WORLD EXCLUSIVE WWE: Greatest Superstars of the 21st Century - DVD Review

***SYNOPSIS***

DISC 1

Signature Open

Ground Breaking Superstars

Chris Jericho

Edge

Triple H

JBL

Kane

Kurt Angle

The Rock

Randy Orton

Brock Lesnar

Decade of the Divas

Jeff Hardy

Big Show

Eddie Guerrero

Shawn Michaels

Booker T

Stone Cold Steve Austin

The Undertaker

Rey Mysterio

Batista

John Cena


DISC 2

WCW Championship Match
Booker T vs. The Rock
SummerSlam August 19, 2001

Intercontinental Championship Match
Chris Jericho vs. Rob Van Dam
Raw September 16, 2002

World Heavyweight Championship Match
Triple H vs. Kane
Raw June 23, 2003

60 Minute Iron Man Match for the WWE Championship
Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar
SmackDown September 18, 2003

WWE Championship Match
Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio
SmackDown March 18, 2004


DISC 3

Fatal 4-Way Match for the WWE Championship
JBL vs. The Undertaker vs. Eddie Guerrero vs. Booker T
Armageddon December 12, 2004

Triple Threat Match for the WWE Championship
JBL vs. Big Show vs. Kurt Angle
Royal Rumble January 30, 2005

World Heavyweight Championship Match
Triple H vs. Edge
Raw February 7, 2005

Women's Championship Match
Lita vs. Trish Stratus
Unforgiven September 17, 2006

Triple Threat Match - Winner Faces John Cena For The WWE Championship At WrestleMania 23
Shawn Michaels vs. Randy Orton vs. Edge
Raw February 5, 2007

8 -Man Tag Team Match
John Cena & Batista & Shawn Michaels & The Undertaker vs. Randy Orton & Edge & Mr. Kennedy & MVP
Raw February 15, 2007

World Heavyweight Championship Match
Batista vs. The Undertaker
WrestleMania 23 April 1, 2007

***MOVIE REVIEW***

The main feature on Disc 1 runs just a little under 1hr and 40min. So that breaks down to about 5 minutes per Superstar and turns into nothing more than a fun highlight reel of the first decade of the new millennium. The voice over narration was good but admittedly a little annoying at the start with generic guitar riffs playing in the background. My personal favorite segments was Kurt Angle which shows why he was one the all time greats and why it is such a sad state of affairs to see him on Impact now. Hopefully one day he can clear his head and make one last run in the WWE. Of course Brock Lesnar is put over huge and is the recipient of some of the best superlatives from the interview participants.
The interview participants include The Miz, Alex Riley, Arn Anderson, Santino Marella, John Cena, Josh Mathews, and Matt Striker. The Miz comes across the best as you can see how much this business means to him and how much he truly loved watching these certain competitors. Disc 2 & 3 have a good selection of matches with the absolute highlight of the whole set being the full 60 minute Iron Match between Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar. Another highlight would be a WWE Championship match from Smackdown with Eddie Guererro vs. Rey Mysterio, what a great match this was. It even includes Paul Heyman's promo after the match. I also highly enjoyed seeing the hard work Batista and The undertaker put into their match for WrestleMania 23.
While not the most substantial 3-Disc collection WWE has released, this is a good effort overall and includes a couple 4 star matches for the ages. 8/10

***VIDEO QUALITY***
WWE: Greatest Superstars of the 21st Century arrives on DVD with a 480p transfer in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. This is a solid that for the most part consists of the original 1.33:1 aspect ratio of the vintage matches and footage with a colored background on the sides of the image to fill out the screen on HDTVs without sacrificing the original footage and stretching it. Early footage was better than expected with good color saturation and nice contrast. Detail was an improvement over 80's footage from the past couple WWE releases. Interspersed between the main feature on Disc 1 are new interviews and they are pretty much perfect with deep blacks, rich color saturation, and superb facial details. A visually pleasing release. 8/10

***AUDIO QUALITY***
Audio is provided by a Dolby Digital 5.1 track. While this is a 5.1 track it is for the most part very front heavy. The front channels exhibit some decent stereo separation and there was some subtle crowd din in the rear channels. The mid 00's matches exhibited crisp and clean commentary and good bleeding of the entrance music. Narration on the main feature was crisp and clean as were the newly shot interviews. 7/10

Exclusive WWE Elimination Chamber 2011 - DVD Review

***SYNOPSIS***

Six superstars vie for ultimate supremacy inside an unforgiving steel structure. At stake is a world championship and a date with the main event at WrestleMania. Six Raw superstars will battle in the elimination chamber for the WWE Championship and six of SmackDown s best will fight for the World Heavyweight Championship. In addition, other singles and tag team matches will have long-term ramifications on WrestleMania 27.




***MOVIE REVIEW***

This was without a doubt one of the best PPV shows in at least a year. The main events as well as the under card were well worked and exciting matches. John Morrison once again displayed athleticism that most mortals can only dream about. Trish Stratus gets a great reaction for her return and then proceeds to foul it with a so so promo and wearing high heels she was very clumsy.

