DVD Review: WrestleMania Monday

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Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 363 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: April 3 2017

(Thanks to Fetch Publicity for arranging this review.)

Over the last few years, the episode of Raw held the day after WrestleMania has become almost as anticipated as Mania itself. Whilst the post-WM Raw has always served the purpose of pressing the reset button, so to speak, and acting as a platform for debuts, returns and even retirements, since 2012 the combination of truly major developments and increasingly raucous crowds have led to this being the most watched, and most eagerly-awaited, television show of the WWE Calendar.

The latest WWE release focuses on this phenomenon, with a documentary being accompanied by a selection of matches and moments from down the years, all of which, of course, come from post-Mania editions of Raw. They include some of the most memorable and historic Raw moments of all-time, and some of the loudest crowd reactions in Raw history provided the soundtrack for them. All of which makes for a pretty entertaining DVD.

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The Best Of Raw & SmackDown 2016

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Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 519 Minutes
Certificate: 12
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: February 20 2017

(Thanks to Fetch Publicity for arranging this review.)

Just like the Best PPV Matches 2016 DVD, this three-disc collection emphasises that it was a year of two halves (well, near enough) for WWE: pre-Draft and post-Draft, especially on Raw and SmackDown, which changed dramatically once the WWE roster was split into two. Actually, it was more like a year of thirds, with the pre-WrestleMania season being a fairly dull time on-screen due to a plethora of injuries and a certain amount of creative malaise.

Mind you, there were still some highlights of the year's first few months, and most of them are featured on this set, which is presented by Jerry Lawler and is introduced with the Raw and SmackDown intro videos. Officially opening with a fun Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch bout from the first SmackDown of the year, we then jump to a match which seems like aeons ago, as Kalisto challenges Alberto Del Rio for the United States Championship on Raw, in a bout that exceeds expectations.

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The Best Of Raw & Smackdown 2016 announced for DVD in the UK

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Written By: Mark Armstrong

Provided By: Fetch Publicity

The following story is courtesy of Fetch Publicity ...

It was a whirlwind year for WWE! New faces emerged, legends returned and the future of the WWE roster changed forever with the brand extension. Experience the New Era of WWE and recall every shocking development, every major match, and every key moment that made 2016 an incredible year for WWE. Featuring matches with AJ Styles, Triple H, Dolph Ziggler, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and more!

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Survivor Series 2016

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 197 Minutes
Certificate: 12
Number Of Discs: 2
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: January 23 2017

(Thanks to Fetch Publicity for arranging this review.)

The 30th annual edition of Survivor Series was an unusual show, both in terms of fan expectations beforehand and what transpired on the night. In the run-up, it felt like a series (no pun intended) of potentially exciting yet ultimately inconsequential elimination bouts between the Raw and SmackDown brands, along with a rematch from WrestleMania XX in 2004 as Goldberg made his long-awaited return to collide with Brock Lesnar in what was the real draw for the card. On the night, however, the inter-brand collisions exceeded expectations overall, and Goldberg vs. Lesnar was certainly a memorable encounter if not for the reasons that anybody expected going in.

The opening five-on-five women's match is pretty good, and once again provides evidence as to how much the female division has grown in recent times when one considers the paltry time and interest allocated to the Divas' battles at Survivors events in the past (I remember that more than one were nothing more than an excuse for the announcers to make jokes). Next up, The Miz vs. Sami Zayn for the Intercontinental Championship is one more reason to suggest that Miz had an incredible comeback year in 2016, although the dodgy finish at a Survivors show in Canada elicted some groans on the night.

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Survivor Series 2016 coming soon on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Provided By: Fetch Publicity

The following story is courtesy of Fetch Publicity ...

After 12 years in exile from sports-entertainment, Goldberg brings devastation back to the WWE ring for the long-awaited rematch against “The Beast Incarnate” Brock Lesnar. On the 30th anniversary of Survivor Series, fantasy warfare just got real! And for the first time since the Brand Extension, Superstars from both RAW and SmackDown Live go head-to-head in traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series elimination matches – the ultimate battle for brand supremacy!

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Weekly Wrestling Thoughts (September 16 2016)

Image Source: Rolling Stone

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Here are this week's Wrestling Thoughts: off-screen, not too much has happened, but a fair amount has gone down on-screen, so let's get to it!

• Backlash exceeded expectations greatly last Sunday. It wasn't the best PPV by any means, but considering the house show-esque line-up for SmackDown's first PPV in the modern era, further weakened by Randy Orton not being cleared to compete against Bray Wyatt, the show was pretty good. It was a simple, logical, well-paced show which highlighted everybody to a suitable standard. Of note, The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler was their best match to date, there were feel-good title wins for Becky Lynch and the team of Heath Slater and Rhyno, and AJ Styles vs. Dean Ambrose was a great main event with Styles becoming WWE Champion in a turn of events that seemed unfathomable a year ago. And with the main event for No Mercy, the next SD PPV, already set (AJ vs. Ambrose vs. John Cena), the blue brand has the chance to top this show on October 9.

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Weekly Wrestling Thoughts (September 9 2016)

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Written By: Mark Armstrong

This week's Wrestling Thoughts will be a little shorter than usual, as this has been a less eventful week after a whirlwind of events in and out of the ring since SummerSlam weekend. Nevertheless, here are my opinions on the week in wrestling, as well as predictions for Backlash this Sunday.

• Although Raw opened with a fiery debate that officially began Seth Rollins' babyface turn, and both Rollins vs. Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn were very enjoyable matches, the rest of the show felt like a drag; there were four consecutive segments that achieved almost nothing or were painfully average, and the sound-on-paper pastiche of The New Day by "retirement home" geniuses Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson (with three fake pensioners playing "The Old Day") turned out to be awful. The talent is there and the main event scene has plenty of potential directions, but Raw is still struggling to find its groove since the Draft; right now it's largely a mixture of the very good and the poor or, in some cases, very poor. With the NFL season having resumed in the States, the ratings have already begun their annual autumn slide. I hope that WWE can inject some excitement and find a way for the "new" Raw to succeed after a promising start the night after Battleground. If not, then the next few months could be a struggle on the red side. Perhaps Clash Of Champions on September 25 will establish what we can expect moving forward from the Raw team, hopefully for positive reasons. (Incidentally, I felt that many overreacted to the teased retirement by Sasha Banks; sure, some performers have retired due to injury, but how many people truly expected 24-year-old Sasha to call it quits from injuries that we were told would only keep her out of action for a limited time?)

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Weekly Wrestling Thoughts (September 2 2016)

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Written By: Mark Armstrong

I noted last week, during an extremely eventful SummerSlam weekend along with its wealth of fall-out, that this current week wouldn't be anywhere near as exciting. While that proved to be the case, there has still been plenty going on in wrestling, including a major angle and an unsurprising departure from the WWE roster, so let's get to my thoughts on another week in the wacky world of wrestling.

Before I begin, it was sad to hear that Mr. Fuji had passed away at the age of 82. Although Fuji was an accomplished wrestler and a multi-time Tag Team Champion in the WWWF, I knew him more as a devious, evil yet entertaining and almost lovable rogue manager from the boom period of the late 1980s for the WWF. He managed the likes of Demolition and Yokozuna to championship gold, playing a vital role in Yoko's first WWF Title win at WrestleMania IX, and cutting a humorous promo on Hulk Hogan to set up Hogan's impromptu title win ("Come on, ya yellow-belly, come on!"). He was also well-known for practical jokes, some of which went a bit extreme (Roddy Piper recounted one such tale on a Q&A tour in 2014, which involved Fuji, another Japanese wrestler and a dog, which is probably best not repeated here). But Fuji was unquestionably a legendary name, and fittingly entered the WWE Hall Of Fame in 2007. RIP Mr. Fuji.

