CM Punk "Best in the World" (Blu-Ray Review)

OK finally got around to watching this on Blu-Ray. Wow another wrestling masterpiece. It sheds a lot of light on the character, the man - but more importantly - the business dynasty he works for. A slightly inside look at the arcs and angles that CM Punk was involved in - how they unfolded - and the backstage reactions of those it affected. It was great to see the early footage in the history, but it doesn’t make or break the project. Probably could have got the same effect with a few still photographs credited to PWI magazine. Still, it was cool - and it certainly does get you hype when they discuss his chapters with Chris Hero and Colt Cabana in particular. It also explains the Straight Edge origins very thoroughly - which was a movement I was completely unawares of until Punk started flaunting it. His ornery brash nature is kind of glossed over, although I’ve shared firsthand experience of his dickery. One of the reasons I can honestly say I’ve never been a *CM Punk guy* (like VKM Jr). I distinctly remember the first time I ever saw him was on a ROH show in Cambridge in 2003 during his war with Raven and it was so awesome to have that feud, and what it meant to his characters evolution, recapped on the disc. From the very beginning CM Punk struck me as a narcissistic heel character, despite being overwhelmingly cheered. I even wrote in article in 2006 or so calling him “Greatest Heel Never Booed”. The Original Summer of Punk run was one of the freshest, most exciting times in recent wrestling history. Sort of like when Biggie Smalls & 50 Cent were first coming up in the mixtape circuit (1992 and 2002 respectively).

Punks affiliation with Paul Heyman is thoroughly documented, and runs deeper than I ever knew. Those “I’m a Paul Heyman guy” comments in his famous rant (aired in its entirety during the show) were heavy foreshadowing for sure. It covers his aborted title runs (the first ended by a Randy Orton punt kick backstage) and the backstage reactions to that (CM Punk wasn’t told until day of, for example. But it also covers some very compelling personal ground as well, and his whole arc with Joey Mercury (and how it climaxed with his real life return to WWE under the SES banner) is told in gripping fashion. The interviews with Colt Cabana, Daniel Bryan, the Lars guy from Rancid, Kofi Kingston and even Curt Hawkins shed light not only on CM Punk the character and person - but themselves as pro wrestling fans and artists too. They showed CM Punk backstage chatting up some of the younger breed, including Dean Ambrose! But what the heck was up with that weird bathrobe outro?? Lol

So the main story is great, and climaxes with his run at MitB. But then you get the extras and it’s like a freakin sequel. Just great stuff - unbelievable stuff like the skull fracture story - or the sharing of girls clothes - etc is really illuminating and entertaining. ). It covers the December to Dismember scenario in agonizing detail. “The Conversation with Lars” and “OVW vs. Albright” were my favorite chapters here, and we even get one of those lost classics in the match extras. The only slightly corny thing to me was super long musical montage outro that reminds me of some CW, 90210, Dawsons Creek, I dunno-type shit like that. The matches are a good piece-by-piece look of his characters evolution (through his WWE career, starting with OVW - no full IWA or ROH matches) and my Blu-Ray extra match is the IC finals from Armageddon 2008. Overall, as a guy who’s not even (and still *isn’t*) a CM Punk guy, I can say this is a great story. Another home run for WWE video and I encourage all wrestling fans to check out the documentary portion at least. Even die hard CM Punk fans will learn something new.

10 out of 10.

peace,

MSD

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"WWE 50 Greatest Finishing Moves" (Blu-ray review)

Count down discs have become a staple of WWE Home Video releases in recent years. Whether it’s a countdown of “moments” (OMG Top 50 Incidents, Best of Smackdown 10th Anniversary), “superstars” (Top 50 Superstars of All Time) or “matches” (Starrcade) - countdown discs are a proven commodity… they spark discussion, imagination and cash registers… so it is with great aplomb and anticipation (by those of us who chart WWE Home Video releases months ahead of time) that the WWE has released “50 Greatest Finishing Moves in WWE History”. Classic material already. Or is it? Your faithful pro wrestling addict MSD sparks another Vanilla Dutchmaster and lets the thoughts burn… take a puff and walk with me.


