Review for WWE Tagged Classics: Year in Review 1993 and 1994

I have to admit that I wasn't watching WWE much between 1993 and 1994 and looking at these two disks give me reasons why I should have and why I shouldn't. This period was a bit uneven in the WWE, it was the emergence of new stars like Bret Hart, Yokozuna and Shawn Michaels, but also the creation of stars like Doink, Giant Gonzales and Lex Luger with both disks having their highs and lows.

The 1993 disk is hosted by Macho Man Randy Savage, who I think has been told to speak as fast as he can, because I simply cannot keep up with him. The disk features eighteen matches, most are full length, though some start partway through. This includes matches from Wrestlemania, Summerslam, Royal Rumble and King of the Ring. Many (in fact most are utterly skippable), but the Intercontinental match between Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannety is great as is the infamous Razor Ramon vs. 123 Kid and the creation of the 123 Kid was nice to see. Though as I say a lot of it is skippable, it does go chronologically which is nice especially in seeing the evolution of people like Bret Hart and Yokozuna who I feel is very underrated. A tribute to Andre the Giant, who died that year is also nice. One highlight, is an awesome tag matches featuring The Steiner Brothers vs. The Quebecers. This is a fascinating match because it features Scott Steiner when he wasn't Big Poppa Pump and you'd be forgiven for thinking it's a different person. Also includes Johnny Polo who people may know went on to become ECW's Raven!

The 1994 disk is hosted by Gorilla Monsoon and I can't quite tell whether it is better or not. It includes the awful Undertaker vs. Underfaker match, almost the entire Wrestlemania X event which is ok I suppose, though I think this was a little overkill. However, it does include the full Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon ladder match and as always that is almost worth buying it for if you don't own it already. It seems that this may have been the year when Razor Ramon was at his best and it also features two great matches with him against Diesel. Bret Hart also has some great showing including two matches against Owen Hart, his match against him at Wrestlemania and then the Five Star classic cage match against him at Summerslam. However, there is still a lot of awful stuff on here, but we could say the same about any year of the WWE.

As a look at WWE between 1993-1994 you can understand why WCW and Nitro began taking over and although there are some great matches here, you do have to skip through a lot of unwatchable nonsense. Both disks have their highs and lows and though I'd love to say this is a look at the best of WWE, it is also a look at some of the worst and maybe someone should have had a look at the content and decided whether a Lex Luger Musical Tribute, a Giant Gonzales match or the Underfaker debacle was something that we should be reminiscing about. However this is still worth buying for the HBK/Ramon ladder match and the Owen/Bret cage match alone.