Wonder Woman

If you recall my review for Batman V Superman, I was one of the few critics who legitimately enjoyed the film. I noticed friends and critics I follow who detested that movie. One of the few things about BvS that received nearly universal approval is Wonder Woman’s introduction to the DC Cinematic Universe. Gal Gadot absolutely nailed the part, and I vividly recall when she dawned the iconic Wonder Woman costume accompanied by her badass, thunderous theme song late in the film a fellow filmgoer near me letting out an audible, super-fan ‘yeah!’ That film was the perfect appetizer to set up her feature-length, lead starring debut in 2017’s Wonder Woman (trailer).

I do not recall reading much of the Wonder Woman comics over the years other than seeing her in a handful of JLA issues I read over the years. I have vague memories of catching a few re-runs of the classic Lynda Carter TV show off cable when I was a kiddo, and also Wonder Woman’s guest appearances on the awesome animated DC cartoons that ran from the early ‘90s to the mid-00s. I had a basic knowledge of her origin and her powers, but having her reintroduced in BvS was a great refresher of what to expect in this film.

I do know that the original comic’s origin had her kicking Nazi butt much like Captain America. They tweaked her origin for the film by having her debut toward the end of World War I instead exactly 100 years earlier. There is a nicely done opening sequence of Diana growing up on the mysterious island consisting of the all-female warrior race of Amazons. One day a British spy, Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) crash lands near the island and Diana rescues him, but a German fleet is right on Steve’s tail and Amazons and Germans wage war. Steve catches Diana up to speed on WWI events, and Diana is convinced Ares, the God of War is corrupting the minds of the Germans and convinces Steve to take her to Europe to find Ares and destroy him, thus ending his corruption of the Germans and bringing peace.

Diana’s conviction that Ares is behind World War I is adorable, and I ate up her affable culture shock to the European conventions of the time such as dancing and ice cream. Eventually, Diana and Steve find out the dreaded German General Ludendorff (Danny Huston) is about to unleash a deadly chemical attack and round up a team of Steve’s former running mates to stop him. Steve’s team consists of Sameer (Saïd Taghmaoui), The Chief (Eugene Brave Rock) and Charlie (Ewen Bremner). They are all well casted and naturally all play well off each other as they provide support to Diana’s and Steve’s quest to stop Ludendorff. Pine and Gadot have the best chemistry of the entire cast, and by the end of the movie, much like the first Captain America film it had me despondent that this is the only film we will see these two pair off in before the sequels presumably jump to modern times.

The ‘money’ scene in this film is when Wonder Woman cannot take witnessing the pain and suffering in the trenches no more and heroically charges headfirst into no man’s land against a barrage of German gunfire. Watching Diana and her team proceed to eradicate an entire enemy squadron is such a powerful rush that it easily ranks as one of my top action moments in all of superhero films. If you have not seen this film yet, then by all means please click on that link to the scene and max out your speakers/headphones and prepare to be blown away! Eventually Diana and company have a final confrontation with Ludendorff that stunned me with a twist I did not see coming. Best of all, the twist makes sense and the filmmakers pull off some spectacular CG to make it all come together for a dramatic final clash to close off one of the best superhero movies, bar-none from start to finish.

Speaking of CG, I had fun joking with my dad about how good the CG was in the film. My dad is way more of a comic book buff than I am and read a nearly everything Marvel and DC put out from the late 60s until the early 90s so naturally I had to pick his brain to see if Wonder Woman did the comic justice. He went on about how there was no Rex the Wonder Dog or invisible plane. I retorted by stating the CG was so good that he could not spot the invisible plane; invisible cars in films are a whole other story however.

The BluRay is stacked with just over two hours of extra features, and all but a couple of them are worthy of consumption! There is one moment in the bloopers package that popped out to me when the cast erupted into giggles and director Patty Jenkins rushed the set and worked some kind of bizarre hand motion/trance voodoo magic to get the cast quickly focused again and not waste precious filming time. Of the six behind-the-scenes features I would recommend Director’s Vision and Crafting the Wonder as the two must-see features. Patty Jenkins breaks down five key scenes in Director’s Vision and spends about 25 minutes dissecting them and how they relate to the comic and updating it to modern conventions. Crafting the Wonder is a thorough 16-minute piece on how the Wonder Woman film came to be, how Gadot perfected the character and how Jenkins mastered the nuances of cinematography throughout the film.

If you cannot tell already, I absolutely loved this film. I went back and forth in my best of rankings between Wonder Woman and Logan as my favorite film of 2017. It is easily in the top tier of the pyramid of superhero films. I cannot gush about it anymore, so if you are hung up about the DC side of superhero films, at least go out of your way to see just this one and you will not regret it. There were a lot of rumblings among film enthusiasts about the state of the DC films after the polarizing results of Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad, but Wonder Woman gave the DC Cinematic Universe a much need boost to salvage it. Justice League stirred up the pot again several months later, but that is a story for a future blog!

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

3
12 Angry Men (1957)
12 Rounds 3: Lockdown
21 Jump Street
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Christmas Eve
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
The Condemned 2
Countdown
Creed
Deck the Halls
The Eliminators
Dirty Work
Faster
Fast and Furious I-VIII
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Gravity
Guardians of the Galaxy
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
Ink
Joy Ride 1 & 2
The Interrogation
Interstellar
Jobs
Man of Steel
Man on the Moon
Marine 3-5
Mortal Kombat
National Treasure
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
The Replacements
Reservoir Dogs
Rocky I-VII
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
San Andreas
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Shoot em Up
Steve Jobs
Source Code
Star Trek I-XIII
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
UHF
Veronica Mars
The War
Wild
The Wrestler (2008)
X-Men: Days of Future Past

Lockdown 2007

Welcome to the third installment of my march through all of TNA/GFW/Impact Wrestling’s Lockdown PPVs that ran from 2005-2016. As I like to start these off, let’s see how Impact has evolved over the previous year. Going into April 2007, they now have WWE Hall of Famer and current RAW GM, Kurt Angle on its roster. Vince Russo is back on the TNA booking team for the first of many Lockdowns to come. We were in the midst of the ‘PCS’ Paparazzi Championship Series where Kevin Nash took several X-Division guys and put them through early-NXT-type challenges and made buddies with them all in the end in a fun set of sketches to look back on and see how they helped add some depth to previously vanilla X-Division stars. Some major teams have now split up with Team Canada and America’s Most Wanted no longer together. This is the final Lockdown during the ‘one-hour adrenaline rush’ era of Impact, as Spike made the show a two hour program in the proceeding fall. With that added hour they immediately debuted its ‘Knockouts’ division, and the seeds for that are seen here with more women on the roster compared to a year prior, and 2007 seeing the first women’s match in Lockdown history.

This is one of the first TNA/Impact PPV’s to leave the Impact Zone in Orlando, and started a new trend for the promotion where they would try and have at least a few of their ‘marquee’ PPVs in bigger markets. This change in venue is immediately noticeable as Lockdown 2007 emanates from a much bigger venue in St. Louis, Missouri. The Impact Zone is a nice studio setting for the weekly TV show that TNA has made tremendous strides in making it look bigger than it actually is, but them bringing their PPVs to a legit arena gives them a more big time feel.

The pre-show match is included in the extras and features Vodoo Kin Mafia (AKA James Gang, AKA New Age Outlaws) taking on Christy Hemme’s mysterious team called Serontonin. I completely forgot about Serontonin until now, and looking back at them they remind me an awful lot of Sanity in NXT. Hemme’s first foray into managing did not go well as Serontonin were not long for the company, and Hemme would find a modicum of success managing the Rock ‘n Rave Infection, who I kid you not came down to the ring jamming out on Guitar Hero guitars! Voodoo Kin Mafia was Russo’s 4th-wall breaking makeover of the James Gang, whose only purpose seemed to intentionally point out the absurd booking of DX concurrently taking place in WWE. The match was a forgettable quick little bout on the preshow with Kip pinning Havik with The One and Only. Other extras on the DVD are a photo gallery that I took pics with my phone of for the blog here, thus the lack of quality (sorry….kind of) and a nice 12-minute montage of footage of TNA stars signing autographs at its Fan Fest the day before.

I loved the longtime TNA PPV voiceover guy, Barry Scott! His voice brings an intangible grandeur to every event he introduces and he does it once again here promising this Lockdown will bring blood and terror! There was no blood in the 5-Man Xscape match opener for the X-Division title. Like past years, eliminations happen by pins and submissions until it is down to the last two where escape from cage determines the winner. This year’s contestants were Sonjay Dutt, Alex Shelley, Shark Boy, ‘Black Machismo’ Jay Lethal and defending champ, Chris Sabin. Kevin Nash and the PCS was responsible for Jay Lethal doing a Macho Man impression he kept up for a few years in TNA because it was damn good Macho Man impression and was responsible for the only good Ric Flair moment in his TNA run. The X-Division delivered in this match with a ton of killer spots that all connected. Shelley and Sabin teamed up for a hearty part of the match and gelled well together and I could see this match being the catalyst for them starting to team up shortly after this PPV and form the Motor City Machine Guns. Eventually it came down to Lethal and Sabin, and Sabin successfully defended the belt after Lethal got his foot stuck in the cage in a heck of an opener.

Former Team Canada members collide next when Robert Roode took on Petey Williams. This had the storyline of Williams trying to help out another former Team Canada member, Eric Young, who was tricked into signing paperwork to become Robert Roode’s property. Young tries to help Petey out, but it backfires and Roode lands the Payoff/Perfect Plex for the win. The first women’s Lockdown bout transpired next with Gail Kim taking on Jacquelyn/Miss Jackie Moore. Jackie is teaming with James Storm and both have an awesome theme that has not crossed my mind in awhile and was a hoot to relive. The two stepped up and had a killer match that started off with an outside brawl before slugging it out in the six sides of steel. Kim got the pin after a splash from the top of the cage.

Good ‘ol Mr. Bob Backlund had a fun cup of coffee in TNA at this time. He would usually be seen in the background coming out of commercial behind the announcers doing the Harvard Step Test all show long for no apparent rhyme or reason. TNA! TNA! This regrettably stopped when he became involved in Senshi and Austin Starr’s feud and was the guest referee. In case you forgot, Austin Starr was TNA’s reimagining of Austin Aries as a modern day Jesse Ventura. Senshi got a sneaky roll-up win after he took advantage of Starr arguing with Backlund.

When I was eight I must have watched the Wrestlemania VII blindfold match on Colisseum Videotape between Rick Martel and Jake Roberts countless times. 8-year-old Dale absolutely ate it up! That is how you do a blindfold match! How you do not do a blindfold match is how TNA executed it here between former America’s Most Wanted teammates Chris Harris and James Storm. The ref loosely tied the masks on both men, and both masks repeatedly fell off several times throughout. ‘Someone Stop This’ was an audible chant throughout the bout. It mercifully concluded when Storm cheated and peaked from under the mask to see Harris’s position and superkicked him for the pin. I made it clear on this blog before my love for WWE’s OMG video series, and when WWE ultimately buys out TNA/Impact and gets their video library, this blindfold match is easily a top tier contender for TNA’s OMG/Worst of moments. It is worth noting Harris and Storm would rebound from this in a match of the year contender a few months later at Sacrifice 2007.

The next match saw Christopher Daniels taking on Jerry Lynn. Daniels is trying some new gimmickry with his persona at this time by having spooky face paint around one of his eyes…..I do not believe this lasted long and I eagerly anticipate filling you all full of delicious, spicy, great tasting curry soon when Daniels debuts Curry Man in a year or two! The match was nothing too special, and eventually had a couple nice spots in the final moments before Daniels won with his Last Rites finisher. LAX and a wheelchaired-bounded Konnan cut a promo on Team 3D next. Konnan is essentially retired at this point as a lifetime of leg injuries caught up with him and he is now only managing LAX.

Compared to the previous two Lockdowns, it is a achievement and a half that the 2007 edition did not see bloodshed until the eight match on the card when Team 3D faced LAX in a electrified cage match. You read that right, whenever wrestlers would touch the cage, they would get shocked, complete with zany PA sound effects and flashing arena lights and gratuitous overselling from D-Von who got Border Tossed by Hernandez into the cage and bled buckets all over the mat. The crowd did not respond well to this gimmicked warfare and appropriately chanted ‘bullshit’ and ‘fire Russo’ in response. Poor Hernandez got around the electricity by climbing up the cage with special leather gloves and boots he conjured from out of nowhere, but his attempt at putting Team 3D away with a splash through a table backfired when D-Von rolled out of the way, and then Homicide stumbling into the 3D move spelled victory for Team 3D in another match worthy of making the elusive ‘Top 50 OMG TNA Moments’ list.

Throughout this PPV between matches there were regular backstage updates from the members on both sides of the Lethal Lockdown main event. It was the usual bru-ha-ha of whether certain team members could be trusted. Jeff Jarrett was making his TNA return after a several month sabbatical and joined up on Kurt Angle’s side of heroes consisting of Rhino, Samoa Joe and Sting and they all were unsure of Jarrett’s loyalty. Christian Cage was on top of his game at this point in his TNA run as NWA World Champ and leader of his faction with Tomko and AJ Styles who was now rocking a full-out southern hick character. Joining them in Lethal Lockdown were Abyss, and TNA newcomer, ‘Big Poppa Pump’ Scott Steiner. If you though Steiner was unpredictable on the mic before, then checkout this montage past the 14 minute mark to see his best TNA lines where Scott truly was unfiltered.

I always liked the Lethal Lockdown matches, which had nearly the exact same rules as War Games, except the roof lowered after the 10th and final competitor entered and they left a gap at the top encouraging wrestlers to crawl on top of the roof which was filled with weapons. It kind of got congested with just one ring when more stars entered the fray, but eventually almost all made it to the outside once Rhino speared Tomko out of the cage in an impressive moment. Seeing Scotty Steiner bust out a Frankensteiner for the first time in ages also had me popping big. There was the requisite Pyramid Suplex spot towards the end of the match, and the most eye-opening spot featured Angle punching AJ off the top of the cage onto a bunch of awaiting wrestlers to catch him. Rhino is the second and surprisingly last combatant to bleed for the night, which is shockingly low compared to past years. The ending saw Jarrett truly being a good guy and helping out his team when he ka-bonged Abyss with a guitar filled with, what else, but tacks so Sting could get the pin. Minus a couple lulls in the middle where it seemed the guys were killing time waiting for the next person to come out, this was a crazy, yet fun match complete with the good kind of overbooking nonsense that I can sink my teeth into. Ambitious stunts, tack-filled weapon spots, and a good dose of creativity made this a great closer to the show.

As stated in previous entries, the one hour Impact era of TNA is probably my favorite period in the promotion’s history because they managed to make use of a huge roster in an hour. Even when Vince Russo returned and started up his notorious booking decisions again, it was still a fun show to watch and TNA had to keep the show moving so no segment overstayed its welcome. There is some cringe-worthy booking from Russo in the forms of Storm/Harris and 3D/LAX matches that should be skipped over by all means. However, Lockdown 2007 still captures that great feeling of this era of TNA I dug at the time with several great feuds and matches that stepped up and delivered. Definitely go out of your way to check out the Xscape, Miss Jackie/Gail Kim and Lethal Lockdown matches that made this show. It will be interesting to see where TNA is at in 2008’s Lockdown with Russo fully invested into the booking and a Knockouts Division in place.

Past Wrestling Blogs

Best of WCW Clash of Champions
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3
Biggest Knuckleheads
Bobby The Brain Heenan
Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes
DDP: Positively Living
Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials
ECW Unreleased: Vol 1
ECW Unreleased: Vol 2
ECW Unreleased: Vol 3
For All Mankind
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story
The Kliq Rules
Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story
Memphis Heat
NXT Greatest Matches Vol 1
OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History
OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History
Owen: Hart of Gold
RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Sting: Into the Light
Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology
Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder
TNA Lockdown 2005-2016
Top 50 Superstars of All Time
Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season
True Giants
Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns
Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe
War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches
Warrior Week on WWE Network
Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition
Wrestlemania 28-Present
The Wrestler (2008)
Wrestling Road Diaries Too
Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money
Wrestlings Greatest Factions
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017

Reservoir Dogs

Quentin Tarantino is one of my all time favorite directors. Minus the Kill Bill films, I have loved all of his work. He is possibly the only director to master the art of dialogue in absurdly lengthy conversations that last far longer than they have any right to be. That would ordinarily be a turnoff in most films, but Tarantino somehow finds a way to make his dialogue so engrossing and descriptive that I cannot help but get sucked in as his cast delivers his finely tuned lines. This lead to me upgrading several of his films to BluRay and I am finally getting around to watching them. Today I am covering his 1992 debut feature film, Reservoir Dogs (trailer).

