WWE's "Unseen Matches" DVD

[Migs]

I wonder if PWInsider is looking specifically at the DVD? Or, did they say the know the blu-ray has no extras as well?

 

I don't think there's a Blu Ray for this one.

[JKWebb]

Oh man, that's disappointing if that's true. As probably everyone here knows, the blu-rays usually have some pretty sweet extras.

[The Chief]

Most of their recent releases have been DVD only. Blu-ray must have not caught on as much as they hoped because I don't think I've ever seen a WWE Blu-ray in a physical store. I had to get mine through Amazon back when I was buying these things.

[flyonthewall2983]

Quite honestly, I wish they'd just release everything on the Network and put out stuff on Blu and DVD less and less. Maybe make those releases more special, like box sets of stuff, etc, etc. That's just wishful thinking though, but I do think there will be less a reliance on physical products in the future, especially if the Network does well enough.

[iamthedoctor]

If the extras have been debunked by WrestlingDVDnews where did that match list come from? Sure 411 announced it but who was their source.

 

[Sidebottom]

Weird seeing Warrior run down through the Neon entrance. Will be checking this out in due time.

[iamthedoctor]

 

The “WWE UNRELEASED 1986-1995” DVD has now gone live for pre-order in the United States here on Amazon.com after a lengthy delay that saw several later titles made available first.

Amazon has been listing the new 3-disc DVD set as the “#1 New Release” in their Sports category which is unusual since it has only been purchasable for a period of less than 48 hours and given that we’re still a couple of months away from the street date! That tag has since been removed.

Still, it may be one indication that this WWE DVD already has a lot of interest.

 

This just shows they should have done these years ago and why they MUST continue this series of unseen years.

[iamthedoctor]

WrestlingDVDnews didnt give it a great review. They complained about the short 3 mins matches or that most matches ending in a DQ or Countout. Im guessing the reviewer isnt a old school fan because older fans know squash matches lasted short time.

 

 

Anyway, onto the purpose of this review. As there are so many matches (forty-five in all!), I will spotlight ten particular bouts, as well as one segment. I have to say that many of the matches are short (some barely last three minutes, which would please Eric Bischoff circa 2002), and there are an awful lot of disqualification and countout finishes. Even as somebody who understands why these finishes are used to maintain a feud or the credibility of the participants, the number of times that matches are thrown out here gets pretty frustrating. In some cases, the heels walk out and take the loss when the match is just getting going. So, bear this in mind as you’re watching the DVD, because those expecting a plethora of lengthy, classic matches will be disappointed.

 

 

This is an unusual DVD. As I mentioned earlier, if you’re looking for some great matches that you’ve never seen, well you’ll probably be disappointed. Only Bret vs. Bulldog and maybe a couple of the tag bouts can compare to the action on WWF screens at that time (and since in-ring standards were fairly low during the big man era, that’s saying something). Even the Ladder matches towards the end, where Jeff Jarrett faces British Bulldog and Razor Ramon respectively, are clearly a bonus for the live crowd rather than an attempt to provide top-drawer action in their own right (though it’s humorous to see Razor blatantly wrap his leg in the ropes, in a manner which is too obvious to ignore, in the finish of the latter match). So, judging this from an in-ring standpoint, this is not a great DVD.

 

Personally I could care less about what the reviewer says about it. I will buy it regardless because I love old school matches and I want to see the Toxic Turtles, Earthquake Evans, Bret & Shawn tagging up and some rare Hulk Hogan matches.

 

To be honest Id rather watch this than another Biography set filled with matches Ive seen 200 times. How many more times do I need to buy DVDs that have Austin/Rock from the Wrestlemania? I get its to showcase their best matches but Id rather see unseen stuff.

[PhilTLL]

 

What is there as far as Turner/Time Warner-era WCW "holy grail"-type matches?

Flair vs. Steamboat

Sting vs. Callous

Pillman vs. Liger

Benoit vs. Booker series

Sting/Flair January title change and April cage match, the weirdo WarGames from July, Pillman/Liger from December, among many things I'd love to see from the "push into Meadowlands" 1991. Lots of Omni stuff from 1991 too, like Flair/Pillman 3 falls in May, and Sting/Rude 30+ minutes from November. They seem to have taped plenty of the Omni shows, so who knows.

