So, what's on your TV?


I just got in the AWA World Light-heavyweight tournament DVD set from Highspots. Must say, the production and packaging are top-notch. Content goes from very, very good to very, very indy....if you know what I'm saying. Too many matches for a full review, but there are some spots well worth touching upon, so if I figure out a good format, I'll put up some kind of review.

WM2:

Watched the Dream Team vs. Bulldogs match for the first time in about three years and enjoyed it. The Bulldogs were SO good at bringing the high impact offense, and Valentine really holds the match together well. Brutus doesn't get in the way too much, and brings a really nice hammerlock slam-type move.

Otherwise, this show is pretty shitty...

I'm only about half-way through TNA Lockdown. I skipped the Candido match though, I really wasn't in the mood to watch the poor guy break his leg.

Got the Jake Roberts DVD. Could've done without ever seeing the cobra bites on Savage and Roberts ever again. They went out of their way to bury Beyond the Mat exactly like I expected them to.

What did they say about the Beyond the Mat documentary? That the guy who made it was lying about the stuff he said about Jake?

They were saying he edited everything to make Roberts look pathetic. It all rang pretty hollow when the documentary shows him exactly as they all say he was like.

But Vince got pissy because over the movie for whatever reason and it's company line to say BTM isn't accurate.

Vince and Lawler also came across like giant douches for the Lawler/Roberts feud in 96.

I watched Roberts vs. Dirty White Boy from SMW. That was definately a hot pokers type of match.

Roberts was never that great when it come to carrying bad wrestlers. During his WWF Run, I honestly can't think of many of his matches that were any good if they weren't with Ricky Steamboat, Ted Dibiase, or Randy Savage. Seems like almost all of the ones I can think of were with those 3. (oh, and his run in 1996 was horrible)

They were also trying to really get across one point that Vince would never let one of his guys work drunk and I really wanted to yell bullshit at the screen.

Bullshit... I wonder how many times Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels worked drunk/high when they were the Rockers (or heck, Jannetty ever).

If I were to rank the superstar DVDs I have I'd go:

1. Ric Flair
2. Road Warriors
3. Jake Roberts
4. Chris Benoit
5. Hulk Hogan
6. 80s Stars
7. Misterio
distant 8. Shawn Michaels

I disagree on Flair... yes, the match selection was nice, but it wasn't a documentary. I'd probably rank it beneath Benoit, Guerrero (and when I see it, probably Roberts), but above Hogan (weak documentary), LOD, and Rey Jr. (ditto as Hogan)

The Road Warriors had an excellent feature. Probably the best the WWF has ever done.

Here's my list...

1. Chris Benoit (awesome feature and match selections)
2. Eddie Guerrero (ditto)
T3. Ric Flair (awesome matches, no feature)
T3. Road Warriors (awesome feature, matches weren't the greatest picks)
5. Hulk Hogan (the first to feature such a selection of bonus features, but too "kayfabed" feature)
6. Wrestling Stars of the 80's (felt more like a collection of Confidential pieces, but the matches were great)
7. Rey Mysterio Jr. (matches were poorly selected, and the feature spent too much time putting over A-Fuckin-Train on Rey Jr's DVD)

There was a feature in Flair's. They just went about it differently.

I liked the Benoit DVD but I have to admit his life story wasn't as interesting as the Warriors, Flair or Roberts. I was getting that pretty much for the matches.

I liked the Stars of the 80s except that they double dipped doing Hogan and Flair and it made me feel ripped off slightly. Misterio was too WWF-centered and came off stupid when he had been there for 10 months.

I forgot about Mick Foley's Greatest Hits and Misses, and Rob Van Dam: One of a Kind. Foley's I'd rank above Hogan but below Flair/LOD, but the RVD one... eh. I'd say it's beneath Hogan and above Stars of the 80's. (oh, and HBK's behind them all. Poor selection, since everything is available from like 40 different tapes)

Yeah, I felt really ripped off when I got the Michaels DVD. At the end of the day I paid $20 to get an AWA match and Michaels/Mankind.

I only borrowed the HBK DVD from someone else (like I would actually pay for a Shawn Michaels DVD), because it was like 4 years since I last saw the Bad Blood HIAC Match. I don't know if it's the fact it was 5-6 years later from the original airing, but it didn't feel like a classic match to me.

For once, I'm defending HBK here. the first 15 minutes of the match is Undertaker beating up Shawn and no-selling his offense (especially the SCM). Then Undertaker beats the crap out of him outside the ring, beatshim up on the top of the cell, knocks him off the side, then continues the squash in the ring until Kane runs in and a tombstone knocks Taker out for 30 years.

