The Best of Times, The Worst of Times // Survivor Series

Consider this dear reader: Survivor Series- the second major PPV concept created by Vince McMahon- has been a thing for 30 years now. It’s so old it should by this stage of its existence have a career, be in a long term relationship and at least be thinking about kids. Basically, Survivor Series is a full-blown grown-up, wrestling with the realities of adult life, ready to put a misspent youth behind it. But let’s not consign said youth to the dungeons of the past just yet: its formative years offered much to celebrate as well as some seedy and unfortunate nights it would probably rather forget. So here it is: the best and the worst of Survivor Series. But rather than starting with the matches, let us begin with something for which this event is synonymous: debut performances.

Best debut: The Undertaker (1990)

As was aforementioned, the Survivor Series is an event renowned for a big debut: The Rock, Kurt Angle, Sting and eh, Steve Blackman but none was bigger than that of the Deadman himself. Accompanied by Brother Love and serving as the surprise member of the Million Dollar Team, he made an instant impact, eliminating Hall of Famers Koko B. Ware and Dusty Rhodes before exiting the match himself via count out. In many respects this was the perfect setting to bring in the Undertaker: alongside colourful acts such as The Honky Tonk Man and Messers Ware and Rhodes, his direct, calculated ring style and fearsome look was greatly enhanced and his status as the antidote to the cute, cuddly characters of the era was confirmed. Yes, he was cartoony but in his own distinct manner. This was no Adam West; this was 1980s Frank Miller Batman: cool, cold, iconic.

Honourable mention: Sting (2014)

Worst debut: Chuck Norris (1994)

Okay, I’m cheating a bit here but let’s go with it. Technically his role as ringside enforcer in the Undertaker vs Yozozuna Casket match was a debut for Chuck Norris in the WWF so it kind of counts. Now, Chuck Norris wasn’t as cool in 1994 as he is now: these were the days of the long forgotten Walker, Texas Ranger; there had yet to be any Chuck Norris facts; he hadn’t yet been immortalised in Dodgeball. However, he was still enough of a straight to video action movie badass that I expected high drama of the violent variety. Surely he would kick someone’s face off, maybe fire a bazooka at the casket? Sadly no: while Double J did eat a kick from Norris, his face remained intact. And while Norris was distracted at ringside, IRS interfered in the match anyway. Poor show, Mr Norris, poor show.

Honourable mention: The Gobbledy Gooker (1990)

Best traditional elimination match: Team Eric Bischoff vs Team Steve Austin (2003)

10 men competed here: Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, Christian, Scott Steiner and Mark Henry representing GM Bischoff and Shawn Michaels, The Dudleys, RVD and Booker T fighting for Sheriff Austin (that’s right, he was a sheriff back then). However, whilst all worked hard, this was ultimately a one man show: The Heartbreak Kid delivered a GOAT worthy performance, selling to a level seldom seen today, masterfully teasing comebacks that built the audience’s expectations before finally succumbing to the rising star Orton. I recommend that you fire up your Network if you haven’t seen this for a few years: an undoubted classic.

Honourable mention: Team Cena vs Team Authority (2014)

Worst traditional elimination match: The Royal Family vs Clowns R Us (1994)

When I started to love wrestling, I was already an 11 year old. Essentially, I was getting into WWF at the point most of my friends were starting to outgrow it. That fact didn’t bother me but I was determined to get my dad to accept wrestling as a credible pastime; this was an uphill battle. He didn’t see it as a sport: more of a pantomime. 

On one family jaunt to Blackpool, seeking a respite from the lights and sugar charged children, he slipped into a pub one afternoon. Knowing full well that WWF Wrestling Challenge would be on Sky Sports at that exact time, I asked him to check a result for me (a title match between Bret vs Owen if memory serves). What he reported when he returned from the pub was not the result of a Hart family athletic showcase that fostered an undying love of the graps game: now, he told a tale of three little clowns running around and falling over in the ring while a big clown squirted water in the face of a hapless interviewer. I could hear the disgust in his voice. With this Doink the Clown monstrosity, I had lost him forever.

A couple of weeks later, this angle culminated in a match in San Antonio, Texas. Doink and Jerry Lawler did some bad wrestling and then 6 little people did some even worse wrestling. Forget my dad, this abomination nearly put me off wrestling for life.

Honourable mention: The Four Doinks vs Bam Bam Bigelow. Bastion Booger and the Headshrinkers.

Best non-elimination match: Bret Hart vs Diesel for the WWF championship (1995)

Legend has it that Bret Hart was frustrated that this match didn’t get the credit it deserved: from Vince McMahon, from Dave Meltzer, from everyone really. It is one of only two great matches Kevin Nash would enjoy in the WWF/E and credit must go to the Hit-Man here: from his (at the time) innovative commentary table bump to the ingenious finish- playing possum to hit an inside cradle- this match had the audience leaping out of their seats in astonishment. This praise may be a bit late for Bret but better late than never: this was WWF story-telling at its finest and a slice of action worthy of inclusion on a greatest hits list.

Honourable mention: Undertaker vs Batista for the World Title in Hell in a Cell (2007)

Worst non-elimination match: Randy Orton vs Big Show for the WWF championship (2013)

I honestly don’t know why they bothered with this match. The build-up was more focused on Big Show’s interactions with Hunter and Steph, undermining Orton in front of a crowd already pining for Daniel Bryan. Inevitably the Universe got bored and turned on the contest; usually, that annoys me but given this listless action, it was kind of understandable.  Orton, as he sometimes does with vocal crowds, got flustered, Show lacked the baby face chops to steady the ship and the sloppy finish capped this mess off fittingly. A boring match to end a dull feud on a painfully average PPV: this was WWE story telling at its worst.

Honourable mention: Big Boss Man vs Nailz (1992)

Best overall event: Survivor Series 1995

I debated this one intensely and my final pick may well split the room but I really love Survivor Series 1995. I’ve already laid bare my love of the main event but the show has a bit of everything: it has decent work rate, most notably in the opening exchanges between 1-2-3 Kid and Marty Jannetty and Hakushi; it has Japanese women’s wrestling playing to the sounds of a highly confused Vince McMahon; it has the Wild Card match in which faces and heels team together (a novel concept for the era);and it has a first rate Bill Clinton impersonator who gets the line of the night (after Bill is made to jump by some pyro, Todd Pettengill comments he seems nervy: Clinton shoots back “you would too if you lived in my neighbourhood”). Possibly my favourite thing about this show is also the worst match on the card: to tussle with King Mabel’s hodgepodge of royalty themed heels, Undertaker forms the weirdest Survivor Series team of all time: Henry Godwinn, Savio Vega, Fatu. Mark Callaway basically rounded up his drinking buddies (brilliantly named the Bone Street Krew) and went to war as the most diverse collection of gimmicks ever assembled in one squad. And they won with a clean sweep. I bet the beers tasted good that night.   

Honourable mentions: Survivor Series 1988/ Survivor Series 2002

Worst overall event: Survivor Series 1999

An oft-forgotten truth of the Attitude era is that while the weekly TV shows were excellent, the PPVs could really suck. And this one sucked something powerful. It is best remembered for two things (and when one of the Survivor Series teams was British Bulldog and the Mean Street Posse you can be forgiven for wanting to forget the remainder). The first, is the debut of Kurt Angle who wrestled a match that was, by design, dull. His initial gimmick was to bore the crowd through a combo of technical wrestling and morality (never of which were too common in late 90s WWF) and whilst his evolution was swift and exciting, some of his early weeks were trying, most notably this one. That, however, was not the low point of the show. That dubious distinction belonged to an ill-judged angle, an unadvertised main event and a hot-shot title change.  

The hit and run on Stone Cold was poor on first viewing: it took the industry’s biggest star out of a heavily hyped match up and in did so in a rather lacklustre fashion: we’d all seen Austin get into mischief with cars dozens of times by this point so it lost points for imagination. On second viewing, with the knowledge that the driver was Rikishi, working on instruction from Triple H, well, let’s just say I was glad I’d given up on trying getting my old man into this. To confound matters further, the Fed injected a lukewarm Big Show into the mix and ended up putting the title on him: his win, on the back of a bizarre storyline about his dead father, was supposedly meant to be a joyous moment: the subdued pop that followed the pin spoke to an audience that had come to see Austin and were left with a teary giant.

Honourable mentions: Survivor Series 1993/ Survivor Series 2013

Article by Sean Taylor-Richardson (@GrownManCenaFan)

WWE Diamond Dallas Page: Positively Living Blu-Ray Review

I'm looking to catch-up on my WWE Home Video situation at the moment, so expect an influx of Blu-Ray and DVD reviews this week. Let's begin with Diamond Dallas Page: Positively Living, which has been available in the UK since the end of March from all the regular outlets.

The main feature is a new documentary that covers the life of Page Joseph Falkinberg and the story of his transformation into Diamond Dallas Page (legally Dallas Page since 2003), through his wrestling career in WCW and WWE and onto the spectacular rise of DDP Yoga. The Blu-Ray's 26 matches include outings with the likes of Chris Jericho, Bret "The Hitman" Hart, Ric Flair, "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan and Eddie Guerrero...but is this set worth your time and money? Let's take a look. 

Positively Living Documentary 

As you'd expect with pretty much every doc WWE produces, this is a great watch. The story involves Dallas driving around some old haunts as we follow the story of his childhood and onto his career. His journey into pro wrestling is fascinating and those that are unfamiliar with how Page got into the business will surely find the most enjoyment here. The run-time of just over an hour means that perhaps there's a lack of depth at points, but the structure and flow of the overall film tells a solid over-arching story that may have been damaged by taking further stops along the road. All those you'd expect are interviewed, including a nice surprise from Kimberly Page, with their words, and the narrative as a whole, creating a real feel-good film. The moment when Triple H calls Diamond Dallas Page to tell him he's going into the Hall of Fame is tingly stuff, with Page's reaction to the call making it special moment. 

I would have liked to have seen the documentary spend more time in places and to hear from a more varied pool of interviewees, but taken on it's own value this a great introduction for anyone interesting in delving into one of the more underrated performers in WCW history. 

The Matches

Kicking off with DDP's earliest TV match alongside The Diamond Studd [Scott Hall] against Chris Sullivan & Brian Lee (World Championship Wrestling, Dec '91), things swiftly move into a curious Lethal Lottery Tag Team match pitting Page & Mike Graham against Jushin Thunder Liger & Bill Kazmaier (Starrcade, December '91). My curiosity for this one quickly wore off and I'm still not quite sure why this relatively lengthy bout so early in DDP's career is included. There's improvements seen when tagging with Cactus Jack against Dustin Rhodes [Goldust] & Barry Windham (Saturday Night, Mar '92), but the bout is cut short just when it seems to be getting interesting. A six man tag alongside Vinnie Vegas [Kevin Nash] & Scotty Flamingo [Raven] opposite Marcus Alexander Bagwell, Brad Armstrong & Johnny B. Badd (Saturday Night, Dec '92) continues to show signs of DDP quickly developing as a wrestler, but not much else. 

The first singles bout is with Johnny B. Badd (Spring Stampede, Apr '94) and after a decent jump in time, DDP is still not particularly crisp, however the Battle of the Gimmicks is driven well by Badd and has a pleasant flurry of action to bring it to it's conclusion. The set then begins to move past Page's formative in-ring days, jumping to a United States Heavyweight Championship match with Eddie Guerrero (Starrcade, Dec '96) with the pair connecting nicely in the first truly enjoyable bout of the set. A random mid-match piledriver and a screwy nWo based finish, as well as an uninterested crowd, harm what could have been a much better outing for Guerrero and Page. At first glance a match with some guy called Mark Starr (Monday NITRO, Jan '97) isn't particularly interesting, but the post-match swerve with DDP "joining" the nWo is quintessential WCW viewing and one of the highlights of the Monday Night War. No Disqualification with Randy Savage (Spring Stampede, Apr '97) is a deck-stacker, storyline based epic of a scrap. Coming from one of DDP's most memorable feuds, it's a shame that the subsequent Great American Bash and Halloween Havoc matches aren't included as having the trilogy one after the other would've been a really cool touch. 

A World Heavyweight title bout with Hollywood Hogan (Monday NITRO, Oct' '97) showcases the kind of performer DDP developed into as he sells his arse off for Hogan and gets a DQ finish in return. The post-match angle with Sting making the save from the nWo (a rag-tag bunch including Konnan, Vincent, Curt Hennig, Scott Hall, Scott Norton & nWo Sting) doesn't make this bout anymore worth it's inclusion. Hennig is the adversary in the next bout (Starrcade, Dec '97), where DDP earns his first US Heavyweight title in a decent outing. The two mix a brawling and wrestling style well at points, with Hennig heeling it up to the max to result in a fun out of nowhere victory for DDP. A match with Chris Jericho over the same title (Monday NITRO, Jan '98) is included presumably just to put Jericho's name on the artwork. A Raven's Rules match with...um...Raven (Spring Stampede, Apr '98) has some value in it's brawly weapons and interference based tomfoolery, but it's still not a good match. 

A tag bout with basketball chap Karl Malone against Hollywood Hogan & another basketball chap Dennis Rodman (Bash at the Beach, Jul '98) is needlessly long, but not actually that bad. DDP's ability to allow the celebs to shine and still look a million dollars was a special skill that not many have ever possessed. This match wouldn't have worked without Page in his role. A similar match with DDP teaming with comedian, non-wrestler Jay Leno against Hogan and non-comedian, non-wrestler Eric Bischoff (Road Wild, Aug' 98) is not as good, with Leno & Bischoff lacking any real athletic ability. The fact that Hogan sold an arm wrench for Leno means that pretty much everything else that goes on here is irrelevant. It could have been much much worse, but it's still shit. 

One of DDP's top three matches is here as Goldberg (Halloween Havoc, Oct '98) is our unlikely hero for a perfectly simple World Heavyweight title bout in front of a molten Las Vegas crowd. The two do exactly what they need to do to get that audience whipped into a frenzy and it makes for a satisfying watch. The next night, it's Bret Hart over the US Heavyweight title (Monday NITRO, Oct '98) and another solid match, that's well worth a look-see. There's more silly WCW nonsense in the aftermath, but when DDP and Hart get it going in the ring, it's pretty sweet. 

Dallas' first World title win is present, but it's unfortunate that it comes in the form of a shit show of a Fatal Fourway with Hollywood Hogan, Ric Flair and Sting (Spring Stampede, Apr' 99), with Randy Savage operating as guest referee. You'd think with such a fine list of talent, that these five lads would, at the very least, be able to coast to something mildly engaging, and perhaps this is, but for all the wrong reasons. The booking is shit, the wrestling is shit, the finish is shit, this match is shit, you should watch it, because I did. Luckily, the night after against just Sting (Monday NITRO, Apr' 99) is DDP's best match, despite dropping the belt. The heel work from Page is juxtaposed well with his earlier babyface matches here, with the second half of the bout being full of top drawer near falls and reversals. It all comes crumbling down later on in the same show when DDP gets the title back in another Four-Way, this time with Kevin Nash and Goldberg, which manages to undo the good work of the earlier bout, as very little happens and when it happens it happens awkwardly.  

The final WCW match is a bizarre tag match with Bam Bam Bigelow against Perry Saturn and (a mostly absent) Kanyon (Monday NITRO, May '99), that whilst containing an impressive performance from Saturn, has a bollocks finish when Kanyon finally turns up. Things close up with the only WWF match, which is a fun clash with Christian over the European Championship (WrestleMania X8, Mar '02), and whilst it doesn't set the world alight it's still an easy watch. 

Blu-Ray Exclusives 

A Television title match with The Renegade (Fall Brawl, Sep '95) is not good, not at all good. Then there's a Battle Royal for a World title shot, with a bunch of crabcakes, namely Scott Norton, Ice-Train, Dirty Dick Slater, Earl Robert Eaton, Rocco Rock, Johnny Grunge and The Barbarian (Slamboree, May '96), which is as much of a farce as you could imagine. A US title bout with Bret Hart (World War Three, Nov' 98) is a slog of a bout. Seriously, there's nothing bad going on, but there's just so much meaningless slop and for a PPV main event you would've expected a lot more. Things aren't helped by the near 20 mins of action concluding with a screwy finish either. 

The Giant [Big Show] provides an intriguing opponent for DDP (Starrcade, Dec' 98) next, with the pair doing some strong big man/small man schtick, which is different from most of the content on the set. Beyond the story, it's hard to get past just how green Giant is at this point and the fact this is WCW means the booking is confused as hell. A steel cage match with Jeff Jarrett (Monday NITRO, Apr '00) concludes a poor selection of matches, as despite the cage having a roof WCW still managed to use a screwy finish, which is then fucked up further by Kanyon. 

Everything ends with the debut of DDP for WWF (RAW, Jun '01), with Dallas doing his best with having to do the Undertaker's wife's stalker gimmick.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 4.78/10

Positively Living is a strange release, because parts seem extremely well thought through, whilst others appear thrown together. The documentary is a strong film, telling it's story well and hitting most of the major points, whilst also creating a strong image of the man behind the character. The matches begin by following Page's arc of improvement and then jump about to title wins and then kind of gets lost. The match quality doesn't always reflect DDP's body of work, with matches against Raven (Spring Stampede, Apr '98), Chavo Guerrero Jr. (Fall Brawl, Sep '96), the aforementioned bouts with Randy Savage (The Great American Bash, Jun '97, Halloween Havoc, Oct '97) and Johnny B. Badd (World War 3, Nov '95) all missing, as well as a stellar three way with Raven and Chris Benoit (Uncensored, Apr '98) for obvious reasons. 

As a whole the match selection feels little bit like "Hah, wasn't WCW ridiculous?", instead of picking the stronger and most enjoyable matches of Page's career. With the WWE Network readily available, I'd personally want, if not all, of a person's best matches, at least, the majority to be here in one place. The lest said about the Blu-Ray exclusives the better.

This is a solid release, but had potential to be a lot stronger. 

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Blu-Ray Review: WWE The Monday Night War Vol. 2 - Know Your Role

WWE's The Monday Night War - Vol. 2 Know Your Role is out now on DVD and Blu-Ray from www.wwedvd.co.uk and all other good home video outlets. The set takes the form of the ten remaining episodes of the Monday Night War series originally aired on the WWE Network between 7th July 2014 and 13th January 2015. There's a little bit of bonus footage from the series original run with former WCW President Eric Bischoff returning to WWE to present interconnecting commentary and there's just under an hour of Blu-Ray exclusive content (including ONE wrestling match)....but is it any good?

So, for the last Volume of the Monday Night Wars set, I did an episode by episode review, which in hindsight I think was a little bit too much and became a little bit repititive at times, with certain points. Therefore, for the 2nd volume of the series, I thought I'd streamline things just a little. This review will take much more of an overview of the entire THREE-DISC Blu-Ray edition of the release.



Let's start with some of the positives, shall we? There's a great deal of variety, in terms of subject matter in here. If you've never purchased a WWE documentary set before, then I'd recommend this one to you for sure. Although obviously there's a lot of coverage of a similar time period, the set includes ten documentaries, all just under an hour in length. The topics covered in this set are Chris Jericho (Monday Night Jericho, aired October 28th 2014), ECW (The War Goes Extreme, aired September 23rd 2014), The Rock (The War Gets Electrified, aired 4th November 2014), Divas (Divas Gone Wild, aired 18th November 2014), Celebrities (The War Goes Mainstream, aired 25th November 2014) WWF and WCW's mid-carders (Assembling an Army, aired 9th December 2014), The Kliq (The Kliq, aired 16th December 2014), Infamous Mistakes (Mistakes on the Battlefield, aired 23rd December 2014), the dying days of WCW (The Fall of WCW, aired 6th January 2015) and the aftermath of the Monday Night War (Life After Wartime, 13th January 2015). Whilst some of these subjects have DVD sets already out, that are perhaps a little more focused, but if you're after a wide spectrum of subjects to kick off your collection you couldn't go much wrong. Think of it as picking up a variety pack of cereals, as opposed to a big box, less commitment and you can chop and change as you go. 


Whilst some of the more left-field earlier episodes (The War Goes Mainstream, Building an Army) are offer something different, I was especially pleased with the final three episodes of the set. They were exactly what I wanted from the Monday Night Wars when the series were first announced. The three episodes more or less follow on from one another, telling a good chronological story of the later part of the Monday Night War. Whilst having the first part of the episode recap things we've already seen allows each episode to stand alone, it does make it a little annoying when you're binge watching, as the story takes at least fifteen minutes before hitting something new. These episodes could easily have been merged into one longer episode to form a more satisfying story, or perhaps more interview content or archive footage added to give more depth. 


On the last Volume we had Renee Young acting as mediator between Sting and Triple H, but this time around we get Eric Bischoff going solo in his first WWE project in a long time. In a way I was a little disappointed with these segments, as the earlier ones are notably shorter than the one on the other volume, simply down to having just one voice, as opposed to three. However, what I did like is that Bischoff has clearly watched each episode, which couldn't have been said for Triple H or Sting, and he presents his thoughts on what he's just seen. Sometimes that's a clash of opinions with one of the interviewees and in a later episodes there's a great moment when Bischoff agrees with part of an Arn Anderson interviewee about some of the mistakes that Bischoff made while in charge of WCW. There's good stories in there as well, and certainly there's something bought to the show that the original was missing, in terms of the voice of one of the integral parts of the Monday Night War.


