DaveyBoy's Wrestling Menu - Ultimate Warrior DVD REVIEW + WMania 22 Feedback
Submitted by DaveyBoy on Wednesday, April 12, 2006 at 4:43 AM EST






THE WRESTLING MENU #171

Welcome one and all to the 171st edition of The Wrestling Menu, the column that is sure to satisfy your taste buds when it comes to discussing all things wrestling.

I would love to say that my computer is back to 100%, but I can't. It's getting there though & if I hadn't have been so busy of late, it probably would be. But as we speak, it's heading in the right direction & I have at least got my email up & running. So, for those who have been waiting for a reply, it shouldn't be too far away at all.

As for this week's column, just some brief comments on the feedback I received for my WrestleMania 22 review & then a DVD Review.

On with the show.....


APPETIZERS

WrestleMania 22 Feedback

I won't get too specific here & will keep this as brief as possible, but the bottom line with regards to the feedback that I received concerning the quality of WrestleMania 22 was rather interesting. It seemed that while many didn't exactly agree with some of my individual match ratings, I had opinions that ranged from me over-rating some bouts & under-rating others. What this added up to was an almost unanimous agreement about the overall quality of the pay-per-view.

The opening tag-team title match was a good example of what I am talking about. I rated it a 6.5. As expected, no-one felt this match was super, nor did anyone think it was terrible. But I did have a range of match ratings that started at a 5 & went all the way through to 7.5. So while some people thought the bout was nothing more than "a passable Raw television bout", others felt it was "quite good & the perfect opener". I am happy to suggest that my rating found the perfect median.

Most people roughly agreed with my rating of 8.5 for the 'Money In The Bank' Ladder Match, even if they expected more from the bout. Many actually stated that they felt it was a fine line regarding this match & it was saved by Shelton Benjamin & a couple of other spots. I can't say I disagree with that too much, but at the end of the day, it was still very good.

No-one hated the Benoit vs JBL US Title match, although most felt that I over-rated it with an 8 out of 10. But there wasn't too much disagreement regarding the Edge vs Foley hardcore match, with many feeling that this was the match of the night! More total agreement followed with the shambles that was The Boogeyman vs Booker T & Sharmell.

Predictably, there was a fair range of opinions & ratings for the Women's Title match. But pleasingly, most really liked it & agree that it was a further step in the right direction for the division. Like I said last week, there is still improvement left in the James vs Stratus feud as far as I'm concerned. The same can't be said for The Undertaker vs Mark Henry feud, although some felt that just passing it was a little rough. I personally didn't think it was.

The next 2 matches was where I really found a huge range of opinions. Firstly, with Shawn Michaels vs Vince McMahon, I had comments ranging from "a boring, drawn-out & unoriginal match" to "match of the night". And I can honestly see why people could have taken it either way & hopefully my rating of 7.5 found some sort of median again. One thing that was pretty much agreed upon was HBK's effort & willingness to lift the quality of the bout no matter what.

Ahhh, the triple-threat title match... Have I cooled down about this bout? The answer is an emphatic "NO". In fact, if anything, I have gone the other way & the length, pacing & structure of this match is annoying me even more. As predicted, I had many agree with me, but I also had many looking past those things & stating that it was "fast-paced & entertaining". Those are 2 adjectives I totally agree with, but I felt were almost totally negated by the lack of any structure for the match. If the bout took some time to take a breath, then the amazing pace of it would have meant so much more. And is everyone forgetting that our current world champion & #2 contender both tapped out in such a huge match within 5 minutes!?!?!? Come on... that just shouldn't happen!

Like me, many were surprised that Torrie defeated Candice. Like me, no-one really stopped to dwell on the result. As for the main event; Well, this was always going to be the match that divided opinion the most. And it almost simply comes down to individual preferences regarding the importance of a crowd to the quality of a match. The live Chicago crowd played such a huge role that they were almost impossible to ignore. Ignore them & this match maybe rates a 7. Take them into account & it rates an 8. Again, I feel that 7.5 was the best median. Although, it must be mentioned that there was divided opinion regarding the actual bout itself. Some felt it was "ho-hum, over-long & unimaginative". While others felt it was "a cleverly booked & entertaining bout that left both men looking strong at the end of the match". Once more, fence-sitting DaveyBoy feels that somewhere in between is the truth!


ULTIMATE WARRIOR DVD REVIEW

NOTE: The full title of this 1 disc DVD set is “The Self-Destruction of The Ultimate Warrior”. There is a documentary portion like you usually find on WWE DVDs, as well as some extras (non-match & match).


