This
is a mammoth set for a mammoth year in the WWE, and trying to represent five
hours of TV output per week, 52 weeks a year in only nine hours of DVD space is
a mammoth task. In that samespirit of
brevity and summary, I will get stuck into the content.
The
DVD opens with Jerry 'The King' Lawler introducing this archive of an important
year for both brands, and the first match, with a cheap shot at the butterfly
Divas belt of the women's old title.
Charlotte versus Becky Lynch is a solid technical match with the
champion's father, Ric Flair, heavily involved with the finish. An appropriate pick as this would be a theme
for Charlotte's matches in the first part of this year.
Kalisto's
improbable victory for the US title over the recently returned Alberto Del Rio
is a true underdog treat, despite being brutalised from the first moment and
having his high-flying devastatingly countered.
January highlights follow, including Roman Reign's shot at 'Special
[biased] Ref' Vince McMahon that set up the Royal Rumble match for the WWE
Championship.
It
might be an unpopular opinion, but Daniel Bryan's retirement speech - included
here in full - is too long for a summary DVD of an entire year. I'm not
doubting Bryan's impact on WWE and wrestling in general, but it slowed the flow
of the DVD significantly. Thankfully, it
is followed by Chris Jericho versus AJ Styles from SmackDown. A 'dream match'
that would have been fantasy booking a few years ago, although Jericho is
marginally off his prime athleticism now. It doesn't suffer for that, as the
beautiful clash of similar styles leads to a knife-edge match of precision
technique.
The
Vincent J McMahon Legacy of Excellence award ceremony gets interrupted to the
crowd's (and my) delight. Just as Stephanie McMahon is being presented by her
father, brother Shane makes a stunning return after almost a decade. With
notions of blackmail and backstabbing, this segment leads in to the upcoming
battle for control over Monday Night RAW. Unsurprisingly, this subject also
features in the February highlights.
After
Chris Jericho acted as WWE's gatekeeper to the incoming AJ Styles, they ended
up together as a Tag team - Y2AJ. The title-match against The New Day didn't go
according to plan however, leading to Jericho's turn on AJ. Triple H versus Dolph Ziggler started as a
good match, but not as good as the ending: Roman Reigns interrupting and
brawling with HHH throughout the entire arena, excellently invoking the spirit
of the old Hardcore championship. A game of move-set one-upmanship between
Kevin Owens and AJ Styles is followed by the March Highlights which continue
the Roman/HHH feud on the road to Wrestlemania.
The
King begins Disc Two with a preamble about the new faces of the 'New Era'
beginning with RAW the night after Wrestlemania, which is immediately backed up
with a serviceable bout between NXT alumni Apollo Crews and Tyler Breeze. The Styles versus Zayn number one contender
match puts us back on the World Class level though, an absolute throw-down.
April's Highlights: a New Women's title, Zack Ryder's criminally short
Intercontinental reign and AJ allying with Gallows and Anderson.
Cesaro
and Zayn tag against Kevin Owens and The Miz in an astoundingly athletic tag
match that is a brilliant snap-shot of the Intercontinental title scene, with
the sauce of schadenfreude-inducing squabbles.
This disc also has a massive change-of-pace discourse in the middle,
John Cena providing the mid-ring monologue for this one. Back after some time out, he sets himself up
as some kind of guard or gatekeeper against the 'New Era' superstars. Cue AJ Styles' entrance for a surprising bit
of returned respect, interrupted by The Club threatening him. It's just a ruse
to beat up John Cena though, setting up the Summer's hottest programme of
matches. The May Highlight package
focuses on the McMahon sibling rivalry and associated New Era brand
positioning.
A
couple of tag matches have been chosen to represent June, The New Day and Enzo
& Cass versus The Club and The Vaudevillains is an epic Promo battle only
matched by the excellent in ring product, while Ambrose, Zayn & Cesaro
against Owens, Jericho & Del Rio is a prelude to Money in the Bank, a 6-man
tag that isn't just on here for the storyline narrative. With the Brand Extension draft looming, the
highlights are densely packed: Ambrose 'the Dude' now WWE Champion, The
Styles/Club versus Cena feud continues, some posturing cameos for a potential
SmackDown GM and the Wyatt’s compound match against New Day. Shane and Daniel Bryan end up in charge of
SmackDown, whilst Steph and Mick Foley get Monday nights.
Draft
Day itself gets an introduction from Lawler as well as its own highlights,
throwing up all of the seismic changes that this kind of structural shift
brings. Subsequently, we have four
decisive matches to put the top-order of each brand into some kind of
perspective.
Firstly,
there's the Ambrose/Rollins WWE Championship match in which Ambrose needs to
retain to go to into the Battleground Main event, with RAW's Rollins plus Roman
Reigns confirmed, and keep Smackdown's hopes alive of holding the historic
title. It should be noted that he does
in both instances. Then comes Charlotte
versus Sasha Banks for the (RAW) Women's Championship where Banks finally gets
the gold, ending Flair's interminable run.
Balor
makes a huge impact on RAW after the former NXT champion drafted highly, and
gives himself a huge birthday treat by beating the big-dog Roman Reigns. This
sets up the Summerslam finale crowning a new 'Universal' heavyweight champion,
against #1 draft pick Seth Rollins, to headline the red brand. Over on the blue side, AJ Styles wins an
action-packed 6-Pack Challenge against Cena, Ziggler, Crews, Corbin and Bray
Wyatt for contendership to the traditional title. Stylistically, these go to demonstrate the
initial general differences between the brands; RAW with the traditional
in-ring storytelling psychology but Smackdown high-paced and heavy on
spectacular spots. July's highlights
mostly cover what we've just seen.
The
King's back again at the start of Disc Three, seemingly to put in a good word
for NXT's American Alpha (Chad Gable & Jason Jordan) before the segment
segues into a Charlotte Flair in-ring promo. She regained the title at the
previous night's PPV so wants the night off, but Foley has other ideas. After
mentioning Finn Balor's relinquishment of the Universal Title due to injury, he
introduces Bayley for her RAW début. Charlotte refuses her challenge, so she
gives Dana Brooke a solid striking fight, and defeat, instead.
Lawler's
mention of American Alpha makes sense as they take on Breezango (Tyler Breeze
& Fandango) in a 1st round tournament match. It demonstrates the potency
and agility of the patriotic Alpha as they progress. Next up is the Roman Reigns vs Kevin Owens vs
Seth Rollins vs Big Cass (w/Enzo) fatal four way for the Universal Title after
Balor's injury. A gruelling visceral
match is concluded with a screw-job and swerve of legendary proportions. Triple
H turns on his former chosen one, Seth Rollins, to surprisingly set up Owens
for the win.
Another
fatal four-way follows. This time a fast-paced submission victory for Kendrick
as he makes Alexander tap to become number-one contender, in RAW's first
cruiserweight division match, also including Rich Swann and Gran Metalik. A Miz TV segment begins with a retrospective
of the Intercontinental champion's career, but after The Miz starts running
down Dolph Ziggler he comes out to put his WWE career on the line for one last
shot at the title. Subtle as a
sledge-hammer in my opinion, but it goes over well with the crowd. The month's
highlights follow.
Goldberg,
the former WCW star, makes his return to WWE on Monday Night RAW after a
12-year absence. Tying in with the 2K17
video game release, he challenges Brock Lesnar (his last opponent) to one more
fight. I wasn't a big fan of the former
World Heavyweight champion the first time around, and less so a good stride into
middle age, especially when there's so much fresh talent coming through from
NXT.
James
Ellsworth, the sympathetically engaging recipient of a Braun Strowman squash on
RAW, has become embroiled in the feud between Ambrose and Styles for the
SmackDown World Championship in the next match.
Some quality comedy antics and classic JBL commentary are mixed with
deceptively crisp in-ring action, making it a bit of an unexpected hit for me. It's followed by yet more monthly highlights.
Two
Women's matches finish this set off incredibly nicely. Becky Lynch defends the
newly-minted SmackDown Women's title against the diminutive but highly
aggressive Alexa Bliss, and Sasha Banks nearly breaks Charlotte in half to
regain the RAW championship during their Falls-count-anywhere match. Both of these only go to highlight the
strides that female WWE competitors have taken in the past few years. A final
load of November highlights round out the DVD set.
And
Finally...
These
'Best of RAW and Smackdown' DVD sets have a superbly unique point to them: ease
of access to the most significant TV matches of the year. Even on the Network, it can be a major pain
in the posterior to track down one match in an odd episode for reference. If you combine it with the recent Best of PPV
Matches collection too, then you get a sum greater than its parts, a chronicle
of the WWE year.
Direct link to BUY the DVD HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment