Review of WWE: History Of The WWE Championship (3 discs)

Introduction

It has been called the WWWF championship, the WWF championship, and the WWE championship, but no matter by what name, it is the most famous prize in professional wrestling today. As champion, you are recognised as a performer at the top of his game, able to attract more viewers to WWE TV than anyone else, and most importantly, able to draw more money than anyone else.

All in all, there have been eighty-four separate title reigns since Buddy Rogers became the first WWWF champion in 1963, "defeating" Antonino Rocca in fictitious match said to have taken place in Brazil. One of those, however, has never been recognised on American soil, that being Japanese superstar Antonio Inoki`s 1979 reign.

This 3-disc set from Silvervision is a look back at the history of the WWE championship from Rogers to current champion John Cena, and includes a total of 25 WWE championship matches.

Video

Video is presented in 4:3 fullscreen PAL, and is generally very good for a DVD of this genre. With the set`s first match going back to 1971, clearly it can not be expected that that footage will look as good as more recent events, but overall, the quality is pleasing.

A portion of the Ivan Koloff vs Pedro Morales bout from 1971 has some major (source) video error problems, but this is somewhat excusable considering that the footage is very rare indeed, and has never been seen internationally.

Beyond this match, the Bruno Sammartino vs Killer Kowalski bout from 1974 looks much better, and once we get into the 1980s, video quality is excellent considering the production values of the time.

Audio

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, and is very good for a DVD of this genre. There are some audio level issues with the source material of the aforementioned Koloff vs Morales 1971 bout, but these have been ironed out in the DVD mixing process so that you don`t have to reach for your volume control every few minutes.

Aside from this, audio is generally of a high quality, and I am delighted to say that the rights issues that have blighted recent WWE releases have been resolved, meaning that commentary from the likes of Jesse Ventura remains intact. Most notably, this was not the case with the Wrestlemania Anthology release, a fact that was a huge detriment to an otherwise an impressive set.

Features

There is one sole extra to be located on this set, a quick-fire look at every change in the history of the title. However, despite the fact that the advertising for this set claims "multimedia highlights from every title change", that is misleading. There are three title changes (not including the phantom match where Rogers won the title) from the 60s and 70s that are not shown in either video, audio, or photographic form, but instead are afforded a brief text description of how the title changed.

Furthermore, there are a few instances (most notably Sgt. Slaughter`s 1991 win, and Yokozuna`s two 1993 title wins) where only the actual three-count is shown, and not the finishing sequence that led to it. This, along with the rather sharp editing of this package, pushes me to say that this could have been done with a lot more care - it looks like a rush-job, and lacks the polish that we have come to expect from WWE productions.

If you can get past these problems, the feature is short, but fascinating in that you can see how the meaning of the title has changed in its forty-three year lifetime. As a symbol of that, note that whilst the title changed hands only seven times in its first twenty years, it has changed hands seventy-one times in the twenty years prior to September 2006!

Conclusion

The 9hr+ set begins with an introduction by Jim Ross, who serves as our guide through the remainder of the program. The opening match is Ivan Koloff`s defence of the title against Pedro Morales (February 1971), a bout which is somewhat reminiscent of an English World of Sport contest.

Bruno Sammartino - who has the longest reign of any WWE champion, holding the belt for seven years between 1963 and 1971 - then defended his title during his second run as champion, against Killer Kowalski (April 1974). The match itself isn`t spectacular, but Kowalski`s bad-guy presence is tremendous, and the crowd reaction to Sammartino`s retaliation during the match is nothing short of staggering.

The next two matches involve "Superstar" Billy Graham, famed in the 70s for his incredible physique and charisma. Unfortunately, his talents did not greatly extend to in-ring competition, which mean that the matches here with Sammartino (April 1977) and Bob Backlund (February 1978, clips only) are hardly the greatest spectacles.

The next bout takes us into the 1980s, as Backlund faces Greg "The Hammer" Valentine in a steel cage match (January 1982). This is a good match, as is the next Backlund contest, with Sgt Slaughter (May 1983). The latter match is also built to with some excellent clips of Slaughter attacking the champion.

After a clip of the famous Backlund vs Iron Sheik match, Hulk Hogan emerges on the scene, and is captured here in seven consecutive matches. The first is against Iron Sheik in a short but not particularly sweet match (January 1984), although the Wrestlemania 2 bout with King Kong Bundy, inside a steel cage (April 1986), is much better. From there, Hogan engages in another good steel cage outing with "Mr Wonderful" Paul Orndorff (January 1987), before the famous Wrestlemania 3 Hogan vs Andre The Giant bout (April 1987), which technically is leagues away from great, but comes across, quite rightly, as a true main event.

Andre is back to trouble "The Hulkster" again in the next match (February 1988), which was watched by an incredible 33 million television viewers in the USA alone, before then battling "Macho Man" Randy Savage at Wrestlemania V (April 1989), in a bout which was possibly the best of Hogan`s entire career.

Moving into 1990 (and Disc 2), the final Hogan match on the compilation is his Wrestlemania 6 bout with The Ultimate Warrior (April 1990), which is another match which feels like a real main event. From there, we skip a full four years to Summerslam 1994, as Bret and Owen Hart contest the third steel cage match of this compilation, and the best one too (Aug 1994).

Next up is the famous Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels 60-minute match, that was the main event of Wrestlemania XII (April 1996). Hart cites this as one of his favourite career moments, but this is certainly not a match everyone will enjoy, as its slow pacing harks more to Japanese wrestling contests, rather than those held in America.

Michaels then defends the title against Mankind at "In Your House: Mind Games" (September 1996), which is a tremendous contest loaded with insane falls. The only downside is the poor finish, which is made to seem all the worse by the quality of what went before it.

In another Wrestlemania main event, Shawn Michaels then takes on "Stone Cold" Steve Austin from Wrestlemania 15 (April 1998), in a match which placed Mike Tyson as a ringside "special enforcer". This match is a disappointment considering the combatants, but was actually much better than it was entitled to be, given that Michaels exacerbated a serious back injury during the match, and would thereafter not be seen in a wrestling ring for four years.

The next bout featured Triple-H taking on Cactus Jack (Mankind/Dude Love/Mick Foley) in a Streetfight match from the 2000 Royal Rumble (January 2000). This was a very violent and bloody encounter, but was excellent nonetheless.

Triple-H returned in the next bout, to take on Kurt Angle and The Rock in a Triple Threat match (August 2000). The match was good, but is particularly memorable for the legitimate knockout that Angle suffered during the match. Watch out for Angle`s head hitting the concrete after a botched Pedigree at ringside.

"Stone Cold" Steve Austin and The Rock then returned for a tremendous match at Wrestlemania XVII (April 2001), which was marred only by a horrible finish. Although it wasn`t quite as good, a similar story is true of the Austin vs Chris Jericho match (December 2001) that features immediately after.

Another Triple Threat match kept things moving, as The Rock defended his title against Kurt Angle and The Undertaker (July 2002). This was an entertaining bout which featured a lot of high-impact moves.

One month after that bout, The Rock took on Brock Lesnar at Summerslam in what was a fast, explosive match (Aug 2002), before Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit had probably the match of the entire set (January 2003), the kind of match you want to show your friends who deride wrestling for its silliness.

The final match presented was a Triple Threat match featuring John Cena, Christian and Chris Jericho (June 2005). This was a fast-paced, spectacular match, but unfortunately, no amount of effort could stand this bout side by side with the previous Angle vs Benoit classic.

There is a heck of a lot of action to get through on this 3-disc set, and of course, that can only be a good thing. However, I must say that I was quite confused by the match selection, which featured quite a number of bouts where the title did not change hands. A title change isn`t a pre-requisite for a release of this type, but there are a number of excellent title change matches that were deserving of being used here. Bret Hart`s first and third title wins (October 1992 and November 1995 respectively) come to mind, as do the exchange of wins between Randy Savage and Ric Flair (April and September 1992).

Furthermore, I felt that seven consecutive Hulk Hogan matches was overkill for this set. Hogan may draw a lot of nostalgic appeal, but with a 4-disc Hogan anthology available in the next few weeks, so many of his matches were un-necessary here.

That said, what is here is generally rather good. I would have liked more information on each title change, perhaps with interviews from the participants on what it was like for them to capture the title. Outsiders may still see wrestling as a bogus sport, but to be the champion means that you are the best in the company, and that`s an accolade that not many are able to achieve.

Overall, this is a pretty good DVD set, which features many matches that are a joy to own on in digital format. This is especially true of the pre-1980s matches which up until this release, were very hard to find (and have never been seen in the UK). Video and audio quality is generally very good, and the lack of extras is made up for by the sheer weight of the main feature.

Recommended.