Daniel Bryan's first WWE World Heavyweight Championship defense see's him up against "The Devil's Favourite Demon" Kane. It's slice of epic storytelling, sports-entertainment style. It's a sprawling match, taking in the entire ringside area, as well as heading backstage for a brawl in the parking lot. There's singapore canes, steel chairs, cars, a monkey wrench, a forklift truck and a flaming tables, as the pair really do pull out all the stops. A weak finish, mainly due to some poor camera work and directing and some poorly taken bumps from Kane are what hold this match back from taking Match of the Night. (Match Rating - *** 1/4)
Where Bryan vs Kane succeeds, John Cena and Bray Wyatt's Steel Cage match fails. It's an overly long and repititive contest, with a story that doesn't make a lot of sense. On paper, this should have been a good, but despite some nice moments, Cena and Wyatt are hampered by the booking of the match. The finish is also poor, when you remove the surprise "What the fuck is happening here?" factor. (Match Rating - * 3/4)
The best match on DVD is a tremendous six man tag team match between The Shield and Evolution. A big match atmosphere can be felt before the match even begins, with the match itself being put together very nicely, getting the correct reactions out of the crowd at the correct moments. Some top draw spots and credible wild brawling make this one of the best matches WWE has produced in 2014. (Match Rating - **** 1/4)
Rob Van Dam, Jack Swagger and Cesaro work well together to create a decent Three Way Elimination bout, that opens the DVD nicely. Arguably this is Van Dam's best match since returning to WWE. (Match Rating - ** 3/4)
A lively Intercontinental Championship match between Big E and Bad News Barrett is a decent heavyweight encounter. It is, however, let down by the crowd's negative reaction towards the babyface Big E (Match Rating - **)
Paige's first PPV match is not quite what one would have wanted. Whilst her encounter with Tamina Snuka does have some nice spots and an easy to follow story, Tamina looks out of her depth at this level, with some sloppy wrestling and poor selling. (Match Rating - * 1/4)
A Two-on-One Handicap match pitting Rusev against the duo of R-Truth and Xavier Woods does exactly what it set out to do, without ever really feeling like a squash match. It is a little short but the action either side makes up for that (Match Rating - *)
Elsewhere, there's also a single appearance from the Kick Off panel, this time including Josh Matthews, Booker T, Sheamus and Alex Riley. They all say some stuff. As well as vignettes for the upcoming debuts of Adam Rose and Bo Dallas.
The "Special Features" include the fun WeeLC match between Hornswoggle and El Torito, which features 3MB and Los Matadores working their arses off throughout (Match rating ** 1/2) Renee Young interviews The Shield following their match with Evolution, with Roman Reigns being the only who actually speaks. Daniel Bryan's WWE Fallout Press Conference is a worth inclusion, continuing Bryan's feud with Kane. Bray Wyatt's Press Conference is similarly worthy, with some tremendous character work from Wyatt, that does more for him than the match with Cena did.
Finally...
This is a strong showing from WWE, with two out of the three upper card matches delivering well, it's a shame Wyatt and Cena couldn't quite match Shield vs Evolution or Kane vs Bryan. The undercard also performs well with Cesaro vs Swagger vs RVD and Barrett vs Big E standing out in particular. The special features are also strong when compared to other recent PPV DVD releases. This certainly wouldn't be a bad addition to any WWE fans DVD collection.
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