Reservoir Dogs is a heist movie without showing the heist. The film is all about the before and after the heist, and the film kicks off with the crew having coffee at a diner and talking shop before it jumps ahead to after the heist which did not go down according to plan and the crew eventually meeting up and debating on what went wrong with many flashbacks introducing the robbers and setting up the big job.

Quentin must have made some solid connections because he had a hell of a cast going into his first film with such a small budget. The criminals all go by codenames. Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) and Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) are the core henchmen. There are a couple more crew members who have smaller roles with Quentin Tarantino himself as Mr. Brown and Eddie Bunker as Mr. Blue. This ragtag bunch is assembled by Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) and his son ‘Nice Guy’ Eddie (Chris Penn). Not a single one of these cast members underperform and Quentin got the absolute best out of all of them.

As mentioned above, the film does not show the actual heist, but there are a couple fleeting moments of action when the film flashes back to show Mr. Pink escaping the cops and later Mr. Orange and Mr. White evading capture from the boys in blue. The bulk of the film, roughly two-thirds I would approximate, takes place at the rendezvous point in an abandoned building. Watching the gang dissect how everything went astray and eventually point fingers at each other before everything reaches a boiling point in the climatic finale had me hooked until the screen cut to black. There are countless great exchanges between the cast in here, and compared to Quentin’s other films they will seem brief in comparison before he went all in on mastering the dialogue that eventually won him two screenplay Oscars. Speaking of brief, this is Quentin’s shortest film, which clocks in at just over 90 minutes. I had to do a double take at the playback counter on my TV when watching it again because I am so use to most of his other films going far over two hours.

I recall watching Reservoir Dogs for the first time trying to put everything together and hoping they would eventually show the actual heist, but in hindsight and on this repeat viewing I get why Tarantino did not, and that is because the crew are incredibly effective at painting a picture of how the plan went to hell and back. I also recall the film having an amazing soundtrack. Before Guardians of the Galaxy dazzled us with its eclectic 70s soundtrack, Reservoir Dogs brought its own curated 70s mix to the forefront, with the cast plugging multiple times their love for the fictional local 70s radio block, ‘K-Billy’s Super Sounds of the 70s.’ To this day, probably 15-16 years after I originally saw it, I still think of this film whenever I hear ‘Stuck in the Middle With You’ on the radio thanks to Michael Madsen’s diabolical torture scene.

The film has a great HD transfer on the BluRay, which is a 15th anniversary edition. Unfortunately, this anniversary edition is not all that packed with extras. I would have loved a commentary track, but Tarantino is notorious for not providing any commentaries for his own films. There are 12 minutes of deleted scenes worth going out of your way to see as they fill some minor holes from the film and provide some extra background on Mr. Orange. There are only two other extras. Profiling Reservoir Dogs is a seven minute piece profiling the primary criminals and is not worth your time. Playing Fast and Loose is worth checking out though, as it is a 15 minute compilation of interviews with film critics who praise Quentin for his pioneering filmmaking and other aspects of the film. I recall the original DVD I owned of this was packed with extra features and I am perplexed why they did not at least carry those over for the BluRay.

In a way, this is kind of the anti-heist movie, and I would not want it any other way! Tarantino gets by not showing the heist because of how damn good he is at crafting dialogue that had me feeling for every character on screen and how the aftermath of the heist was mesmerizing from start to finish. I am bummed about the lack of extras for such a landmark film, and on top of an anniversary edition too, but that is sour grapes in the grand scheme of things. Tarantino’s films are not for everyone as I spoken to some over the years who cannot tolerate his style of filmmaking, but if you dug his other films and have somehow eluded yourself from seeing his first, or you have not seen any and just want to chance something different then please give Reservoir Dogs a chance!