ENTREE

Documentary Portion

NOTE: There are 29 chapters to the documentary portion of this DVD & it has a total running time of 95 minutes.

We begin this portion of the DVD with the likes of Lawler, JR, Vince, Okerlund & Heenan recounting Warrior’s (Jim Hellwig) early days in the UWF as a tag-team partner of Sting (The Blade-Runners), his move to Dallas’ WCCW & his rather swift ascension to the WWF as The Dingo Warrior. Some photos & clips are shown here. We then hear Vince & Bruce Pritchard talk about how his name changed to The Ultimate Warrior.

His rocking music entrance was then talked about (by the likes of Jericho, Edge & Christian), before briefly discussing early feuds against Hercules & Bobby Heenan. During this time, the likes of Ted Dibiase, JR & Heenan speak on how his wrestling skill was very limited & how he needed to be carried. This is followed up by an attempt at humor in discussing the ‘Parts Unknown’ origin.

We now move on to Warrior’s first big match against The Honky Tonk Man for the InterContinental Title. Warrior ended the longest IC Title reign ever at SummerSlam ’88 in just 30 seconds! And man, did the fans eat it up. The WWE realized it & decided to continue his push, as large crowds in a booming industry continued to jump on the Warrior bandwagon. We then hear some of Warrior’s intense but confusing monologues. Many current & former wrestlers knock his lack of sense here, and while that cannot be argued, I enjoyed reliving some of these hilarious & energetic promos. In a way, I believe they were actually successful in a very different way.

Probably Warrior’s first big feud is highlighted next, as he takes on ‘Ravishing’ Rick Rude. Rude is put over huge here by our cast of speakers, for being able to successfully carry & put over the Warrior. The IC Title changed hands at WrestleMania 5 due to interference from Rude’s manager; Bobby Heenan. Yet another huge feud was up next, as the Warrior would take on another of Heenan’s clients; Andre The Giant! This was seen as a big money-making feud, but it never lived up to it’s potential. Most who speak believe it was because Andre didn’t respect Jim Hellwig & put an end to the feud. Heenan tells a great story about Andre teaching Warrior a lesson here, while there is also a clip of Warrior impressively body-slamming Andre.

We now move to the 1990 Royal Rumble where Hulk Hogan indirectly eliminated Warrior (after earlier having a brief confrontation) & went on to win the battle royal. This was the obvious & well set-up feud which resulted in their amazing WrestleMania 6 ‘title vs title’ match. Clips of this classic & groundbreaking bout are shown, including the perfect last minute or so. For the most part, our cast of speakers talk positively about the match & feud, but there are still some naysayers.

We next look at a mini-feud with ‘The Million Dollar Man’ Ted Dibiase, which is more of a set-up to a WWE Championship feud with the ‘Macho Man/King’ Randy Savage. The all-important ending to the ‘Main Event’ match against Dibiase is shown for a minute or two, as are some of the lead-up promos from both Savage & Warrior. A short clip of the finale to their WrestleMania 7 ‘retirement’ match was then shown.

We then very briefly see some clips of Warrior’s feud with a heel Sgt Slaughter, where Warrior loses the WWF Championship. But the area where this DVD concentrates on is the SummerSlam tag-team main-event match between Hogan & Warrior against Slaughter, Colonel Mustafa & General Adnan. Vince tells the story here as he claims that Hellwig wouldn’t wrestle the bout unless he was to get X amount of dollars. Vince agreed (for the fans), but fired him immediately after the match. Hogan, Vince & Slaughter all speak here about how disappointing this was, as the WWE had spent the last 2-3 years building him up as their #1 (or #2) guy.

Footage is then shown of The Ultimate Warrior’s huge return at WrestleMania 8, when he came out to save Hogan from a beating by Sid Vicious & Papa Shango. Vince’s forgiving nature & “please the fans” mentality is put over huge at this stage. We then briefly hear some comments concerning the rumor that Hellwig was actually dead, before taking another brief look at his rather interesting feud with the witch-doctor; Papa Shango. The vomiting & the paint-melting promos are indeed shown!

We now hear some concluding comments regarding the Warrior & his WWF career, as it is explained by Vince that he left in 1992 due to violating the company’s drug policy. We then hear how Jim Hellwig legally changed his name to ‘Warrior’, before seeing an in-ring promo upon his return in early 1996. Clips of his short bout against Triple H at WrestleMania 12 are then shown (Warrior no-sells a Pedigree!). Triple H calls him “possibly the most unprofessional man he has ever worked with”!

We then move on to the ‘King Of The Ring’ 1996 feud against Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler. Some of the set-up of the feud is shown, but none of the actual bout. This leads into Vince & JR speaking about Hellwig no-showing many events & Vince eventually firing him… again! This resulted in Warrior suing the WWE for approximately $6 million with regards to the rights to his name. No mention is made of the result of the lawsuit, so I’m guessing Warrior won it.

We then move to WCW & their attempt to clone the Warrior with a wrestler named ‘The Renegade’. But then in 1998, WCW (Eric Bischoff) brought the real Warrior in. I remember the night well as the initial reaction was terrific, but then Warrior rambled on & on for minutes on end. You could genuinely sense that he had lost the plot. I was a little surprised at Hogan not liking the fact that Warrior brought up that he had never beaten him though. I actually felt that part of the promo went well, considering Hogan’s now dominance of the time. But the rest was admittedly gibberish. Clips of their very ordinary Halloween Havoc ’98 match is then shown & it’s good to hear Hogan take some of the blame for that disaster. Warrior then asked for too much money & his WCW career was over swiftly.

This documentary portion of the DVD concludes with our cast of speakers talking about The Ultimate Warrior’s legacy. And apparently, it was a very bad legacy, as no-one liked his selfish ego. But some do admit that he was very unique, exciting & one who well & truly left his mark on professional wrestling.


MAIN - Matches

vs TERRY GIBBS (WWF ‘Wrestling Challenge’. October-24, 1987): Gibbs was a veteran who was basically a jobber. This was a squash that lasted less than 2 minutes. It did provide a sneak peak at the Warrior’s strength & charisma though, while actually highlighting a little agility. A promo is also provided as a screen inset here. Passable squash. Match Rating...5

vs THE HONKY TONK MAN (WWF SummerSlam. August-29, 1988): This was a 30 second squash match where Warrior was the mystery opponent who won the InterContinental Title. Passable just for the crowd reaction before, during & after the win. Match Rating...5

vs HULK HOGAN (WWF WrestleMania 6. April-1, 1990): This was the classic ‘title vs title’ match which Warrior came out of holding both the WWE Championship & InterContinental Title. I will never forget this match as a little kid, as I had not seen anything like it before. And that includes the amazing ending which had me struggling for words. It's not technically brilliant & there are more restholds than wrestling holds, but there is a good mix that does tell a great story. The excellent face vs face dynamic for such a huge main-event match (at the biggest ppv of the year) was groundbreaking & this is as exciting as anything you could hope for. Almost perfectly booked to get the maximum reaction from the fans (both live & at home), the ending is as well booked as anything you would ever want to see. 23 minutes in length & the last 3 minutes were especially terrific. Match Rating...10

vs ‘RAVISHING’ RICK RUDE (WWF SummerSlam. August-17, 1990): This was a cage match for the Warrior’s WWF Championship, which he emerged victorious from. This match actually starts on top of the cage & Rude gets busted open very soon after. Actually Rude showed a little more than usual here & that includes a nice axe-handle type of move from the top of the cage. But when a 2nd attempt fails, the Warrior begins to control the bout. That is, until Heenan slams the door on his head, which predictably leads to 'The Brain' getting dragged into the cage for a quick a$$-whipping. Good, if unspectacular old-style cage match which probably should have been a lot better. Lasting only 10 minutes, nothing very special happened, but it had a nice experienced heel vs reckless face in a cage, type of dynamic. Match Rating...7.5

vs ‘THE MACHO KING’ RANDY SAVAGE (WWF WrestleMania 7. March-24, 1991): This was billed as a ‘Retirement Match’ & Savage took up commentary following the loss. Savage was about as strange as the Warrior, so no-one was surprised when these 2 clicked well. The feud was good & this bout specifically told a great story & got the fans very involved. The heel Savage (& Sensational Sherri) were terrific here, using every trick in the book & bringing a great intensity to the bout. His faster, high-flying offense also brings the best (& something different) out of Warrior. While the final sequence(s) are extremely prolonged, it is somehow successful. Warrior unrealistically kicks out of 5 top-rope elbow drops. Then Savage kicks out of Warrior’s usual finishing sequence, which prompts Warrior to think about leaving the match. But Savage foolishly brings him back, only to be hit with 3 leaping shoulder tackles for the anti-climactic pinfall at the 21 minute mark. Under-rated match which is often forgotten amongst the best in WrestleMania history. Match Rating...9


DESSERT - Non-Match Extras

Jerry Lawler: The King talks briefly about wrestling The Ultimate Warrior in the early days of his career.

Warrior University: Begins with an advertisement for something called Warrior University. Vince then speaks about how Warrior charged fees to people & how Warrior taught some strange creed & philosophies. