The Best Of WWE At Madison Square Garden

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 428 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: September 9 2013

With the recent WWE Network special emanating from Madison Square Garden, this seems as good a time as any to look at the company's 2013 DVD dedicated to The World's Most Famous Arenas. Book-ended by links from Matt Striker (although there are very few of them), this compilation focuses on memorable matches and moments at MSG, and for the most part it is a success.

Surprisingly, we get nothing from Bruno Sammartino's first WWWF Title reign (more on him later), but we do get a match involving the man who dethroned Bruno in 1971, Ivan Koloff; his championship loss to Pedro Morales is the first match here, and is cool to see as it's historic yet rare (although the production quality is understandably poor). A Bruno vs. Superstar Billy Graham clash from 1977 follows, before a fairly good Texas Death match between Bob Backlund and Ken Patera from 1980. A historically noteworthy meeting between WWF Champ Bob Backlund and NWA Champ Harley Race follows, with commentary by Matt Striker that is either entertaining or annoying depending on your point of view, but we strangely don't get the memorable Backlund-Iron Sheik title change from December 1983. We do, however, get Hulk Hogan's incredibly important first WWF Title win over Sheik (the match is short but it marked the true beginning of Hulkamania), and a gripping Boot Camp match between Sgt Slaughter and Iron Sheik, which is incredibly bloody considering that we were by then into the Hogan era.

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