Alberto Del Rio was excellent in his opening match with Kofi Kingston and shows why he is a deserving #1 contender at WrestleMania XXVII. Jerry "The King" Lawler and The Miz had the crowd eating out of their hand by the end of their well paced and exciting match. The fans in attendance started believing that Lawler may actually win his first WWE Cahmpionship, but alas it wasn't meant to be and now he is working in a superb program with Michael Cole. The Smackdown and Raw chamber matches took their place among the best ever in that monstrosity of steel and torture. All the top stars had their working shoes on for this evening and this is a worthy follow up to the highly anticipated "Super Bowl of Wrestling". Here is the full match listing:

Alberto Del Rio vs. Kofi Kingston

Edge (c) vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Wade Barrett vs. The Big Show vs. Kane vs. Drew McIntyre - (World Heavyweight Championship Smackdown Elimination Chamber Match)

Santino Marella (c) & Vladimir Kozlov (c) vs. Heath Slater & Justin Gabriel - (World Tag Team Championship Match)

The Miz (c) w/ Alex Riley vs. Jerry "the King" Lawler - (WWE Championship Match)

John Cena vs. John Morrison vs. R-Truth vs. Randy Orton vs. Sheamus vs. CM Punk - (Raw Chamber Match to determine the # 1 Contendor for WWE Championship at WrestleMania XXVII)




***VIDEO QUALITY***
Elimination Chamber 2011 arrives on DVD with a 480i transfer in the original aspect ratio of 1.78:1. This is a bright and colorful presentation. Primary colors are well saturated. Detail was good and the crowd was easily viewable. There were some light compression artifacts during ring entrances. Overall a consistently strong release. 8/10



***AUDIO QUALITY***
Audio is provided by a Dolby Digital 5.1 track. The best part of the presentation is the entrance music which is provide with some decent bass. The commentary was crisp and clean throughout. Surround channels are mostly used for atmospheric crowd din and light bleeding of the theme music. 7/10



***SPECIAL FEATURES***

* The Rock & John Cena RAW February 21, 2011 - Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few weeks you've seen this all time great promo and as you know it is pure GOLD

WORLD EXCLUSIVE FIRST REVIEW - WWE The Big Show: A Giant's World 3-Disc DVD

***SYNOPSIS***

Big Show lays claim to the title of World s Largest Athlete and anyone who doubts it may be on the receiving end of his devastating knockout punch. The 7-foot giant has been a staple of the Sports Entertainment scene since his WCW debut in the 90s, and has battled some of the all-time greats, including Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Sting, Undertaker, Triple H, John Cena, and more. He's also cast his enormous shadow in the worlds of television and movies with roles on Royal Pains, Saturday Night Live, The Waterboy, MacGruber, and Knucklehead.
Now for the first time ever, Big Show s mammoth career will be highlighted in a DVD set. This 3-disc release will include a never-before-seen documentary on the life and times of Big Show featuring new candid interviews where Show discusses how a giant lives in an average-sized world, his sports entertainment career and more.

***MOVIE REVIEW***

I'll start by saying that I personally have always respected and enjoyed The Big Show but was surprised they were going to release a 3-Disc DVD on his career. Well those feelings of surprise were easily erased when I put in Disc 1 and started the main feature that runs at (59min59sec) I was enjoying what was the most refreshingly candid and fast paced documentary that WWE has provided in quite some time. We start as usual from the beginning but this is no usual childhood story. When Paul Wight (The Big Show) was 9 years old he developed a tumor on his Pituitary gland that caused growth hormone to secrete. He was 6' 4" when he hit 12 years old. The first 20 minutes or so are focused on his upbringing that included his hard working but caring Father, Aunts & Uncles, and Cousins. They are all interviewed here except sadly his Father whom passed away when Paul was in college playing Basketball, the pain from the loss and the surgery that removed the tumor but in turn caused his weight to gain more rapidly played into his decision to quit Basketball and school.


He was playing a charity Basketball game for Danny Bonaduce when he was noticed by Hulk Hogan who of course saw dollar signs, the rest as they say is history. The rest of his career is looked at with some great insight from The Big Show himself as well as new interviews from HHH, Edge, Pat Patterson, John Cena, William Regal, and Chavo Guerrero, even Henry Winkler for a brief moment We are for once thankfully spared from having to hear from Matt Striker in any interview segments. HHH has some very funny stories about The Big Show that he shares with us. One of the best parts of the documentary is to see in detail how the man has to travel to keep healthy and keep this going for a few more years. He has a personal driver that picks him up at the airport in his tour bus and then they are driven to the shows fro rest of the week and then flies back home.


The extras on the first disc are well worth taking your time to watch , we even learn how Vince McMahon came up with name "The Big Show". The matches that are included are fun to watch. I especially enjoyed his match from the 2002 Royal Rumble versus Brock Lesnar in MSG. It was a quick paced match and it was great to see what a powerhouse Lesnar was. We also get the official weigh in from RAW and the match at WrestleMania XXVI between Show and Floyd "Money" Mayweather , it was a great spectacle. Overall this is a fun and informative set that should be in every fans collection. 9/10

***VIDEO QUALITY***
A Giant's World arrives on DVD with a 480i transfer in the aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The documentary and recently shot interviews segments are very crisp. Colors are well saturated and I didn't notice any signs of bleeding. Black levels were solid throughout. The many never before seen still photos from his childhood show good detail. There are matches and segments from the WCW era , WWE Attitude era, that were shot in standard definition due to the technology at the time. These segments are presented in their original 1.33:1 aspect ratio with a split Big Show logo on the sides where black bars would usually be to fill your HDTV. The older footage is still very good with some spots of softness in 1995-96 WCW stuff. Overall this is a great presentation. 8/10


***AUDIO QUALITY***
Audio is provided by both Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo tracks. The main documentary is in 5.1 but it is a front heavy presentation with decent stereo separation from music cues. Surround usage was nil. The extras on Disc 1 and all of Disc 2 and Disc 3 are 2 channel presentations. For all 3 discs the dialogue and commentary was crisp and clean. A strong if underwhelming presentation. 7/10

WORLD EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOK PHOTOS - WWE The Big Show: A Giant's World 3-Disc DVD Set

Here are world exclusive first look photos at the upcoming WWE Home Video 3-Disc DVD release The Big Show: A Giant's World. I will be back with a full detailed review no later than Sunday morning. The set is due to release on February 22, 2011.