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 Very Best of WCW Monday Nitro Vol. 3

WWE's The Very Best of WCW Monday Nitro Vol. 3 is out on on DVD and Blu-Ray from www.wwedvd.co.uk and all other good home video outlets. The set takes the form of a match and segment compilation, with Diamond Dallas Page appearing intermittently to narrate and lead into certain portions of the content. There 34 matches and 8 segments (with a further 6 matches and 2 segments as Blu-Ray exclusives) with the likes Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Bret Hart, Sting, The Outsiders and more feautring throughout the set.

Disc One

The opening match between Lex Luger and "Macho Man" Randy Savage (October 1995) is decent start to the set, with the pair stringing together some nice looking sequences, although like a lot of the matches on this set is harmed by having a "TV finish" (To be expected, really!) Johnny B. Badd clearly is up to wrestling Eddie Guerrero (November 1995) in the style of bout that is laid out, and despite some quite clever ideas, the end result is kind of shitty. Diamond Dallas Page and Sting (January 1996), put on a solid TV clash, that is certainly helped along by a lively Charleston crowd. The first real quality bout of the set is Savage and Ric Flair's (January 1996) World Heavyweight Championship clash, which features an electric finish, even if the commentary is more interested in pushing SOME GUY called Kevin Greene.  


Having Scott Hall and Kevin Nash on commentary makes a match between Rick Steiner and Sting (December 1996), that becomes more of a segment, ridiculously entertaining, as the two discuss whether is not Sting is part of the nWo. Another cracking in-ring segment with the nWo kicking out The Giant (December 1996) follows, with the amount of debris thrown into the ring by the fans being quite a site. nWo continues to dominate as the entire group and what feels like the entire roster brawl in the ring (May 1997), with Hollywood Hogan and Randy Savage's commentary adding something a little extra to proceedings. I'm convinced that the match compilers saw Chris Jericho vs. Juventud Guerrera (June 1997) and went "Yeah, that'll be all-right"...it isn't, it's botchy and Guerrera looks like he's never stepped foot inside a ring. 


Scott Steiner battles Randy Savage (July 1997) in a bout that features some competent action, but lacks urgency, harming the pace as the pair plod along and wait for the nWo run-in. The Outsiders are on sterling form in a tag match opposite Diamond Dallas Page and Lex Luger (August 1997), with one of the hottest crowds on the entire set and quite clever finish for television that left me wanting to see what would come next. nWo bitch-boys Vincent, Konnan, Buff Bagwell, Scott Norton and Rick Rude replacing the WCW signs (December 1997) with the nWo logo is interesting for about ten seconds, but quickly becomes a bore and runs WAY too long. The segment continuing all the way through to include the nWo Monday Nitro intro is a nice touch, but Eric Bischoff giving Hollywood Hogan two motorcycles and a limo (with a hot tub in it, because WCW) is mind numbingly bad. 


A cruiser weight tag team pitting Chris Jericho and Eddie Guerrero against Chavo Guerrero and Dean Malenko (February 1998) is one of the best bouts on the entire set, as one would imagine, but is hurt by Eddie trying to heel it up and the El Paso crowd not having any of it. nWo trying to recruit Rick Steiner (March 1998) did absolutely nothing for me, because I just couldn't give a fuck about Rick Steiner. The Giant chucking Scott Hall into a pool (March 1998) is at least a novelty to see, in a time when all WWE's venues look the same, but is still really quite silly, SPRING BREAK! Michael Buffer is the bane of my life, seriously every time this guy turns up I want to fast forward. He does the intro for a confusing Randy Savage vs. Hollywood Hogan bout (May 1998) where I'm pretty sure that everyone was heel. 


There's more nWo antics as Lex Luger joins the Wolfpac (May 1998), with so many of these jumps and without any real context it's difficult to get too involved. There is however, a superb segment featuring some back and forth between Hollywood Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Diamond Dallas Page and Karl Malone (June 1998), that's paced to tee and the crowd laps up every minute of. Things take a down-ward turn with Scott Hall's alcoholic "gimmick" in a match opposite Kidman, where Vincent refuses to give Hall a drink until he wins the contest (September 1998). It's easy to forget just however over Diamond Dallas Page was, but his over-booked contest with Kanyon (October 1998), is testament to Page's popularity if not anything else.


There's pretty cool stunt in a segment involving Bret Hart, Diamond Dallas Page and The Giant (December 1998), with Page offering a decent insight into it in his lead-in prior. A three way bout between Bam Bam Bigelow, Goldberg and Kevin Nash (December 1998) is at least an interesting combination of guys, but with the match coming just before Goldberg and Nash's infamous Starrcade bout there's way too much of an eye on that match for this one to get too interesting.

Disc Two

When DDP puts over a match between Booker T and Bret Hart (February 1999) as being "nothing less than a clinic", it's easy to be a bit sceptical, with what has gone before, but this is probably the best match of the set. Plenty of great back and forth between the two, who both look very comfortable in the ring, but it's a major shame that the focus of the show isn't on the pairs quality wrestling match. There's a strong story being told in Goldberg and Ric Flair's (March 1999) entry, but it's hurt by some stupid booking. I had absolutely no idea what was going in Diamond Dallas Page and Hollywood Hogan's brawling bout (March 1999) and quickly lost interest. A hardcore bout between Rick Steiner and Hak is thoroughly entertaining (June 1999), but the booking is mind-boggling as Sting makes an appearance. 


Whilst a tag match with Kevin Nash and Sid Vicious on the opposite to Sting and Hollywood Hogan (July 1999) might be star-studded, this is WCW...and the hallmarks of the promotion are all over the bout towards it's conclusion. There's a decent match between Sting and Bret Hart over the World Heavyweight Championship (October 1999) but even this bout isn't quite as smooth as it should have been. A Ladder match between Hart, Vicious, Scott Hall and Goldberg with Kevin Nash as special guest referee (November 1999) is a steaming pile of wank...perhaps one of the worst matches I've ever seen. Hart puts on another sound match, this time with Jeff Jarrett (November 1999) but similar to the earlier Sting bout it's nothing to go out of your way to see. 


A Tornado Tag Team match (which is also apparently Falls Count Anywhere) with Sting and Vampiro taking on Team Package (March 2000) is utter silliness throughout, but is actually very entertaining. Booker T and Mike Awesome's World Heavyweight Championship bout (July 2000) is another satisfactory encounter with some nice back and forth between the two and a CLEAN FINISH! To close off the set for the banter, there's a pre-match promo from SCOTT STEINER! A SCOTT STEINER PROMO! Scott teams with brother Rick for a bizarre match with Booker and Diamond Dallas Page. (March 2001)

Blu-Ray Exclusives

The Blu-Ray exclusives kick-off with a Scott Hall promo, oh you are treating us WWE. Hall teams with Wolfpac brother Syxx in a short but sweet bout opposite the Steiner Brothers (October 1997). Gene Okerlund interviewing Ric Flair and Bret Hart is a diamond of a segment with and shows just what both men could do when motivated (January 1998). I found Hart's match with Lex Luger (August 1998) rather absorbing, the bout tells a sound story, with the commentary team (Tony Shiavone, Mike Tenay, Larry Zybyszko and Bobby Heenan) being on their best form of the entire set. 


The bout between Bret Hart and Hollywood Hogan (September 1998) is going strong for the portion of the match just between those two, but as soon as the booking team and Sting get involved it quickly became a pile of horseshit. The two nWo factions brawling backstage (leading to the Wolfac flipping Hollywood's limo) is a lot of fun with plenty of stuff going on throughout it's very enjoyable in isolation. The exclusives conclude with an "Everything is happening" bout between Jeff Jarrett, Goldberg, Kevin Nash and Scott Steiner (June 2000) and not wanting to break from tradition, we close things with a truly wank finish.

Finally...

I think the first point I need to make here is that the idea of having a third volume of a "Very Best" series is pretty ridiculous...if the first volume was the "Very Best" then this volume surely can't be?


Diamond Dallas Page is a fun host once again, offering some nice personal stories to go behind some of the matches, however, I can't help feeling having a different narrator for different matches and segments could have added the extra context that certain bouts could have done with. Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo explaining some of the booking decision could have been very interesting...


The entire set is pretty watchable from start to finish and whilst some of the moments are cringe-inducing or head-scratching, a lot of them are decent television outings. That being said there isn't a lot that is worth searching out to watch, with only three matches standing out as true quality bouts (Savage vs. Flair, Guerrero & Jericho vs. Guerrero & Malenko, Booker vs. Hart). If you're a big fan of average, television matches then you'll enjoy yourself here. The segments are hit and miss, but there is some absolute gold at points, with the Bret Hart and Ric Flair interview on the Blu-Ray exclusives standing out as one of the best of the bunch.


The set comes across as a good representation as the overall feels of Monday NITRO with a solid mixture of match types and segments. If you don't fancy trawling through every episode on the WWE Network then this could be a good purchase for you, although I'd imagine the first two volumes would be first on your list here.


You can find the set at WWEDVD, Amazon, Base, eBay, Hive, Rakuten and Blackwells. With WWEDVD offering the best price at £22.99 for the Blu-Ray.

DVD Review: WWE Monday Night War Vol. 1 - Shots Fired

WWE's Monday Night War Vol. 1 - Shots Fired is out now on four-disc DVD and three-disc Blu-Ray, available from www.wwedvd.co.uk and all other good home video stores. The main features ten episodes from the Monday Night War series that aired on the WWE Network between July 2014 and January 2015. Filling in between the episodes is a brand new interview conducted by Renee Young with Triple H and Sting. There is, however, no full matches included.

Disc One

Episode 1 - The War Begins

Aired - 7th July 2014


The series get's off to a strong start with a look at how the Monday Night War between WCW and WWF began. The episode features a sprawling story, beginning with the early days of cable TV and includes a nice glimpse into the relationship between head honchos Vince McMahon and Ted Turner. Hulk Hogan and Lex Luger both feature heavily, with both men's moves to WCW given a fair amount of coverage and making for a satisfying narrative. There's some nice inclusion of stuff that perhaps wouldn't have merited their own installment, such as the dirty tactics that both sides employed throughout the war. Vince McMahon and Lex Luger are the star interviews here for me, with McMahon's opinion on Nitro going head to head with Raw, as well as Luger's insight into his jump to WCW prior to the first episode. I'd have liked to have seen the documentary be a little more fluid in it's description of events between the two promotion, as things seem to cover WCW and then WWE, without comparing the two companies all that much. Still a good start for the series.

The interview with Triple H and Sting provides a good insight into both lockeroom's at the time of the first episode of Monday Nitro, whilst Triple H also discusses into areas that the documentary doesn't go, such as the infamous Curtain Call incident.

Episode 2 - The Rise of the nWo

Aired - 26th August 2014


The main problem with this episode is that it's been less than three years since WWE released the nWo - The Revolution three disc, which included a full length documentary, however if you haven't seen that documentary it won't be a problem. The feature, as the title would suggest, mainly focuses on the glory days of the nWo, which is a rather interesting choice. Hulk Hogan offers the best interview on this one, with the Hulkster noting his initial reluctance to join the group, presenting some sound reasoning. The inclusion of WWF's decision to use Fake Razor and Fake Diesel is one of the rare times throughout this series where WWE admit some kind of mistake on their part. Chris Jericho provides a glance at what it was like to be on the outside of the group and it's a shame not to have a few more outside voice chiming in on this. The episode works fine in it's position, following nicely on from the initial episode.

Sting completely no-selling Renee Young's question about potentially being the 3rd man in the nWo continues a frustrating theme with the Stinger, who seems reluctant to give away much about his time in the promotion.

Disc Two

Episode 3 - Embracing Attitude

Aired - 27th August 2014


Similar to the previous episode, if you've already seen The Attitude Era DVD set (released 2012) then there is nothing important here that you won't have already heard before. The biggest criticism here is that the timeline the episode follows is seemingly completely random, jumping at one point from the Hardcore division to the birth of the Mr. McMahon character. The Attitude Era is put over something fierce, as one would imagine, with the main points being that things were sexy and awesome during those days. The coverage of WWF's Hardcore division, as opposed to WCW's, is horrendously biased, with no real reason's given for why one was better than the other. My absolute highlight of the entire show is Daniel Bryan's impression of Sunny, which had me in bits for a minute or so. If this episode had been shuffled around to take a more linear review at the Attitude Era (and therefore it's effects on the ratings) it would have been all the better for it.

Episode 4 - A New D-Generation

Aired - 2nd September 2014


WWE's previous documentary releases on D-Generation X have, at least, The New and Improved DX and DX: One Last Stand have, at least, looked at the faction in years following the Monday Night Wars, although numerous releases on Triple H and Shawn Michaels have covered that time period. Shawn Michaels stands out of the talking heads on this, providing a frank description at his turbulent personal life during the time, although the documentary shies away from going into too much details. There's also some well thought out comparisons of the D-Generation X and WCW's nWo, with Michaels again standing out with some strong reasoning to back up his opinion. There's more of a focus on specific moments in the history of the faction, such as Rick Rude's defection to WCW and the infamous DX address, and therefore it's a shame that the ratings for these specific shows aren't brought up at the same time. Rude and Chyna are the only faces missing from the talking heads, and whilst Rude is sadly no longer with us, Chyna could have offered a different perespective into the time she spent with the group. This episode is where the cross over with previous episodes really begins, and it becomes a frustrating motif for the series from here on in. 

Disc Three

Episode 5 - Have A Nice Day

Aired - 9th September 2014


Another name with a number of previous DVD releases, including Mick Foley: Greatest Hits and Misses, Mick Foley - Hard Knocks and Cheap Pops and most recently, For All Mankind - The Life and Career of Mick Foley, a lot of the ground covered here will be familiar to most. For me, the documentary looks at a lot of content that it doesn't need to, spending a good deal of time peeking at Foley's career prior to the Monday Night War, and whilst certain elements like his time in WCW are relevant, I'd have preferred to see this focused on Foley's career during that period. Foley's ability to change throughout his career means that there's a good deal of different footage available and keep this episode feeling fresh. Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler provide fascinating insight at what it was like to be at ringside for Foley's infamous Hell in a Cell match at King of the Ring 1997. There's also a fantastic look at Foley's WWF tenure from the other side of the trenches, as Diamond Dallas Page, Kevin Sullivan and Larry Zbyszko all give sound interviews on the subject. Once again the episode is hurt by covering previous ground, with the nWo again featuring heavily on an episode where they wouldn't have been missed had the not appeared.

The interview with Sting and Triple H quickly shifts off Foley onto something else entirely, however not before Sting imparts his most interesting story of the DVD.

Episode 6 - The Hart of War

Aired - 16th September 2014


Bret Hart is another wrestler who WWE have given a number of DVD releases over the years, Bret Hitman Hart: The Best There Is, The Best There Was, The Best There Ever Will Be, Hart & Soul: The Hart Family Anthology, Greatest Rivalries - Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart and Bret Hitman Hart: The Dungeon Collection have all graced video stores shelves. From the very opening of this episode, it's made clear that this is all about the Montreal Screwjob, with no real effort made to look at any other element of Hart's career during the Monday Night War. There's more content on the nWo, as well as the Attitude Era, which whilst both seem relevant, feature reused interviews from their own episodes, which is pretty lazy on the production teams part. There is a decent look at Hart and Shawn Michaels backstage problems, with Jerry "The King" Lawler and Pat Patterson telling an interesting story between the two of them. Where this episode really shines for me is in it's use of footage from the film Hitman Hart: Wrestling with Shadows (if you haven't seen it...go now), which provides some real life footage that grounds a number of the comments made. The juxtaposing opinions of Hart and Eric Bischoff on his WCW run also makes for good viewing.

Whilst Sting doesn't really have much to say about Hart, other than that the two have the same finishing hold, Triple H does offer an extra dimension to the episodes coverage of the Montreal Screwjob.

Episode 7 - Foundations of War

Aired - 2nd December 2014

The set jumps two months, in terms of when the episodes aired on WWE Network, for reasons. A slightly different approach to this episodes, see's The Undertaker and Sting become the focus of the piece, which is a breath of fresh air from previous episodes, and allows things to jump from one promotion to the other quite easily. From my knowledge, this was WWE's first documentary look at the career of Sting, and whilst The Undertaker has had multiple DVD sets, the gimmick means that The Deadman is never focused on for too long. Again, I'd have liked to have seen more focus on the pairs journeys during the Monday Night War, rather than their times in either promotion prior. The documentary lacking both The Undertaker and Sting as interviewees means that we never get a true idea of their mindsets for staying loyal for both companies, which is odd because Undertaker does turn up elsewhere on the set. One of the stronger episodes present here, because of the dual focus.

Sting is again slightly reluctant to reveal anything during the post-episode interview, which is a real shame, as with him not being present on the main feature, it would have been well received to hear him reply to some of the points made in the episode.

Disc Four

Episode 8 - The Austin Era has Begun

Aired - 29th September 2014


With six WWE DVD sets to his name, there isn't really much that isn't known about Steve Austin's career, is there? Throw in the fact that numerous episodes throughout the series so far, especially Embracing Attitude, have covered a good depth of Austin's relevance to the Monday Night War and by the time you've got to this episode it's already become a little bit of an overkill. With a strange amount of references to Hulk Hogan throughout, there is at least, some good comments from those in the industry at the time, as well as current WWE wrestlers. The moment Austin breaks his neck at SummerSlam 1997 is repeated at least three times here, which is lovely (seriously though, once was enough). There is some rare footage that I hadn't seen before included, like Austin's WrestleMania 14 press conference after winning the World Heavyweight Championship. Whilst the story is as fascinating as ever, it's nothing most won't have heard before.


Triple H and Sting have a great chat about wrestling being built on characters, rather than moves, with The Game in particular giving great observation.

Episode 9 - Who's Next?

Aired - 21st October 2014

Goldberg is someone who WWE have surprisingly yet to release a documentary on (although they did release a match compilation a few years ago), which means that this episode is one of the most interesting of the ten released here. Someone who's career pretty much all took place during the Monday Night Wars, Goldberg's story is covered in full and allowed to focus entirely on the Monday Night Wars themselves. William Regal offers a superb understanding into his infamous encounter with Goldberg from 1998, although it is a shame that we don't get to hear Goldberg's side of what went down. The comparison of Goldberg and Steve Austin, that is glanced at in the previous episode, offers some differing views and works well as the talking heads exchange opinions. CM Punk may quite possibly steal the show however, with a hilarious description of how Goldberg's streak came to end.

It's clear that WWE's opinion of Goldberg isn't particularly high, with "Two Moves, One Name" being used during the opening of his episode and therefore when the Sting and Triple H interview descends into talk of limited workers, it's not all that surprising.y 

Episode 10 - Flight of the Cruiserweights

Aired - 14th October 2014


The final episode on this Volume is, in fact, the shortest, which seems fitting considering we're talking about Cruiserweights (HA!). This episodes is one of the times when WWE admits that WCW did something quite good, with plenty of praise for the Cruiserweight division and the vision of Eric Bischoff for setting it up. There's a strong focus on individual matches again, as looks at Brian Pillman vs. Jushin Thunder Liger from the 1st episode of Nitro and Rey Mysterio vs. Eddie Guerrero from Halloween Havoc, both getting plenty of praise. It's a shame that no data is provided for the kind of ratings that the Cruiserweight's got during episodes of Nitro as that would really have given some of the opinions given that extra bit of weight. Of course, WCW get's the blame for the downfall of their own division, whilst WWF comes out squeaky clean when they manage to make stars out of the likes of Chris Jericho and Eddie Guerrero and the status quo returns.

Finally...

A lot of what is covered here, is covered elsewhere and in more depth. There's not a whole lot of fresh stories, outside of, perhaps, the Undertaker/Sting, Goldberg and Cruiserweight episodes. Dust off your old DVD's on either Austin, Foley or the nWo and I'm sure you'll have a much better time.

If you don't own a single documentary from this period, then this is the set for you. You'll get coverage of some of the biggest names in the industry in one set and everything will be fine. However, I'd suggest you don't watch more than one episode in a fortnight (I watched this entire thing in just over a day) because there is surely only so many times you can hear about Razor Ramon and Diesel jumping to WCW before you go completely insane.

I can't help but feel that this whole series was a missed opportunity, as a linear look at the War, perhaps covering a few months at a time, could have been a much better way to chronicle one of the most popular periods in wrestling history.

Daily Royal Ramble #3 (26th March 2014)

Hello, and welcome to another Daily Royal Ramble! Number 3 no less! 

Now, I should probably talk about last night's Main Event on the WWE Network, however due to an issue with my bank card I was unable to gain access to the Network (It works fine now!) and therefore have yet to view last night's Main Event (I'll probably catch it on a replay somewhere down the line) 

So instead let's chat about something that I missed yesterday...the WWE Hall of Fame induction of Razor Ramon. Coincidentally you can now vote for ATPW's 4th Hall of Famer at this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VMM9M6H, with the options being Ric Flair, Vince McMahon, Jr, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels and Davey Boy Smith. Now, check out Ramon's induction video below...

When this video went out on Raw this Monday, there was a lot of discussion about the decision not to include any footage of Scott Hall in WCW or his short WWE return, with the package focusing only on Ramon footage from WWF. Many seemed almost upset about this, "How dare WWE not include any nWo footage!" It was really quite bizarre. 

There are a number of reason that I wasn't at all bothered by there being no WCW footage. Firstly, the best work of Scott Hall was arguably as Razor Ramon. Yes, the nWo was the most revolutionary ideas ever to be stolen from Japan, and for a while it did massive ratings for WCW, but how many memorable singles contests did Hall have in WCW? And didn't the nWo eventually strangle WCW to death? Wasn't it Scott Hall who tasered Goldberg to end his undefeated streak? Yeah, let's just honour Razor Ramon, eh chico? 

Alongside this, it was made very clear that it was the Razor Ramon character entering the Hall of Fame, not Scott Hall...yes, Scott Hall played Razor Ramon on WWF television and then went on to play another character called Scott Hall for WCW and later WWE, but the character and the performer are two different things. It's like getting upset that a video package dedicated to David Arquette's Dewey Riley character in Scream, doesn't feature any footage of Gordie Boggs! 

Finally, I'd also expect that WWE are planning a big induction for the nWo, somewhere down the line, with Scott Hall being a big part of that induction. So the performer Scott Hall would be honoured twice, but not the character of Scott Hall, if you get my drift. Whether, WWE will see fit to induct the entire nWo, or just the original three (Hall, Hollywood Hogan and Kevin Nash) is yet to be seen, but I can't quite imagine them putting the likes of Konnan, Horace Hogan and Buff Bagwell into the Hall!

Rightio, I think that's enough Ramble for today, make sure to check back tomorrow for more musings, as well as the second edition of Adam Ross' All-Star Search! Oh, I'm also writing up another What A Difference A Year Makes this time focussing on The Shield, so watch out for that! 

Five Questions With... Richard Penaluna from Calling Spots

After last week's interview with Erik Vasquez from The Wrestling Chronicle, we're back in the UK this week as we interview Richard Penaluna from Calling Spots.


Name: Richard Penaluna
Age: 27
Hometown: Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England.
Known For: Editor of Calling Spots: A Pro Wrestling Fanzine. Also Tweeting random nonsense during wrestling shows.

1. When did you first get into wrestling and what drew you to the sport?

 October 5th 1997 and the WWF PPV Badd Blood; In Your House. Specifically Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker in the 1st ever Hell in a Cell match. I always kind of felt like my first night watching wrestling was so amazing that it would never be matched. That was proven wrong at WrestleMania 25 when the same two men had an equally amazing match. What drew me to it? At the time it seemed 'cool' and within a year everyone my age was watching WWF or WCW. It was 'the thing' to talk about. I just never stopped talking about it some 16 years on.

2. Tell us a little about Calling Spots and how it all came about?

Calling Spots came about after years of writing online for various websites and deciding I wanted to do something different. The great thing about pro wrestling is that everyone has an opinion. It's a shame that most of them are what was bad about this weeks episode of Raw. I decided I wanted to do a project that brings you the same type of wrestling journalism but with an undertone of 'wrestling is fun'. If we criticise something we ensure we offer a solution and explain the evidence that it would work. We also try to provide as much different content as we can, for example my current team includes a comic artist, a graphic artist, a published novelist and a wrestling photographer. We have an ongoing comic strip of the adventures of man who may resemble The World's Strongest Man and the different scenarios in his life which cause him to sweat. We have had the chance to have exclusive interviews with Christopher Daniels about Marvel comic books, Kevin Steen about his favourite zoos and Lance Storm even did a funny little dance while we looked for somewhere to conduct the interview. So yeah, it came about out of love of the FUN side of wrestling.


3. What has been your favourite era for wrestling so far, and why? 

My favourite wrestling era was the Bischoff era of WCW. The nWo was the single hottest thing in wrestling, despite what WWE tell you, in my 16 years as a fan. It all went Pete Tong in late 1999 and by 2001 the company was gone, but 1997 and 1998 WCW were the best 2 years in the history of pro wrestling for me personally. The cruiserweights, Goldberg's streak, Jericho's antics, Bobby Heenan on commentary...plus, once you're nWo you're nWo 4 LIFE.

4. What are your Top Three matches of all time and why?

3 - CM Punk/Cena Money in the Bank 2011. The crowd, the build up, the pipe bomb...everything about it just clicked and it was one of those magic moments that are few and far between. Looking back, so many people really believed Punk was leaving with the title. I actually did a "get in" type celebration when he won, something usually reserved to when Newcastle United score a goal....I can't remember EVER doing that for a wrestling match, especially not at the age of 25. The match was VERY worthy of being the first WWE match to get 5 stars in the Wrestling Observer since my number 1 match choice.

2 - Shawn/Taker WM 25 - An absolute master class. If you were going to show someone 1 wrestling match the defined wrestling it would be this one. It was as if both men took everything from two Hall of Fame careers and used every scrap of it in one match.

1 - Shawn/Taker Hell in a Cell 1997 - I often think I must be one of very few people who hold the first main even they ever saw in such high regard. Although not as much of a technical masterclass as their effort at WM 25 the match itself was still amazing. It was ground breaking at the time.

5. Where can our readers find your work and what have you got coming up?

Fans can get in touch with us on Facebook and Twitter @CallingSpots. Our magazine is available for just £2 at CallingSpots.com and our next issue, due in July, features our interviews with Lance Storm, Jerry Lynn and even Mr Belding from Saved by the Bell.