legacy of the AWA, The Triumph and Tragedy WCCW one, The Four Horsemen, Pick your Poison, Loose Cannon..well, you get the idea. A new WWE release was nearly always a must buy because they did such an amazing job on just about everything about the DVDs.
The Documentaries were fascinating with great interviews and insights. They very rarely rehashed old stuff and although they were guilty of re-writing history occasionally, they were for the most part true to what the majority of people in the business said.
But then along came The Rise and Fall of WCW. I remember saying how desperate I was for that DVD to come along seeing as how the ECW DVD was one of the best wrestling DVDs ever. Yet they managed to miss out so much and cram it all into 2 hours. ECW got 3 hours and they weren't even around for a decade, yet WCW got stiffed.
Then there was The True Story of Wrestlemania, which could have been one of the real greats but unfortunately it was all old stories rehashed. We got some new interviews but for the most part, the documentary left me cold.
Even DVDs based on specific wrestlers nowadays can't match the dizzy heights of the likes of the Bret Hart DVD.
I am mostly talking about specials rather than releases of PPVs but even those now seem to just resort to "bung the go-home Raw and Smackdown episodes on there" and that's it. It's a decent bonus to have but not exactly something original.
The production values on their DVDs is just as good as it has ever been (other than the annoying having black bars down the side of the screens where they haven't upconverted the old standard def stuff). But with the exception of the recent Wrestlemania story one (which was a case of amazing trailer, mediocre disc) there hasn't been a DVD that was a case of "must buy" for me.
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Post by FailedGimmick on Oct 18, 2011 20:47:39 GMT -5
I thought Orton's was great. Real engaging documentary, and an amazing list of matches, and the Blu-ray extras were even better.
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Post by wildojinx on Oct 18, 2011 20:56:57 GMT -5
I kind of liked Real Story of WM, at least the talk about the first 7,,after that it felt a bit rushed, especially when they called WM8 "a disapointment" and glossed over it like it never happened. However, the worst dvd was definitely the heenan dvd. It was almost like a cliffs notes version of his career. I know he has trouble talking but couldnt they have at least used interviews from the archives? It doesnt help that his best friend in the business (monsoon) is no longer with us. Triumph and Tragedy of WCCW wasnt that great either. I mean, it was great to see all the footage, but it seemed more like a von erichs dvd, with gino hernandez and the freebirds as supporting players. Nothing on the dingo warrior, the simpsons, eric embry, brian adias, very little jimmy garvin, etc
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Post by DiBiase is Good on Oct 18, 2011 21:03:51 GMT -5
I kind of liked Real Story of WM, at least the talk about the first 7,,after that it felt a bit rushed, especially when they called WM8 "a disapointment" and glossed over it like it never happened. However, the worst dvd was definitely the heenan dvd. It was almost like a cliffs notes version of his career. I know he has trouble talking but couldnt they have at least used interviews from the archives? It doesnt help that his best friend in the business (monsoon) is no longer with us. The rushed version of the middle Wrestlemanias was my problem with the True Story DVD. I really liked hearing about Closed Circuit back in the mid-80's and things like how they didn't know where WM3 was going to be held until 2 months before it but after they show a decent amount of backstage stuff for WM9, I don't recall anything on the DVD at all about 10-16. Even if there were some forgettable shows in that period, it was still Wrestlemania. I also noticed some things on the trailer that I don't recall seeing in the documentary, like Heenan practising riding an Elephant backwards and Rey crouching down under the stage ready to be sprung up into the air. It wasn't a bad DVD, just not a patch on what it could have been. |
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Post by Wade Barrett = WRESTLING GOD!! on Oct 19, 2011 0:01:12 GMT -5
I thought Orton's was great. Real engaging documentary, and an amazing list of matches, and the Blu-ray extras were even better. Wait what were the Blu-Ray Extras? |
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Dean-o
Grimlock
Haha we're having fun Maggle!
Posts: 13,865 
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Post by Dean-o on Oct 19, 2011 0:48:44 GMT -5
To me the down fall was The Rise & Fall of WCW. My God they botched that documentary badly. It was far too short.
Although the Bret vs. Shawn and the proper Austin documentary look like they are taking things in the right direction finally.
It could be possibly that all those great classic documentarys like AWA, WCCW, etc didn't sell very well, so they stopped producing them. Hell, even the classic Raw sets and the rest of the Survivor Series were scrapped due to low sales. That's the stuff I love to buy, not random matches under a theme.
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Post by thegame415 on Oct 19, 2011 0:51:06 GMT -5
Am I the only one who liked Rise and Fall of WCW?
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Post by Slingshot Suplay on Oct 19, 2011 1:12:55 GMT -5
I thought the first half of the Rise and Fall of WCW dvd was really good because it was insightful and gave alot of background on the Crockettes and what was going on in the office. I resent the fact that they went into full burial mode when it came to WCW under Bischoff. You already did that once in the Monday Night Wars DVD and again on your Roundtable discussion on your network. There was also a lack of talking about the in-ring performers who were around during the early to mid 90's and the split from the NWA. Totally forgot about Sting and his role in the whole nWo feud, when he's been put over in other dvds like the starrcade and 4 Horsemen dvd. Then you have of all people Mike Graham, who's known mostly for being his father's son, talk about Jeff Jarrett and say that he never drew a dime, as well as have Big Show whine about how much Nash and Hall were making. And every time they talked about the bad things in WCW, they always had guys who worked in TNA on screen. I just felt that those things show how petty and insecure the WWE is at times.
Even though I liked the WCCW dvd, I wished they would have spotlighted some more wrestlers.
