As the decade of the 2000's comes to a close, the professional wrestling landscape has radically changed. The Death/Sale of both WCW and ECW to Vincent Kennedy McMahon, the murder/suicide of Chris Benoit, the death of Eddie Guerrero (and many others) are just a few of the major events of the past ten years. What better way to bring in the 2010’s than to review WWE’s Greatest Wrestling Stars of the 90’s 3 DVD set?
The first disc contains 10 minute profiles of approximately 20 of the greatest wrestling performers of the 1990’s. Hosted by Tazz before he left WWE to announce for TNA, the wrestlers that are profiled include Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, HHH, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Yokozuna, Kevin Nash, Razor Ramon, Owen Hart, Mankind, Sting, Bret Hart, Hulk Hogan, Lex Luger and Ric Flair. There is a profile included that discusses the impact of the major bookers/owners of the 1990’s, namely McMahon, Eric Bishoff and Paul Heyman. Additionally, there’s a profile of the Women of the 1990s, including such ‘Where Are They Now?’ females like Chyna, Sable, Sunny, Debra, Alundra Blayze and Terri. For the most part, these profiles are entertaining and provide a decent, if not abbreviated review of the careers of said wrestlers/performers in the 1990’s. Also, I’m compelled to mention that there’s a great opening montage when the discs are on the main menu, showing all the wrestlers posing or wrestling, and it matches the drum beat in the background – very well done!
One of my favorite profiles on the disc is of the ‘Not So Great Stars of the 90’s.’ Giving the Wrestlecrap videos a run for their money, you’ll see some of the ‘best’ craptacular gimmicks, such as The Repo Man (aka Demolition’s Smash), Man Mountain Rock, Damien Demento, The Yenti, The Shockmaster (aka Tugboat/Typhoon), The Berserker (who always beat jobbers via count-out), Bastion Booger, T.M. Hoffer (a plumber with a huge ass crack, of whom Mr. Perfect says, ‘T.L. Hopper’s got his moves numbered – number 1 and 2’), The Goon (a hockey player that was too rough for hockey), Aldo Montoya (aka Justin Credible), Kurrgan, Duke The Dumpster Droese, Max Moon and Glacier.
Disc 1 contains a number of interviews/promos from the profiled wrestlers, including Razor Ramon at a restaurant, the Undertaker building a coffin for Yokozuna (with Paul Bearer making his million-dollar orgasmic expressions), and the Rock reading Stone Cold’s Eulogy. These interview are great, but the edits really kill me – why can’t we see Stone Cold give The Rock the middle finger? Is it really that profane, Vince, that it has to be blurred?
My favorite extra is the reunification of The Hart Foundation, from March 31, 1997. For my money, the best period in wrestling was when The Hart Foundation (consisting of Bret "The Hitman" Hart, Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart, Brian "The Loose Cannon" Pillman, Owen Hart, and "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith) reunited and were roundly booed in the US, but cheered like heroes outside the U.S. It’s sad that only the original Hart Foundation members, Bret and Jim, and alive today.
Even a transcript of the slightly clipped reunion is entertaining! Bret breaks up a fight between Owen and Davey Boy, and says the following:
"Stop it! Can’t you see? Can’t you see? This is what all these people want! Family values. That’s what they want – they had us fight for years! It’s all these people right here that had all of us fighting. What are you fighting for? For what? To satisfy a bunch of people that don’t know the first thing about family values?
Listen to me! I’m asking you – I need you. Yeah, USA – You’re talking about a country that’s based its entire history on brother against brother.
They’ve got talk shows all over this country of families, airing out their family problems because they all hate each other. That’s what they’ve done – they’ve taken our family and turned us into a bunch of haters!
(Looking at Bulldog) – They’ve turned you against me! We fought like two men in Wembley Stadium. And after you won, I hugged you. We came back to America; they turned us against each other.
(Looking at Owen) And listen to you and me – Look what they’ve done...to you...and me. I was the one that got you in the World Wrestling Federation. (Turns to crowd) Yeah – you laugh. They’ve pushed you and they’ve pushed you and they’ve pushed you – they’ve pushed me – and they’ve pushed us against each other! They’ve driven this wedge between the whole family. (Turns to Bulldog) You know it! What’d they do to Diana? (Bulldog’s wife and Bret’s sister) Huh?