Upon initial inspection, it fit’s the standard WWE meets VH1 countdown format - with talking heads like Wade Barrett, Matt Striker, Daniel Bryan, Kofi Kingston, JR, William Regal, Drew McIntyre and Dusty Rhodes providing the running narration… it even has the same replayed graphic (lottery balls) in between every vignette - similar to “OMG” amongst others - which can grow to be tiresome… Every move on the list gets a good 90 seconds or more of hype and action, and you can’t disagree too much with placement because watching it all in context it certainly makes sense.



Matt Striker provides a marks-eye view of each finishing moves efficiency

But it quickly becomes less about individual finishing *moves* as it is about individual finishing *moves of superstars*… you see this when the same *move* gets repeated multiple times (2 moonsaults, 2 frog splashes, 2 cobra clutches etc…) So it becomes less about the individual match-ending move, and more about the superstar who performed them… which isn’t such a bad thing either, if they didn’t just drop “Top 50 Superstars of All Time” so recently… to me a lot of this seems like rehash, or cutting room floor footage from that set - and maybe it’s only because I found “Top 50 Superstars of All Time” so great that I was disappointed to find “50 Greatest Finishing Moves” so… mediocre…

Seeing the same move over and over (and over and over) again can grow tiresome, though sometimes the dialogue of Striker & Regal (who both put all the moves over as shoot holds, just with different panache) helps elevate the segments… Barrett, Miz & Kofi provide fan-like recollections and Daniel Bryan is exuberant and passionate as usual… Just a few random observations about the set:

* People complain about Sting being included because he was strictly WCW - but you seem to forget WCW *is* WWE now… and not only did the Scorpion (not listed as “Death”) Drop get shine - native WCW finishers like the “Torture Rack”, “Diamond Cutter” and “Jackhammer” did as well…

* I never knew Yokozuna’s finisher was called the “Bonzai Drop”!?! I always thought it was spelled “BANZAI!” Who’s wrong??

* Weak questionable inclusions like Bam Bam Bigelow’s “Moonsault” (“impressive” for the size sure, but sloppy as hell) and even “Shake Rattle & Roll” could have been dropped for something (ANYTHING) else.

* Throwing guys like Vader and Hogan on the list just seems like a way of WWE trying to get some guys paid who need it right now (or piss them off in the case of Bruno Sammartino?).

* Anybody who has ever had a solo WWE Home Video release has been included on this list (except Roddy Piper, Ricky Steamboat, Ultimate Warrior and Chris Benoit)…

* Jack Swagger uses 2 of the greatest finishers ever (ankle lock & Vader bomb) but still can't buy a win.

* Love the inclusion of the old school finishers like the chickenwing, camel clutch and bear hug and when WWE Survey’s asked about interest in pre-1970s wrestling I checked “HIGHLY INTERESTED” a million times… here’s to my dream of getting a 3 disc Bruno Sammartino set and the long awaited Gorgeous George story…

* Including Billy Kidman’s Shooting Star Press and not Evan Bourne’s is troubling but certainly makes sense (one persona non grata - the other still employed somewhere behind the scenes) - but why do we ever need to see another stink face?

* The mix of matches is an odd and eclectic sort - which is typical of recent releases… which either means the producers are really mining the vaults for lost and hidden gems… or more likely are flat running out of worthy material… who would have thought with such a seemingly endless video library they would run the well dry so soon? Are we only a few years away from “The Greatest Preliminary Stars of the ‘80s”?

Duke of Dorchester!

OVERALL: I liked the disc, of course… but I didn’t LOVE it like I have some of the other recent ones… it’s somewhat repetitive, a little stereotypical and kind of puzzling… but it’s still a worthy buy (even for the match list alone)… I love wrestling presented in mixtape fashion and this fit’s the bill for me… fast, easily digestible blurbs that focus on the subject matter at hand without taking itself TOO seriously. But while I don’t consider “50 Greatest Finishing Moves“ a total loss, it is by far the weakest “countdown”-related disc WWE has ever released. So it earns a fat 2 grams out of 5 for your smoked out partner MSD. Holla at a duck and put it in the air. Peace.

