Even if you’re not a fan of professional wrestling, it’s kind of hard to ignore what WWE Raw has done to the television scene. Back in 1993, no one ever thought any show could hold its own with Monday Night Football, but nearly 20 years later, the WWE is still going strong, making Monday night in America partly about the squared circle.
Unfortunately, the DVD chronicling the first 15 years of the show isn’t as amazing as its run has been, featuring several throw-away moments and some matches that will leave you puzzled as to why they were included. Even though it still provides a great trip down memory lane, it lacks the punch you’d expect from such a powerhouse.
For one, there are only about a dozen matches on the three-disc set and while most of them are rock solid, featuring talent the likes of Curt Hennig, Sean Waltman, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Stone Cold and countless others, a few other matches, such as the Mean Street Posse’s bout with Gerald Brisco and Pat Patterson [which in spite of being a hilarious moment on the show] don’t necessarily belong on this set. In the end, it’s a shame that the WWE has essentially blacklisted certain competitors, mainly Chris Benoit, from appearing on any more DVDs and in the history books, but what about other talent such as Eddy Guerrero? The same thing goes for the Undertaker, who isn’t on this set nearly as much as he should be.
The same thing goes for the little attention the original ECW invasion was given [stolen directly from the Rise and Fall of ECW DVD as well]. What about the WCW/ECW Invasion as well? For over a month, Raw had some classic dream matches as a result of that event, why isn’t there at least one match from that storyline on here?
When you have to ask so many questions when referring to what is supposed to be a “Best of†compilation, you know someone was way off the mark.
Simply put, if the set had been more eclectic and featured more matches, its overall quality would have been much better.
However, a few bad matches don’t necessarily spoil the show, it’s the segments that put this set in a sleeper it can’t get out of. While seeing the early romps of Degeneration X and Stone Cold are a blast, why was Big Bossman’s rant about Big Show’s father on this set? Who cares about Vader choking Gorilla Monsoon? Why is Dustin Rhodes making out with Ahmed Johnson an amazing moment? With all of these boring little moments sandwiched in between the matches, it’s hard to not want to skip ahead.
As a result, you have a set that will still cater to the hardcore fan, but one that casual ones will want to ignore.
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