Owen – I’ve known you since you were a baby. I dressed you for school. I dressed you for school every day! I was the one that made sure you made the school bus. And how many times...how many times did I take you...remember St. Michael’s school and that teacher - that teacher was picking on you? I was only 13 years old – I went to that school and I set the teacher straight! Who was there for you more times than I was? Who was the one that even talked you into even becoming a wrestler? There’s only two people in the whole family that really excelled in wrestling – it was you and me, and they’ve turned us against each other (Owen is fabulous as his bottom lip is trembling, like he’s going to cry)!
(Turns to Bulldog) – They’ve turned me against my own sister, Diana! Because Americans don’t understand family! They don’t give a damn about family!
Owen...Davey...I’m asking you for your help, because I need you! Owen...Owen...look me in the eye...nobody was there for you more times than I was...I want you to hear me and I want you to hear me loud and clear, and I don’t care about these people – not anymore – Owen, I love you! I love you!" (Owen mouths I love you, as Bret goes to hug him, then hugs Bulldog – all three men embrace, as Hart glares disdainfully at the crowd. Bret then drops the mike on the mat).
No one sold a storyline better than Bret Hart. Wannabe wrestlers that aspire to greatness and making an impact on the business should watch and learn from the stuff the Hart Foundation was doing in 1997.
After that long commentary regarding Disc 1, Discs 2 and 3 contain 16 matches in their entirety. One of the highlights is a match between Flair and Hogan from MSG, where Flair gets his leg on the ropes after Hogan’s legdrop (that never happens!) Mr. Perfect gives Flair brass knuckles and Flair nails Hogan with them for the pin. Subsequently, Dave Hebner grabs the knuckles from the back of Flair’s tights (he copped a feel?) and showed them to the referee, so the decision is reversed, and Hogan wins by DQ. By the way, this match was on November 30, 1991, 3 days after Hogan claims he was injured at the Survivor Series and was laid up in the hospital for months (see my book review of "My Life Outside the Ring" for more Hogan BS).
Another great match is between Owen Hart and Bret Hart. This was an excellent scientific match, where Owen gets the clean win, but it’s "tainted" by the most disgusting white glob of spit that’s caked on Owen’s mouth as he wins the match and leaves the ring.
A surprisingly good match was Alundra Blaze vs Bull Nakanno. After Alundra Blaze (aka Medusa Micelli) literally trashed the WWF Women’s Title on WCW Nitro, I never thought she’s appear on a WWE DVD release. The following moves were performed in this match (a women’s match): the ankle lock (Nakanno must have taught it to Kurt Angle), a top rope bulldog, a flying dropkick from the second rope, sharpshooter/bow and arrow submission move, a piledriver, a powebomb (off a hurricanrana attempt), a flying legdrop from the top rope, a victory roll pin attempt, a german suplex into a bridge (for a pin), a dive through the middle rope, an irish whip into the metal stairs outside the ring and a moonsault (I didn’t even include bodyslams and clotheslines)! Namely, there were more moves in this match than in the entire combined repertoire of Kevin Nash, Hulk Hogan, HHH, Bill Goldberg and the Ultimate Warrior.
Another great match that’s included is between Sting and Bret Hart from WCW’s 1998 Halloween Havoc. During the match, Sting elbows the ref, knocking him out (without realizing it was the ref). Bret (a heel at the time) immediately drops a leg on the ref to ensure that he’s still knocked out. Of course, the ref inches over to try to get out of the way of the wrestlers, and gets nailed when Sting superplexes Bret off the top rope (Bret lands on the refs legs). Bret destroys Sting with Sting’s baseball bat, wakes up the ref, then puts Sting in the sharpshooter. Because Sting is knocked out and can’t submit, Bret wins the match, to a big positive reaction by the crowd!
Overall, this is a fabulous DVD set, and while some can gripe about the exclusions (i.e. - no ECW stars are mentioned), the included content is a must-own. The profiles of the wrestlers are great, and the included matches are some of the best from the decade (that, for the most part, do not appear on other DVD compilations).
4 ½ out of 5 stars
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