Unfortunately for the main feature, that is probably about all I have to say positive about it. Of course, there's individual gems in the various interviews and a handful of stories that I hadn't heard before, but these episodes are so repetitive. Not just sharing content with the first volume, but sharing content with the individual episode within this volume! The choice to focus on separate wrestlers or longer running topics, rather than tell a chronological story means that the same couple of, admittedly, pivotal moments. If these documentaries were on their own different releases there wouldn't be a problem, but as part of the same series we shouldn't be being told that Eric Bischoff wanted to remove the Southern feel from WCW, how Kevin Nash and Scott Hall jumped to WCW, about the formation of the nWo, how WWF's edgier direction during the Attitude Era helped to turn the tide over and over and over and over and over again. It's insulting to my intelligence and completely misses the trend of binge watching. People are going to want to watch two, three, four or maybe the entire ten episodes in one go, with a big bag of popcorn or whatever their snacks of choice are and this just isn't possible with this set. 


Alongside the repeated content, there's also a lot of content that comes from outside of the time period off the wars. Whilst I don't mind a little of this for the purposes of context, certain episodes really take the piss. The Mistakes on the Battlefield episode, discusses Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair not facing each other a WrestleMania VIII, three years before the debut of Nitro, Eric Bischoff's WWF job interview and various other things, taking TWENTY MINUTES before even beginning to talk about Nitro. Indeed the highlight of this section for me was Tony Schiavone's marvellous fleece. This isn't the only case of this either, and whilst certain episodes like Life After Wartime deserve to be included, it would've been nice to have seen the flab cut from earlier episodes and shorter more focus product created.


Of course, with any WWE product focusing on WCW and especially the tense subject of the Monday Night War (despite what Vince McMahon says here he's clearly still got a lot of pent up emotions over this period of his life) this is a very revisionist history of the period. WCW is only ever credited so far, and when it comes to current WWE superstars that are used to give fans opinion of the time, there is very little positive said about the company and any from WCW that has something positive to say about the company is presented as either as overly nostalgic or a bit mental. There's many a blanket term used and those blank terms are repeated times and time again, with little time to reflect the intricate details of the time period. Basically WCW was rubbish, especially when Vince Russo had anything to do with it (everyone burying Russo is actually an amazing thing to see) unless it was the nWo or the Cruiserweights, but even those got shit after a while and WWF was great as soon as the Attitude Era started and everyone on the card was amazing from top to bottom. 

Blu-Ray Exclusives

Hulk Hogan's Contract Signing Parade - A fun little piece of history, but a bit tedious to watch in full.

Post-WrestleMania 14 Press Conference - Mike Tyson involvement is a great addition, and he comes across very well with his "No one is bigger than the sport" mantra. Vince McMahon being asked if he's turning into a bad guy is a cute moment, with McMahon's answer being very guarded.


Hulk Hogan & Dennis Rodman vs. DDP & Karl Malone Contract Signing - A good sister piece of the WWF press conference, showing the difference between the two companies. Hulk Hogan leads the thing and seems more focused on getting a few laugh than making people want to see the upcoming tag bout.


Scott Steiner says WCW sucks - Scott Steiner on microphone for an extended period of time, you should know how this goes.

Finally...

I'm gonna be completely honest here and say that this addition to the WWE Blu-Ray offering was not for me. It's repititive watching and a lot of it, covering a lot of the ground that's been covered elsewhere. I can however reccomend it to anyone who has never purchased a WWE Documentary before (and doesn't have the WWE Network). Get this set and the 1st Volume and you'll get plenty of extra knowledge of one of the most succesful periods of wrestling history. 


If you have got the WWE Network, then the extra content probably shouldn't be enough to convince you to buy. Eric Bischoff's piece are quaint and there are some cool moments, but they aren't long enough to justify the price if you already have access to the episodes. The Blu-Ray exclusives all have their merit also, especially the WrestleMania 14 Press Conference. 


For me, this experiment of releasing WWE Network series on Home Video has not  work out in terms of producing an enjoyable watch from start to finish. Here's hoping that WWE sticks to bringing out new documentaries with added matches, as that format is a much more rewarding one.