If that match is *****, I wonder how everyone rates every other 25 minute squash match.

Sting/Roberts was an awful awful match but they could've made some serious money going through the rest of 92 and part of 93 with that match.

Just ordered the Kobashi ROH shows, looking forward to them...

I've fallen quite far behind on my ROH watching................I should really get on that.

I skipped over some stuff, but whatever, it's KOBASHI vs. SAMOA JOE. I seriously, I can't afford to buy ALL of the ROH shows on DVD. I usually just get the shows that sound the best.

I ususally try and trade or get bootlegs of the stuff. There's no way I'm paying $20-$25 per show for ANY wrestling company.

RoH really went overboard on the amount of shows this year.

an overrated company going overboard isn't a surprise when you have brainless zombie sheep mutant fans.

How many ROH shows have you seen Scrooge?

I refuse to answer this interrogation. (takes ball and goes... oh wait, already am home)

Although I don't rate that match *****, I certainly find it to be more than a 25 minute squash......

Shawn got maybe 2 minutes worth of offense, and considering there was very little slowdown in the match outside of escaping and climbing up the cage, I would put that under being squashed.

I understand the idea the booking team went with, but as much as I hate him, Shawn was the #2 heel in the promotion, and should've been given a lot more chances to look like a threat against the Undertaker.

Booking Shawn as a chump makes him look bad, and makes 'Taker look even more indestructable than before, since Shawn held every title several times (with successful reigns on the most part) and wasn't some push over like Kama or King Mabel were when Undertaker buried them.

Edit: Wow, this is a first... I'm defending Shawn Michaels, and not one of those empty-shell defenses to show I'm not entirely against him.

Although in fairness Shawn was good in the booked chump role. He was the ultimate asshole heel and the best way to book him vs. The Undertaker was to have him get his asskicked. Shawn was already booked to look good against Taker in their Ground Zero match that ended with the ref's getting killed. This way they had Shawn keep the title and not job out Taker in a way to kill his heat before he went into the feud with Kane. In many ways Taker was already bothered by Kane in the storyline, thus explaining why he was in "uber ass kicking" mode in the HIAC.

I think the problem RoH has now is that they've really watered down their product with running almost weekly. They don't know how to handle it. We've had 4 RoH Champions this year. 2 of which were to guys leaving and to jerk around the fans. And even with all the extra shows we're still getting the thrown together 4 man matches to stuff guys in. Sorry but you're overexposing guys doing that are the 2 extras could be in a tag team match. The tag team division is still a mess and my guess is that Gabe and Co. have no interest in fixing it.

I can't even remember shows off the top of my head this year except the Kobashi one.

I said it once, I'll say it again. Manhattan Meyhem. Totally worth the $$$.

Yeah, that's on the list whenever I order again. But there's about a million UFC and Pride things I want to get before that.

WOW, you must be hittin the MMA stuff pretty hardcore at this point eh?

I was going to get the Ultimate Fighter season 1 this week along with UFC 50 and 51 or one of the Pride Legacy sets. Towards the end of the month I'm going to clean Wal Mart out of whatever they've got.

I've been a little burned out on wrestling the last couple of months. Aside from TNA no one's really doing much to grab my interest.

That and MMA is just more interesting in general. They pull wrestling angles off better than wrestling and things actually gasps seem to have a payoff. I'd put Hughes/Trigg I and II up against anything in wrestling as far as jump out of your seat moments.

This is the first time I heard it was for the European Title, but like the old saying goes, you learn something new every day. And since I didn't mention anything else from your post, I guess I can go along with the explanation. (schedules next defense of HBK for March 2007)

Actually I fucked up........it wasn't for the Euro.....at least I don't think so. I actually thought HBK was the champion at the time, although that isn't the truth. Shawn didn't win it until the screwjob the next month.

Same here, writing and watching horror films have been filling my void quite nicely. But I've paid close attention to TNA recently since the WWE is basically unwatchable to me currently. Although I still watch, it's weird since I have zero interest in seeing any of their PPV's.

I forgot Shawn was the Euro champion, thinking he won it from HHH in the mock match, and not the other way around. My original post was questioning the idea of where you thought it was for the World Title when Bret Hart was still around.

PPVs are hard to justify buying with DVDs being the way they are. I want to get UFC 56 and I keep telling myself I shouldn't because it'll be out on DVD by January.