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

3
12 Angry Men (1957)
12 Rounds 3: Lockdown
21 Jump Street
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Batman: The Killing Joke
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Christmas Eve
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
The Condemned 2
Countdown
Creed
Deck the Halls
The Eliminators
Dirty Work
Faster
Fast and Furious I-VIII
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Gravity
Guardians of the Galaxy
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
Ink
Joy Ride 1 & 2
The Interrogation
Interstellar
Jobs
Man of Steel
Man on the Moon
Marine 3-5
Mortal Kombat
National Treasure
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
The Replacements
Rocky I-VII
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
San Andreas
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Shoot em Up
Steve Jobs
Source Code
Star Trek I-XIII
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
UHF
Veronica Mars
The War
Wild
The Wrestler (2008)
X-Men: Days of Future Past

NXT Greatest Matches Volume 1

The original NXT that aired from 2010-2012 was a laughingstock of a ‘reality competition’ show filled with goofy challenges and awful gags. NXT’s re-launch as the new developmental territory for WWE in 2012 eviscerated all those bad early NXT memories. Since then, especially once the WWE Network debuted in 2014 and NXT introduced its PPV-esque, TakeOver specials, NXT has evolved into a unique third brand of the WWE. Triple H has been behind it since 2012, and he formed NXT today into something that feels like WWE’s take on a premiere indie promotion like Ring of Honor where the product is treated more sports-like and there is less of the mind-boggling ‘sports entertainment’ hijinx that sneaks onto core WWE programming each week.

I feel it is necessary to clue those in who may be unfamiliar with the buzz about NXT among ardent wrestling fans. NXT has a consistently fresh roster because the average NXT star is only on the roster for 1-2 years before getting ‘the call’ to move up to the main WWE roster or let go from the company all together. The talent regularly steps up to deliver big matches and moments on countless occasions that stand out in a special way because NXT is taped in front of a studio audience that has a more intimate feel than the big, showpiece sports arenas the average RAW and Smackdown emanates from. Best of all, the weekly NXT show on WWE Network is a swift one hour, and not the two-to-three hour slogs that the main roster programs can be toil to persevere through sometimes. In 2016 WWE released a DVD/BluRay collecting the best of the first four years of the new NXT through 2015, so let us take a look at NXT Greatest Matches: Volume 1 (trailer).

Volume 1 collects 18 matches, with five more upping the tally to 23 on the BluRay release. There is no feature-length documentary, but instead after every couple of matches there are 2-3 minute clips of new interviews from NXT stars and Triple H talking about pivotal moments in NXT history. These add up to a little under a half hour and cover the major moments such as how Triple H shaped the new NXT, debuting the first TakeOver on the WWE Network, NXT bringing a new focus on women’s wrestling, moving TakeOver to a big arena like the Barclays Center and lots of love for Dusty Rhodes when it came time to discuss the passing of ‘the oak’ of NXT. These are the essential bullet points I would like covered of NXT history, but a big part of me feels a little short-changed because I could easily see how WWE could have interviewed many more past and present NXT talent and made a far more comprehensive documentary.

I like most of the 18 core matches of the collection. Other than a handful of matches as extra features on other WWE home videos I have never seen much of the first two years of the new NXT, and there are eight matches from that era in Volume 1. It kicks off with a pre-3MB Jinder Mahal taking on a pre-Shield Seth Rollins to crown the first NXT champion in an electric moment that capped off with Dusty Rhodes presenting Rollins with the NXT Championship. From this era we also saw Paige winning the first NXT Women’s title in a tournament final against Emma. There is a reason why Emma was constantly mentioning her and Paige were the real beginning of the Women’s Evolution of WWE, and this match proves her point.

There are a couple awesome Cesaro matches from this era on here too from back when he had a first name! There is an absolutely tremendous 2-out-of-3 falls match with Cesaro and Sami Zayn that will likely be the first and only time I see someone tap out to….a basic headlock…seriously, and it looked damn convincing too! That Sami Zayn is a master salesman! Cesaro also has a superb technical/strong style showcase match with William Regal in what is essentially his retirement match where Regal gets his own Flair/Michaels Wrestlemania XXIV moment in a emotional sendoff for the Brit!