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Best Of Raw - After The Show

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 400 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: April 28 2014

This is one of the more unusual WWE DVD releases. The idea of providing fans with a collection of moments which would only have been seen by the fans in attendance is a cool one; however, stretching this across three discs proves to be a bad move, as even the most entertaining scenes become repetitive.

I won't list every segment, but across the first two discs, the vast majority involve Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock or both. We tend to see some comedy exchanges, followed by a handshake or a beer toast, which results in a finisher (in some cases several finishers). Around 2001, the focus shifts almost entirely to comedy, and there are some really funny situations that develop, along with some interesting scenarios.

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The Best Of Raw & SmackDown 2015

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 470 Minutes
Certificate: 12
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: February 8 2016

This annual release looks back on most of the previous 12 months of television content. I say "most" because the month of December is either only slightly referenced or ignored altogether due to the WWE release schedule (meaning that this DVD series is in production before the year even ends). True to that theory, the last match on this DVD comes from the November 30 Raw; had we been given the extra month, we could have had Roman Reigns' WWE Title win over Sheamus to mass approval, which was one of the top Raw moments of the year.

That aside, this is a well-structured look back at the highlights of Raw and SmackDown throughout 2015. This tends to attempt a balance between the biggest moments, the best matches and content which hasn't already been released, as well as avoiding repetition where possible (so, for instance, we only get a couple of John Cena's United States Title Open Challenges despite him having at least seven or eight great Raw bouts during this stage). In a nice touch, WWE has included short clips which recap each month in terms of key storyline developments, which always helps for viewers who would otherwise be wondering why specific angles had taken place. And this doesn't have a Blu-ray release, which is a negative, but it means a longer DVD programme (around eight hours), which makes this more of a comprehensive collection.

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Raw's Most Memorable Matches

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Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 86 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 1
Studio: Clear Vision Ltd/Silver Vision
Released: April 3 2007

Raw's Most Memorable Matches followed the similar SmackDown release, and again offers a few matches at a budget price. Given the long and eventful history of Raw, it was always going to be a stretch to suggest that the show's most memorable matches are within this 90-minute DVD, but there are some gems nonetheless.

The first is Jeff Hardy challenging The Undertaker for the Undisputed WWE Title in a July 2002 Ladder match. It's a very dramatic bout, and you would never know from watching this that Hardy was as stale as an old piece of toast at this point in time, as he delivers his last truly great performance before leaving WWE for the first time in 2003. Match two pits Triple H against Ric Flair in May 2003, culminating a one-night storyline where Flair (then HHH's chaperone, no pun intended) looks to prove to HHH that he really was and is The Man.

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Raw 100: The Top 100 Moments In Raw History

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 363 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: February 4 2013

Some DVDs are easy to review; others aren't. The Top 100 Moments In Raw History is one of the more difficult ones because its main feature is split into many short parts, meaning that one can only really judge it with an overall perspective rather than the quality of its key components. Nevertheless, I shall give it a try, and the good thing is that whilst reviewing the release is a bit hard, enjoying the DVD certainly isn't.

The DVD is actually a two-parter: part one, as the name suggests, is a countdown of Raw's top 100 moments/matches. Part two, meanwhile, is the entire 1,000th episode of Raw from July 23 2012 (by the way, the DVD was designed to mark this milestone).

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The Best Of Raw & SmackDown 2013

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 451 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: March 10 2014

The WWE DVD series on the annual highlights of its flagship shows has been less impactful as the years have rolled on. What began as a 3-disc DVD for each show led to the two shows sharing a 4-disc DVD, then a 3-disc release. And even the amount of content has lessened, so while the 2013 edition captures big moments and matches, it is the weakest entry so far largely due to its shortish running time.

Just over a dozen bouts are here, compared to more than 25 for the 2012 DVD. There are some very good matches: CM Punk vs. Ryback under TLC rules was better than I had remembered it being; Alberto Del Rio vs. Big Show is an enjoyable World Title Last Man Standing clash; and John Cena vs. Punk for the WM 29 WWE Title shot was one of the top Raw bouts of the year (although those who consider it one of the best WWE matches ever are exaggerating way too much).

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