Review for The Very Best of WCW Monday Nitro: Volume 3

Now as a lifelong WWE fan, the idea of watching WCW always felt like a step down. It didn't matter who they had in the matches or indeed how great the wrestling was at times, I always preferred WWE. However, it has to be admitted that when it comes to a 'Best of' this is a pretty good set.

Hosted by Diamond Dallas Page, he is wonderful at really showing why (at times) WCW was the best in the wrestling business and though I still feel they should have done these sets by year, it is still a very good addition for those who may have missed this time, or those who just want to relive a time when a wrestling fan had a choice when it came to Monday Nights.

The set features matches from the likes of Lex Luger, Randy 'Macho Man' Savage, Eddie Guerrero, Diamond Dallas Page, Sting, Ric Flair, The Steiners, Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper, The Giant (Big Show), Kevin Nash and Scott Hall (along with most of the ever diluted nWo), Chris Jericho, Dusty Rhodes and many more.

It is when you watch this, and the previous two sets that you realise just how deep the WCW roster was. Every Monday on Nitro you could range from a great tag match featuring the likes of the Steiners or Harlem Heat, a Cruiserweight match from Eddie Guerrero and Dean Malenko and then the marque matches featuring the likes of established main eventers like Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage with a smattering of up and comers like The Giant, DDP and Goldberg. This made that the show had something for everyone and though at times it hurt the show, it also helped give it the style it would use and triumph with for many years.

There is an interesting segment between Sting and the Steiners and nWo, plus a bizarre segment between the nWo and Piper followed by the confrontation with The Giant. Also, to show just how dominant (or stupid depending on your opinion) the team where, there is a long sequence where the B-Team go around putting shirts on everyone and removing all WCW logos. If this had been a quick-cut sequence it would have been fine, but instead it is very long and very boring. Imagine if you switched on Raw and the first ten minutes we saw technicians putting up pieces of the set? That sound fun?

The set is almost worth purchasing for this one match: Eddie Guerrero and Chris Jericho against Chavo Guerrero and Dean Malenko. This has got to be one of the best matches I have seen in a long time and though there are some great matches throughout I am surprised that I have not seen this on any other set at it is truly fantastic.

That being said, the matches are often very throwaway, not awful, certainly not unwatchable, but the kind of matches that I don't even remember afterwards. It is also amazing how many PPV-calibre matches that WCW presented on Free TV and then wonders why their PPV buys dropped. There is a simply wonderful match between Goldberg, Bam Bam Bigelow and Kevin Nash which I would have taken over many of the PPV Main Events that WCW had presented in that year. What the set also shows is that Eric Bischoff didn't just start hotshotting big matches towards the end to save Nitro in the ratings, but was doing it many years before doing this was one of the only ways he could get people to watch the show.

However, The Very Best of WCW Monday Nitro: Volume 3 is a wonderful set and one that I would recommend to all wrestling fans. Sure, it is not perfect, but there is enough great stuff on here that even the casual fan of wrestling will enjoy. If you are a fan of WCW and want to relive that time, then this is the set for you.

DDP better start getting to work on Volume 4.