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Disc 1

50. JBL – Clothesline

49. Vader – Vader Bomb

48. Dusty Rhodes – Bionic Elbow

47. Million Dollar Man – Million Dollar Dream

46. Kerry Von Erich – Iron Claw

45. Ravishing Rick Rude – Rude Awakening

44. Lex Luger – Torture Rack

43. Dudley Boyz – 3-D

42. Bam Bam Bigelow – Moonsault

41. DDP – Diamond Cutter

40. Mankind – Mandible Claw / Socko

39. Honky Tonk Man – Shake Rattle and Roll

38. Yokozuna – Bonzai Drop

37. Flash Funk – 450 Splash

36. Sting – Scorpion Lock

35. Lita – Moonsault

34. Kevin Nash – Jack-knife

33. Jerry The King Lawler – Piledriver

32. RVD – Five-Star Frog Splash

31. Big Show – Chokeslam

30. CM Punk – GTS

29. Brock Lesnar – F-5

28. Bob Backlund – Chicken Wing

27. Batista – Batista Bomb

26. Mr. Perfect – Perfect Plex

25. Kurt Angle – Ankle Lock

24. Chris Jericho – Lion Tamer / Walls of Jericho

23. Edge – Spear

22. Iron Sheik – Camel Clutch

21. John Cena – Attitude Adjustment

20. Scott Hall – Razors Edge

19. Goldberg – Jackhammer

18. Rey Mysterio – 6-1-9

17. Road Warriors – Doomsday Device

16. Bruno Sammartino – Bearhug

15. Sgt. Slaughter – Cobra Clutch

14. Jeff Hardy – Swanton Bomb

13. Eddie Guerrero – Frog Splash

12. Macho Man Randy Savage – Elbow off Top Rope

11. Randy Orton – RKO

10. Bret Hitman Hart – Sharpshooter

9. Jimmy Superfly Snuka – Superfly Splash

8. Nature Boy Ric Flair – Figure Four Leg Lock

7. Hulk Hogan – Leg Drop

6. Shawn Michaels – Sweet Chin Music

5. Jake The Snake Roberts – DDT

4. The Rock – Rock Bottom / Peoples Elbow

3. Triple H – Pedigree

2. Undertaker – Tombstone Piledriver

1. Stone Cold Steve Austin – Stunner

DVD Disc 1 Extras

Bonus: X-Pac – X-Factor

Bonus: Booker T – Spinarooni

Bonus: John Morrison – Starship Pain

Bonus: Scotty Too Hotty – The Worm

Bonus: Rikishi – Stinkface

Bonus: Shane McMahon – Coast to Coast

Bonus: Billy Kidman – Shooting Star Press

Disc 2

Sgt. Slaughter Demonstrates The Cobra Clutch on Tony Anthony

World Wide Wrestling – 10th December, 1981

DDT vs. Rude Awakening Match

Jake “The Snake” Roberts vs. “Ravishing” Rick Rude

Madison Square Garden – 24th October, 1988

WWE Intercontinental Championship Match

Mr. Perfect vs. Texas Tornado

Dayton, Ohio – 13th January, 1991

WWE Championship Match

Bret “Hitman” Hart vs. Bob Backlund

Superstars – 30th July, 1994

WCW World Tag Team Championship Match

Kevin Nash & Scott Hall vs. The Giant & Lex Luger

SuperBrawl VII – 23rd February, 1997

King of the Ring Semi-Final Match

Mankind vs. Jerry “The King” Lawler

King of the Ring – 8th June, 1997

Rob Van Dam vs. 2 Cold Scorpio

Living Dangerously – 1st March, 1998

Four Corners Match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship

‘Nature Boy’ Ric Flair vs. Diamond Dallas Page vs. Hollywood Hogan vs. Sting

With Special Guest Referee “Macho Man” Randy Savage

Spring Stampede –11th April, 1999

Disc 3

Chris Jericho & The Rock vs. Kurt Angle & Stone Cold Steve Austin

SmackDown – 15th November, 2001

Rob Van Dam & Bubba Ray Dudley vs. Brock Lesnar & Eddie Guerrero

Raw – 3rd June, 2002

No Disqualification Tag Team Match

Shawn Michaels & Jeff Hardy vs. Chris Jericho & Christian

Raw – 17th February, 2003

The Rock vs. Goldberg

Backlash – 27th April, 2003

6-Man Elimination Match

Bubba Ray, DVon & Spike Dudley vs. Evolution (Triple H, ‘Nature Boy’ Ric Flair & Randy Orton)