 

Flair/Windham multi-cam and complete from Crockett Cup 1987 would be nice. They probably should have done a "Flair/Steamboat through the decades" Network set already. (I guess this is pre-Turner)

 

Anything from the 1993 European tour.

 

Any of the house show hotshot title changes from 1998 (I realize these were almost certainly not filmed). The very stacked Internet audio streaming house shows from LA, Boston, and Tampa 1998 (same).

[Loss]

If a lot of the last few minutes stuff that aired on TV is sitting somewhere, or other untelevised matches from TV tapings were recorded, the WCW library is amazingly ripe. The question of course if it's still marketable. Even those of us who were young when WCW died are now in our 30s and 40s. Flair-Steamboat/Crockett era types are mostly in their 40s and 50s. So it's a double whammy -- not only is it The Enemy, but it's an older base than they want to admit they have.

[Bix]

If a lot of the last few minutes stuff that aired on TV is sitting somewhere, or other untelevised matches from TV tapings were recorded, the WCW library is amazingly ripe. The question of course if it's still marketable. Even those of us who were young when WCW died are now in our 30s and 40s. Flair-Steamboat/Crockett era types are mostly in their 40s and 50s. So it's a double whammy -- not only is it The Enemy, but it's an older base than they want to admit they have.

I think that stuff was definitely shot, the question is how much was saved long term. Since we have seen some cool stuff unearthed by WWE, plus a WE'RE OUTTA TIME match from '84 being included complete on one of those Wrestling Spectacular budget videos, I'm guessing WWE has a ton of that stuff. But a lot of it may not be properly indexed, at least not yet.

[iamthedoctor]

 

 

What is there as far as Turner/Time Warner-era WCW "holy grail"-type matches?

Flair vs. Steamboat

Sting vs. Callous

Pillman vs. Liger

Benoit vs. Booker series

Sting/Flair January title change and April cage match, the weirdo WarGames from July, Pillman/Liger from December, among many things I'd love to see from the "push into Meadowlands" 1991. Lots of Omni stuff from 1991 too, like Flair/Pillman 3 falls in May, and Sting/Rude 30+ minutes from November. They seem to have taped plenty of the Omni shows, so who knows.

 

Flair/Windham multi-cam and complete from Crockett Cup 1987 would be nice. They probably should have done a "Flair/Steamboat through the decades" Network set already. (I guess this is pre-Turner)

 

Anything from the 1993 European tour.

 

Any of the house show hotshot title changes from 1998 (I realize these were almost certainly not filmed). The very stacked Internet audio streaming house shows from LA, Boston, and Tampa 1998 (same).

 

 

Was that a camera crew I saw during the Hogan/Sting Cage match? There was deff more than one camera it seemed.

 

One other thing I watched a QVC episode that had a few WCW stars on it and when they had a different star on there appeared to be footage shown from a WCW house show that was obviously filmed by WCW. No idea if the whole event was filmed.

[PeteF3]

Someone on the F4W Board got a copy (some retailers are already selling it even though it's not out for a few more days) and posted some cool-to-know info:

 

- No commentary on any of the matches.

- At least one match (the tryout for "War Eagle" Chris Chavis) has the timecode still on the screen.

- Carly Caruso and Sean Mooney are the hosts, with the idea being that they're going through boxes in the WWE vault and picking out what they find. At one point Mooney picks up a box labeled "T. MAGEE 1987-88" and goes "What's this? Oh, it's empty" and tosses it.

 

[landy1987]

I got the DVD Friday, I love it and will definitely get a rewatch from me! Even all the terrible matches, and there's a few of them

- The time code is on screen for about a dozen of the matches, also about 7 or 8 matches are only filmed from the hard camera

- I think the reason for no Blu Ray is because of the video quality on some matches, as they look to be simply VHS recordings for some

- Whenever a close up of Mel Philips face was supposed to be shown, they have edited in a fake crowd shot. His announcing isn't muted or anything though

- They still have the legal problems with the name " Superstars of Wrestling" and have to blur the banners still which may be slightly distracting to some

[iamthedoctor]

I got the DVD Friday, I love it and will definitely get a rewatch from me! Even all the terrible matches, and there's a few of them

- The time code is on screen for about a dozen of the matches, also about 7 or 8 matches are only filmed from the hard camera

- I think the reason for no Blu Ray is because of the video quality on some matches, as they look to be simply VHS recordings for some

- Whenever a close up of Mel Philips face was supposed to be shown, they have edited in a fake crowd shot. His announcing isn't muted or anything though

- They still have the legal problems with the name " Superstars of Wrestling" and have to blur the banners still which may be slightly distracting to some

 

Ive always hated that blurring on the Superstars banners. Really wish they would get that sorted out legally.

 

It's a shame there isn't a Blu Ray release as I really wanted to get extra matches like that report came out and listed loads of them. Still no idea where that list came from and why. I know someone here said which site it came from but odd why those matches were even mentioned in the first place.

 

Im looking forward to picking this up tomorrow and even it had been 3 times more expensive Id still have bought it just a shame they didnt put Savage/Taker. I suppose one day WWE will share this with the fans after the tease a year or so ago.

[Hawkeye12]

Picked it up today and look forward to watching it the next few days. I did notice that the front says 1986-95, which is accurate for the included matches, but the back says 1985-96 in the title and the description. Surprised that wouldn't have been noticed before it went to print.

[peachchaos]

Must have been a small run bc this is sold out everywhere.

[SirEdger]

Picked it up today and look forward to watching it the next few days. I did notice that the front says 1986-95, which is accurate for the included matches, but the back says 1985-96 in the title and the description. Surprised that wouldn't have been noticed before it went to print.

 

Those misprints can be gold sometimes. For instance, in the first Sting DVD they released, there was a batch where one of the pictures in the back of the DVD featured NWO Sting aka Jeff Farmer and not Sting. I believe they had to redo a few boxes to fix that.

[NickH]

How good is the Bret/Bulldog match?

[Loss]

The copies being sold early mentioned way earlier in this thread remind me of my days in retail when we lived for that kinda thing. 1996-1998ish. You'd find a competing store selling something before the release date and go buy it so you could turn in the receipt to whomever my bosses turned in the receipt and they'd get so busted. I have no idea what the consequences were, but I just remember that being a huge deal back then. We'd always get upset when the retailer would create plausible deniability for themselves by not actually labeling it properly, so on the receipt, it would just say "VIDEOTAPE $18.99" or something similar.

[iamthedoctor]

HMV only had one copy in stock on release day. Thats pretty bad considering how many fans want this.

 

Still its 2017 and after 27 years finally we get to see Hogan get a 3 count on Earthquake!

 

I think all the coliseum and Televised House Shows had a DQ or countout so suprised we get a pinfall on this one.

[Hawkeye12]

HMV only had one copy in stock on release day. Thats pretty bad considering how many fans want this.

 

Still its 2017 and after 27 years finally we get to see Hogan get a 3 count on Earthquake!

 

I think all the coliseum and Televised House Shows had a DQ or countout so suprised we get a pinfall on this one.

 

I wanted to see that one as well, although I still wanted to see one of their stretcher matches even more (maybe next time?). Hogan did pin the Shark once on an episode of WCW Pro after hitting him with a chair outside the ring IIRC. I remember finding that one on youtube once and realizing he'd never pinned him as Earthquake or Avalanche in a televised match, so that was unique. They had great chemistry together and it's a shame they didn't work more in WCW. When I rewatched Summerslam 1990 a year ago, both the main events were really great, but neither gets talked about that much.

[peachchaos]

Sort of crazy to watch both Warrior and Owen's debuts and imagine someone thinking, "Yep, THAT guy is the guy we need to carry the company".

[Blazer]

Sort of crazy to watch both Warrior and Owen's debuts and imagine someone thinking, "Yep, THAT guy is the guy we need to carry the company".

 

I was commenting elsewhere that Owen absolutely tore the damn house down with his match. He hit every signature Owen spot, a beautiful plancha to the floor, all kinds of flippity flop stuff that was ultra cutting edge in 1988 and basically got a standing ovation from the crowd at the end. Hell of a match. So what happened? Vince waits a few months and puts him under a dumb mask and Warrior gets a mega push.

[Beast]

I know size was a factor, but that's total short-sighted booking with him as The Blazer. Vince always wanted a Mighty Mouse and I guess he thought putting a mask on him would somehow make the fans give him a double standing ovation.