The U.S. Championship – A Legacy Of Greatness

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 450 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: May 9 2016

This DVD looks at the 40-plus year history of the United States Championship. Unlike previous "title" releases, which allowed fans to vote on the bouts or which included a documentary, this compilation is more basic, and provides a straightforward selection of matches, hosted by John Bradshaw Layfield (and to his credit, JBL does a good job of explaining situations and storylines, and of filling in the blanks between matches). The American flag backdrop for JBL's links is a nice touch, as is the presence of both the original and the current United States prizes during his scenes. In other production notes, it is interesting that each disc has its own mini-video playing during menus, which is not normally the case (each clips reel shows highlights of the bouts on that disc).

Disc one, which covers the 1975-1989 period (from Mid-Atlantic to Jim Crockett Promotions to World Championship Wrestling) is the weakest of the three. A rare Ric Flair-Ricky Steamboat match with Andre The Giant as referee sounds good on paper, but the grainy footage is awful, and as it's shown in a series of clips, one can't quite work out what has happened. Greg Valentine vs. Roddy Piper is better, but the presentation of the finish is poor, and why include this instead of their famous Dog Collar match from the first Starrcade? Fortunately, we do get a different memorable U.S. Title scrap, the rather violent I Quit Cage match between Tully Blanchard and Magnum TA from Starrcade 1985.

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