There is a solid 2013 match on here with Chris Jericho making a guest appearance on NXT taking on Bray Wyatt, but it is ruined with obnoxious commentary from Brad Maddox. Speaking of commentary, it is rare to have the same pairing of announcers in two matches straight as there is a revolving door of announcers throughout. Pre-Network era announcers are primarily William Regal and Jim Ross, but others like Brad Maddox occasionally join in. Throughout this collection NXT announcers are shuffled in and out such as Alex Riley, Renee Young, Rich Brennan, Byron Saxton, Jason Albert and Corey Graves.

As expected, a lot of classic TakeOver matches are on here. The main event of the first TakeOver with Neville winning the NXT Title from Bo Dallas in a ladder match is on here. Charlotte Flair winning the Women’s title in a tournament final against Natalya that featured both Ric Flair and Bret Hart at ringside to add extra notoriety is also a must-see. Volume 1 goes out of its way to show the story of Sami Zayn’s chase for NXT gold throughout and it pays off big with his title match in a Takeover special against Neville in a monumental match in this collection, which also has an equally monumental angle playing out afterwards with a debuting Kevin Owens.

As much as I loved the Paige/Emma and Charlotte/Natalya title matches, the standout women’s match in this collection is the TakeOver match between Sasha Banks and Bayley. It was a great crowning moment of Bayley’s multi-year growth over NXT history and her chase for NXT gold nearly ran parallel to Sami Zayn’s, and I recall that match living up to the hype. I was surprised their TakeOver Iron Man rematch somehow surpassed it and am dismayed that it did not make the cut for Volume 1, but I guess that is what…wait a sec, I just did some research and am flabbergasted that match is not in Volume 2 either. Screw it, here is a link to it, now make haste and check out the greatest women’s match in NXT history!

The collection winds down with two Kevin Owens TakeOver matches, where he wins the title from Zayn in a bout with a brutal finish and defending it against Finn Balor at the unique WWE Network-exclusive Beast in the East event in Japan. The final match features the finals of the first Dusty Rhodes tag team tournament which features a lot of solid old-school tag team wrestling fundamentals that were not that common in the tag team scene in recent decades until The Revival brought it back a couple years ago.

Most of Volume 1’s five BluRay exclusive matches are worth watching. It starts off with CM Punk teaming up with Seth Rollins to take on Cesaro and Kassius Ohno it what will likely be the only time we see the Kings of Wrestling team up on WWE television. We have a reminder that current RAW & SmackDown announcer Corey Graves was once a wrestler on here with his grudge match against former partner Neville. Charlotte and Sasha have a highly competitive match on here from when Charlotte cashed in her rematch clause for the Women’s title. Finally, Apollo Crews and Tyler Breeze have a surprisingly good match on here from a TakeOver special I have long forgotten about. There were a lot of intense sequences in here the duo pulled off flawlessly and this match is easily better than anything we have seen from both Breeze and Crews on the main roster.

Wrestling fans that are use to sticking to the main roster programming have been missing out big time if they have not been keeping up with NXT. NXT Greatest Matches Volume 1 is the perfect way to catch up to see how far their favorites have come. I got a lot out of this too from the eight matches that I did not see from before NXT was on the WWE Network, with the addition of a couple of bonus dark matches that were never before televised. My only main gripe is the lack of a fully featured documentary, but the interspersed interview clips are a sufficient compromise. I did pick up the follow up NXT home video WWE released last year, so be on the lookout for an entry for that too later this year!

Past Wrestling Blogs

Best of WCW Clash of Champions
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3
Biggest Knuckleheads
Bobby The Brain Heenan
Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes
DDP: Positively Living
Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials
ECW Unreleased: Vol 1
ECW Unreleased: Vol 2
ECW Unreleased: Vol 3
For All Mankind
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story
The Kliq Rules
Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story
Memphis Heat
OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History
OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History
Owen: Hart of Gold
RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Sting: Into the Light
Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology
Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder
TNA Lockdown 2005-Present
Top 50 Superstars of All Time
Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season
True Giants
Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns
Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe
War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches
Warrior Week on WWE Network
Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition
Wrestlemania 28-Present
The Wrestler (2008)
Wrestling Road Diaries Too
Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money
Wrestlings Greatest Factions
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017