The Real Story of Wrestlemania was interesting in the beginning, but fell flat as it went on.
I did like the Hart Foundation dvd, Jericho's dvd, Steamboat's dvd and the Big Show's dvd though.
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Post by Clawley Race on Oct 19, 2011 1:18:42 GMT -5
hopefully the doc next week can put an end to this discussion for a little while
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Post by Brother Nero....Wolfe on Oct 19, 2011 1:25:10 GMT -5
I thought Orton's was great. Real engaging documentary, and an amazing list of matches, and the Blu-ray extras were even better. Wait what were the Blu-Ray Extras? I'm going to go ahead and guess it had 80 hours of "How to get thighs as amazing as Orton's." But I didn't watch my Orton Blu-Ray yet so maybe I'm mistaken. |
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chazraps
Wade Wilson
Better have my money when I come-a collect!
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Post by chazraps on Oct 19, 2011 1:43:05 GMT -5
The real peak of the WWE DVDs was 2002-2003 pre-24/7 when their entire tape library was up for inclusions. Even the most inconsequential of Pay-Per-Views was loaded with extras ranging from Confidential features to previous incarnations of gimmick matches on the card.
They've really been lacking in their pay-per-view releases. The lack of extras and cancelling of blu-ray was what made me not purchases Money in the Bank on DVD this year.
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Post by Big Daddy Bad Booking on Oct 19, 2011 5:50:27 GMT -5
The real peak of the WWE DVDs was 2002-2003 pre-24/7 when their entire tape library was up for inclusions. Even the most inconsequential of Pay-Per-Views was loaded with extras ranging from Confidential features to previous incarnations of gimmick matches on the card. They've really been lacking in their pay-per-view releases. The lack of extras and cancelling of blu-ray was what made me not purchases Money in the Bank on DVD this year. Bad Blood 2003 and Armageddon 2003 were SHIT PPV's yet had some of the best special features all year. Can anyone say Rock return? Anywhos the PPV's I think are barebones because WWE doesn't really sell the DVD's at a high price point anymore. Back in 2002-2003, you'd be hard-pressed to find a disc costing any less than $23. Now they're sold for $15 first day, and I guess WWE doesn't want to put that much effort in anymore. This sounds like a blog idea, best DVD's I own... |
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Post by Sir Woodrow on Oct 19, 2011 6:11:18 GMT -5
I haven't bought a single WWE DVD this year, and it's because they just aren't interesting to me anymore.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2011 7:02:07 GMT -5
I haven't gotten around to buying them yet, but Ladder Match 2 and OMG! both look pretty good.
The Best Of Nitro was awesome too.
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Post by The Tee Why on Oct 19, 2011 9:46:00 GMT -5
Yeah I used to get a bunch of the WWE DVD's, then I stopped buying them for years.
Last one I bought was Jerichos which was awesome, but for me, I only really watch em once and then they sit on the shelf, and for the expense of some of the sets, thats a bit pricy.
I will be getting Stone Cold's on Blu-Ray if I can though, I havent bought any of the newer austin DVD's so this should be a good go.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2011 9:56:56 GMT -5
I haven't bought a single WWE DVD this year, and it's because they just aren't interesting to me anymore. I bought True Story of WrestleMania and Best of Raw 2010, and I'll probably pick up the new ladder match set but otherwise, yeah, I haven't been buying regularly lately. Also got Roddy Piper's set for $5 but haven't watched it. They've gotten really baffling on some of their match choices lately. Putting Austin / Rock at Mania 19 or the Montreal Screwjob as Blu-Ray exclusives? Going with the 2010 Raw Money in the Bank match instead of the SmackDown one? Just weird choices. And these Top 50 ________ lists suck. Still, there was a time, from about 2005 to 2009, where every release was a must-have. Best recent one they've put out was the Hart & Soul set. |
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Post by breakdownthewalls on Oct 19, 2011 10:04:58 GMT -5
Am I the only one who liked Rise and Fall of WCW? Nope, I also enjoyed it. Yeah it wasn't perfect, but it was enjoyable and covered a lot of stuff I didn't know. And there were some really good matches on there, too. |
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Post by Chronos on Oct 19, 2011 10:07:59 GMT -5
I'm a late-comer to buying WWE DVDs, relatively speaking, but I just stick with PPVs unless they put out a set for a wrestler/promotion I REALLY love (Jericho's set, the Nitro set). I generally buy used as well, since there's a store chain around here that I can usually find great deals on WWE stuff at, but there are exceptions (I'm kicking myself for missing Money in the Bank while it was at Walmart). This thread makes me feel kind of bad that I got SummerSlam, Night of Champions, and Survivor Series 2009 and 2010 yesterday though, hahaha.  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2011 10:37:08 GMT -5
To me the down fall was The Rise & Fall of WCW. My God they botched that documentary badly. It was far too short. Although the Bret vs. Shawn and the proper Austin documentary look like they are taking things in the right direction finally. It could be possibly that all those great classic documentarys like AWA, WCCW, etc didn't sell very well, so they stopped producing them. Hell, even the classic Raw sets and the rest of the Survivor Series were scrapped due to low sales. That's the stuff I love to buy, not random matches under a theme. Personally, unless you had an attachment to a given promotion, you might not be interested in a historical documentary on a certain territory. And even if you were interested, you might not exactly feel up to investing $15/20 on said-DVD. Besides, the ones done independently are far more comprehensive and more interesting. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2011 10:38:43 GMT -5
Only one of the company documentaries I've seen is Rise & Fall of ECW. Really enjoyed it, despite not being too big of an original ECW fan.
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