Airing from 2002-2004, WWE "Confidential" was a unique, documentary-type program that took viewers behind the scenes of professional wrestling (excuse me…sports entertainment) to show what it was like to be a WWE Superstar. Segments included visiting wrestlers at home, covering controversial real-life stories, and viewing tributes to past superstars.
This single-disc release is hosted by the great Mean Gene Okerlund, who also hosted the show. Of note, the DVD is titled "Volume 1," but there was never a second volume released. The bulk of content on the DVD is split up into 18 documentary-style segments, with 4 bonus matches included as extras. Each segment last approximately 8-10 minutes.
The best segments are the ones that deal with controversy. The highlight of the DVD is the coverage of the infamous "Montreal Screwjob," which occurred at the 1997 Survivor Series. To recap, (taken from the Monday Night Wars DVD Review, which can be found at http://www.screenspotlight.com/content/view/482/5/), a WCW bound Bret Hart took Vince McMahon at his word that his match with Shawn Michaels would end in a disqualification, only for Vince to yell at the referee to "Ring the fucking bell" and say that Bret gave up, losing the title. Vince and Earl Hebner obviously knew what was going to happen. For years, Shawn Michaels claimed that he didn’t know what was going to happen. On the first episode of "Confidential", Michaels finally came clean and admitted that he was in on the screwjob with McMahon.
This was a great segment, but like I always do, I have to call bullshit on a few quotes. Mean Gene claims that Vince McMahon allowed Bret to negotiate the most lucrative contract in wrestling history with WCW. For one, Hulk Hogan had a larger contract, and likely, even Mark Henry’s 10-year/$10M contract was for a greater overall amount than Bret’s reported $9M/3 year contract. Mean Gene also claims (likely because he was fed the script – you can see him reading from a piece of paper during this segment) that Bret wasn’t about to relinquish the title under any circumstances. Bret said on numerous occasions that he would have lost the title to anyone besides Shawn Michaels. Bret’s position changed the week before the Survivor Series, when he said that he didn’t want to lose the title before the PPV, because it would have lessened the "main event feel" if the match was not for the title.
Gerry Brisco, once again in his glorifying suck-fest, ass-kissing voice (which I’m convinced is his normal demeanor), claims that it took a lot of courage to do what Shawn Michaels did that night, and that Shawn became a real man and a stand up person in his mind. Why? Because he lied to Bret and everyone in the locker room, by swearing to God that he had nothing to do with the screwjob? Vince also says at one point that it was a "gutsy" thing for Shawn to do. My freaking hero!
Michaels claims that he’s not sorry for what he did. HBK said that after the match, he went to the hotel room and just sat there with Hunter and Chyna...and it was...surreal. Hmmmm...I wonder if Hunter and HBK ended up spending the night in China...The best part of the segment is when Vince admits that as Bret was coming towards Vince to throw a punch (which Vince claims he was going to let Bret get away with), Brisco stepped on Vince’s ankle and broke his ankle! It would have been better for Vince if he had Brisco get him a cut of coffee instead. Vince said Bret punched him in the temple, and he went down like a "ton of bricks." If you watch the documentary "Wrestling With Shadows," you can see Vince stumbling out of the room after his confrontation with Bret. It’s truly a Three Stooges moment.
Another great segment covers when "Stone Cold" Steve Austin left the WWE in the summer of 2002. Austin had issues with the creative team over the direction of his character, which is not elaborated on in the DVD. Thankfully, you have me here to tell you that Austin was upset over having to wrestle Scott Hall at Wrestlemania 18 instead of having a higher profile match, and was upset that the WWE wanted to have Austin get destroyed by Brock Lesnar on a Raw episode (Austin correctly felt that this match should have a better build-up, and been on PPV instead of free TV).
It’s interesting to see Jim Ross and Vince McMahon run down how Austin did the one thing you never do in wrestling, which is to no-show an event. Vinnie Mac also complains about how, hands-down, Austin is the most demanding wrestler he’s ever worked with (what about Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels and HHH?) Jim Ross said that he tried to talk Austin out of no-showing, but was unsuccessful. Of course, Stone Cold came back in early 2003 to wrestle Eric Bishoff, before his final match with The Rock at Wrestlemania 19.
There’s a fun segment with Bradshaw (JBL) playing a game of TEXAS (aka "Horse") against The Big Show, with the winner facing former college basketball standout (at Rutgers) and Tough Enough 2 winner Linda Miles. JBL beat The Big Show 5-1, then beats Linda Miles 3-0 (they played a game of WWE). It’s great seeing Bradshaw taunting and sexually harassing the bland, no-personality and hereto forgotten Linda Miles.
There’s also a tribute to Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, where Snuka mentions how he became addicted to the white powder (you know...cocaine). Other segments include tributes to the late "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith, the demise of WCW (for some reason, this segment ended as a cliffhanger up through 1998, rather than discussing what happened through 2001), Kurt Angle’s Olympic Training (Angle considered training again for the Olympics, but wisely decided against it) and the WWE cameras visiting Trish Stratus at her home (when the DVD arrived in my mail, and my wife saw Trish on the cover, doing her best impression of a fully-clothed porn star, I had some ‘splaining to do).
The extras include the classic SummerSlam 1992 match at Wembley Stadium between Bret Hart and Davey Boy Smith for the Intercontinental Title (yes, the same title that The Godfather and Val Venus would add their "prestige" to a mere 8 years later). This match really was a great back-and-forth battle, with Smith winning his first singles title.
The second extra is a match between Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka and Ray Stevens (why they didn’t choose a better match, like the cage match between Snuka and Don Muraco, is beyond me). The third extra is the last match ever on WCW Nitro, for the WCW Heavyweight Title, between Booker T and Scott "Big Poppa Pump" Steiner, where Booker T won his first World Title.
The final match is the aforementioned 1997 Survivor Series match for the WWF Heavyweight Title, between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. This DVD is currently the only WWE-released DVD containing this match, which was an excellent brawl between two men who really hated each other at the time. The first 11 minutes of the match saw both men brawling outside of the ring, as Bret beats the holy shit out of Shawn for stuffing the Canadian flag down his pants and for sticking it up his nose. Bret’s great figure-four leglock around the ringpost makes its last WWF appearance.
Shawn then takes control and gets in a decent amount of offense. Of note, you can hear Shawn say to Bret during the match "Your finger’s bleeding; are you sure you’re ok?" Bret doesn’t answer, but seems to give a brief nod.
Bret makes the big comeback, only for the referee, Earl Hebner, to get "knocked out", leading to the famous screwjob ending.
This is a great DVD, with 2 excellent matches as extras, and several must see segments. While I wish this was at least a 2 DVD set, it’s worth the price of admission (so long as that price isn’t the MSRP of $19.99).
3 ¾ out of 5 stars
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