Raw – 14th July, 2003

WWE Women’s Championship Match

Trish Stratus vs. Lita

Raw 6th December, 2004

Fatal 4-Way Elimination Match to become the Number One Contender for the World Heavyweight Championship

Shawn Michaels vs. Randy Orton vs. JBL vs. Chris Jericho

Raw – 29th December, 2008

Fatal 4-Way Match for the World Heavyweight Championship

Undertaker vs. Batista vs. Rey Mysterio vs. CM Punk

Bragging Rights – 25th October, 2009

Six Pack Challenge Elimination Match for the WWE Championship

Sheamus vs. John Cena vs. Randy Orton vs. Chris Jericho vs. Edge vs. Wade Barrett

Night of Champions – 9th September, 2010

Blu-ray Extras

Triple H & Undertaker vs. Big Show & Edge

SmackDown – 6th February, 2009

Rey Mysterio, Jeff Hardy & The Great Khali vs. Edge, Dolph Ziggler & Chris Jericho

Raw – 22nd June, 2009

No Disqualification, 6-Man Tag Team Match

Mr. McMahon & D-Generation X (Shawn Michaels & Triple H) vs. Randy Orton & Legacy (Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase)

Raw – 24th August, 2009

Traditional Survivor Series Elimination Match

Team Mysterio (Rey Mysterio, Big Show, Chris Masters, Kofi Kingston, & MVP) vs. Team Alberto (Alberto Del Rio, Cody Rhodes, Jack Swagger, Drew McIntyre, & Tyler Reks)

Survivor Series – 21st November, 2010

John Cena & Rey Mysterio vs. CM Punk & R-Truth

With Special Guest Referee Bret “Hitman” Hart

Raw – 23rd May, 2011

"The History of the
World Heavyweight Championship”

“The History of the World Heavyweight championship” is a beautifully-bound 3-disc set (released in 2009) designed to resemble a hardcover book. Opening it up reveals a table of contents for each disc printed directly on the backside - no slips or inserts here. The 1st disc contains the documentary and a handful of “NWA Matches”. Disc 2 represents WCW and Disc 3 is strictly WWE. There is a glossy track list stuck on the back of the box with a dollop of glue. It offers a product summary and a quick list of some of the matches you will find on this set. “Witness the epic battles for the glory on this 3-DVD set with over 20 championship matches”!!

THE DOCUMENTARY:
The meat and potatoes of the product rests with the documentary portion of the disc. A nice, succinct piece that chronicles the World championship (aka “WCW’s big gold belt”) and its dubious origins that reach all the way back to cavemen, Abraham Lincoln and Frank Gotch. It’s “Unreal Story of Pro Wrestling”-type historical revision that is surprising to see for longtime WWF fans who were used to pretending nothing else exists beyond the northeast. But as they say, “history is written by the winners” - and VKM Jr is the undisputed master & lord of all pro wrestling. Clocking in at under an hour (for over 100 years of supposed content) is a criminal offense, considering the ECW documentary ran for over 3 hours. But that goes to show the interest level of fans and business sense of the WWE when it comes to this kind of content - and probably why we’ll never see the long-rumored Gorgeous George or Bruno Sammartino DVD. Either the footage just doesn’t exist, isn’t properly licensed, is in really poor condition (sadly the state of some of these Disc One matches) or frankly just isn’t good enough to be captured on modern-day DVD releases. So on one hand it’s an honor that WWE even reached back into the archives for this (what amounts to an “enemy’) release to begin with, even if their version of events is a little sparse and twisted. Our boy (and wrestling historian) Mike Chapman offers insight on a lot of golden era wrestlers, but roughly 10 years after “Unreal Story of Pro Wrestling” was filmed we find him here repeating a lot of the same stuff he said there.

In this story, "Russian Lion" Georg Hackenschmidt is credited as being the first “world” champion after defeating American Tom Jenkins in an early “styles vs. styles” match (Greco vs. catch). Hackenschmidt easily beat Jenkins in both style matches and earned the distinction as champion - until finally being defeated by Frank Gotch. From there wrestling entered a boom era, and kept growing with the rise of Strangler Lewis in the 20s (who was comparable to any celebrity of the time, including Charlie Chaplin and Babe Ruth). They even allude to Strangler Lewis being the bridge between “real wrestling” and “sports entertainment” (an assessment that was spelled out in much greater detail in “Unreal Story”). The 1948 union of the NWA is covered, and the origins of their title (supposed to go to Orville Brown - car accident forced it onto Lou Thesz). Thesz gets some great coverage and props and is credited with the first $100,000k gate in wrestling history (a story covered in much greater detail in the book “NWA: the Monopoly that Strangled Pro Wrestling” by Tim Hornbaker). This segues into the title run of the great “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers and the big record he set with his 1961 Comisky Park title victory (included in the match extras). This DVD claims that attendance record wasn’t broken until Wrestlemania III, but there are many that believe the record was broken sooner and by a non-WWE affiliated organization (which is why it’s been whitewashed from history). From there Gene Kiniski gets his run and jobs out to Dory Funk Jr, with a surreal worked-shoot explanation of how he lost the title (he thought it was a 2 out of 3 falls match, and submitted to Dory’s spinning toehold thinking he still had 2 more falls to go… he didn’t). We get some interesting stories from Jack Brisco on his reign, and the backstage drama between himself and Dory Funk Sr that resulted in Dory putting over Harley Race for the title and NOT Jack Brisco. Jack does get his time in the sun however, before putting over the other Funk (Terry) later on. The story explains how the champion was chosen by committee, and leads to the big Starrcade ’83 clash between Race & Flair - which led to the domination of Slick Ric. Dusty Rhodes gets some shine, as does the sale of Crockett promotions to Ted Turner (although Mike Graham RIP glosses over Sting’s contributions by saying he was “something temporary”). Don’t worry about Sting though, Big Show has some nice words to say about him as champion. Finally we make our way to WCW withdrawing from the NWA and burning the sports entertainment world up with Monday Nitro. Some “dubious” champions are referenced (Sid, Jeff Jarrett, David Arquette) and Hulk Hogan’s run as champion is heavily referenced. We finish with the end of Nitro into the undisputed championship - only to have it reborn on RAW by Eric Bischoff and Triple H.

THE MATCHES

Disc One
Disc one offers a nice variety of early-era NWA matches running all the way up to 1990. It opens with “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers historic title victory over Pat O’Connor, a match that has been aired on WWE Classics on Demand in clipped fashion before. This was the highlight of my purchase and thus far the only Buddy Rogers match released on a WWE DVD or Blu-Ray product. Overall the matches offer a nice look at the lineage summarized over 5-10 year spans. We see Dory Funk Jr win the title from Gene Kiniski in Florida 1969 - fast forward 10 years and Harley Race & Dusty Rhodes are competing for the same piece of hardware in the same state. Jack Brisco vs. Terry Funk represents the best of 1975 - fast forward 10 years and there’s Ric Flair fighting Magnum TA for the NWA championship on an AWA Superclash card in 1985! We wrap it up in 1990 (when WCW was on verge of dropping NWA affiliation in favor of their own recognition) as Sting takes on perennial champion Ric Flair at “The Great American Bash”.

*Chicago 1961 - 2 out of 3 Falls: Pat O'Connor vs. Buddy Rogers
*Florida 2/11/69 - Gene Kiniski vs. Dory Funk Jr.
*Florida 12/10/75 - Jack Brisco vs. Terry Funk
*Florida 8/21/79 - Harley Race vs. Dusty Rhodes
*AWA SuperClash - Ric Flair vs. Magnum TA
*Great American Bash '90 - Ric Flair vs. Sting
　

Disc Two
This is the strictly WCW era - and for longtime northeast wrestling fans such as myself (bred to thumb our nose at anything non-WWF affiliated) this is the first time I saw most of these matches. I always kept abreast of WCW developments via the wrestling periodicals of the time (including a short stint of WCW magazines, of which I still have a few issues), and I remember reading about wrestling “classics” like Flair vs. Scott Steiner (the pre-Poppa Pump phenomenon) or Vader‘s early 90‘s championship run, so it’s good to see those moments represented on here. I was also excited to have the historic Ron Simmons vs. Vader title change on disc as well. One of the few WCW moments I do remember firsthand (and still get chills about to this day) was the incredible Hollywood Hogan vs. Goldberg match from Nitro. So much to say about this match (both negative and positive), but suffice to say it is still one of the most awe-inspiring audience reactions I’ve ever seen and I’m super glad to have it on disc (again and again, as this match has made it’s way onto numerous WWE DVD releases over the years). There’s also a sick match I never saw between Steamboat & Vader, but Jesse Ventura’s WCW commentary is edited out. This disc also includes the Booker T vs. Jeff Jarrett match that concluded the big “Russo shoots on Hulk Hogan live on PPV” angle earlier in the night (but that moment is not referenced). We finish Disc 2 in the blurry-era of 2001 WWF as The Rock & Chris Jericho battle for the big gold belt at No Mercy.

*Clash of Champions XIV - Ric Flair vs. Scott Steiner
*Great American Bash '91 - Lex Luger vs. Barry Windham
*Baltimore 8/2/92 - Vader vs. Ron Simmons
*WCW SaturdayNight 10/16/93 - Vader vs. Ricky Steamboat
*Halloween Havoc '94 - Career vs. Career Steel Cage Match: Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair
*SuperBrawl VIII - Sting vs. Hollywood Hogan
*Nitro 7/6/98 - Hollywood Hogan vs. Goldberg
*Bash at the Beach '00 - Jeff Jarrett vs. Booker T
*No Mercy '01 - The Rock vs. Chris Jericho

　
Disc 3
This is the WWE disc, and the one that could be termed “total blasphemy” to any non-WWF brainwashed fans of yesteryear. The time after WCW had been bought by WWF - the world title “merged” into the Undisputed championship - and then rekindled on Monday Night Raw (by Eric Bischoff) in response to the “brand split”. The belt was awarded to Triple H that night, even though I remember he wound up fighting Ric Flair in a really good match later on that should have just been a championship finale to begin with. That moment is not represented on the disc, but a Triple H match with Rob Van Dam from Unforgiven 2002 is. We trace the (now strictly known as) “World” championship through Shawn Michaels - to the match of the year candidate between Undertaker/Kurt Angle (No Way Out 2006) - Rey Mysterio - Batista - and John Cena (featuring his World title win over Jericho at Survivor Series 2008 in Boston that I was there live for). In a far cry from Hackenschmidt and his single leg trip/bear hug combo of 1908 - we wrap it all up with an Extreme Rules ladder match between new age daredevils Edge & Jeff Hardy from 2009. Another in a long line of their thrilling encounters - this one punctuated by the World title being at stake and Jeff Hardy‘s historic victory (then ruined by CM Punk‘s MitB cash-in). And there you have it. 100 years of history and evolution summarized within an approx. running time of 9 hours.

*Unforgiven '02 - Triple H vs. Rob Van Dam
*Taboo Tuesday '04 - Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels
*No Way Out '06 - Kurt Angle vs. The Undertaker
*SmackDown 4/7/06 - Rey Mysterio vs. Randy Orton
*Armageddon '07 - Batista vs. Undertaker vs. Edge
*Survivor Series '08 - John Cena vs. Chris Jericho
*Extreme Rules '09 - Ladder Match: Jeff Hardy vs. Edge

OVERALL:
This is the 3rd set of its kind (following the WWE and IC title compilations) and arguably the weakest of the three. The documentary is skimpy, some of the matches are clipped, cut or blurry and a lot of creative license is given to the titles evolution. On the plus side, very few of the matches have been re-released or included on prior DVD sets, so it’s a lot of *new* DVD content. Personally, I’m a huge fan of the retro stuff (that I watch with an MMA-eye) so to have an entire disc filled with material from the 60s-70s is awesome by my book. Most of the WCW disc was first time viewing for me, and the WWE disc brought back all kinds of sweet memories. As a story on the “World title” - for a diehard WWE guy like me, it’s cool to see this completely alternate universe actually get credit for existing. Props to VKM Jr for honoring the dead and remembering his enemies contributions, even if the overall story isn’t his to tell. I just wish the documentary portion had been 3x as long - but that’s just me. Overall, good stuff and I recommend it for the new school, WWE-bred wrestling historian.

8 out of 10

Peace,

MSD

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