Review of WWE: Unforgiven 2007

Introduction

After the Summerslam comebacks of Triple-H and Rey Mysterio, at Unforgiven it was the turn of The Undertaker to make his latest return to the ring action.

The veteran - who first appeared in a WWE ring in late 1990 - suffered a torn bicep in May, and while he lost the World Heavyweight Title to Edge in a further bout after suffering the injury, it was his last bout before Unforgiven.

Mark Henry provided The Undertaker`s opposition in the main event, but also on the card was John Cena`s WWE Title defence against Randy Orton, as well as the World Heavyweight Title bout, in which The Great Khali defended against Rey Mysterio and Batista in a Triple-Threat match.

WWE Unforgiven was held on 16th September 2007, from the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee.

Video

Video is presented in 4:3 fullscreen PAL, and is very good for a DVD of this genre. If there is one thing about WWE event releases, they are consistent in both their production values, and their DVD transfers. This is no different, with all the WWE frills, and a very good transfer.

Audio

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, and is also very good. In recent times, Silvervision have chopped and changed between providing 5.1 and 2.0 mixes, and while the latter always sound good, there`s no doubt that there`s more atmosphere provded by the former.

The mix is very nice indeed, with the front speakers handling all the regular event sounds (music, in-ring action, commentary, crowd noise), and the surrounds providing some extra fullness to the music, crowd noise, and in-ring action.

For international viewers, there are 2.0 mixes available in German, Italian, Spanish, and French. There are also subtitles in Greek, Dutch, and Portuguese.

Features

Extras on this disc are kept quite short, and are of mixed interest. The first extra is an extended look at The Undertaker`s exit after his bout with Mark Henry at Unforgiven. I have absolutely no idea why watching him walking away from the ring is worthy of any viewer`s time.

Though it lasts less than two minutes, the video package which replays the angle between Randy Orton and John Cena`s father (himself a wrestling manager on the independent circuit) is excellent, and recaps what was a very good angle.

Conclusion

ECW champion CM Punk kicked off Unforgiven 2007, with a defence of his title against Elijah Burke. It was somewhat of an odd match for the champion, and for pay-per-view, it really should have been better than it was.

That same description could be applied to the Smackdown Tag Team Title match, in which Deuce & Domino challenged Matt Hardy and MVP. The latter team`s good guy/bad guy combination is interesting, but this match didn`t live up to the little television hype that it was given.

Things continued in a below average vein as Triple-H - competing in the mid-card for the first time in recent memory - faced Carlito. The bizarre rules in this contest did not help, which stipulated that Carlito could not be disqualified, but Triple-H could. This match was of the standard one now expects from free WWE TV.

There is going to be a point when I simply leave it to assumption that the Women`s Title match is a tough watch, although I`ll continue for now by saying that Candice Michelle`s defence of the title against Beth Phoenix is definitely a good reason to exercise your SKIP function rights.

The World Heavyweight Title match was next, as The Great Khali defended against Rey Mysterio and Batista in a Triple-Threat contest. Having two other wrestlers to take away the emphasis from Khali was a good thing, but wasn`t enough to save this one.

The best match of the show was next, as Paul London and Brian Kendrick challenged Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch for the Raw Tag Team Titles. These four were tremendously consistent throughout 2007, and although this match was nowhere near their best effort, compared to what had gone before it, it was very welcome.

The penultimate match saw John Cena and Randy Orton battle for the WWE Title, in a rematch from Summerslam. Unfortunately, it was a case of night and day between the two contests, as while the Summerslam bout was one of the best WWE matches of the entire year, this encounter was very poor, with a disastrous finish. It`s been a long time since I have seen a bout conclusion quite so bad.

As for the main event featuring the returning Undertaker and Mark Henry, it is hard to say if it was any better than the previous Cena vs Orton bout. Plodding, technically poor, and with a severe lack of crowd heat, it was as poor of a main event as I have seen in many a year.


Overall, Unforgiven was easily the worst pay-per-view thus far in 2007, and was one of the worst in WWE memory. In eight matches, I`d only describe one - London & Kendrick vs Cade & Murdoch - as good, whilst at least four were pitiful.

Perhaps the event can just be put down to everyone having a bad night, but that doesn`t help the DVD (re)viewer. Even WWE die-hards should focus their efforts on another DVD title.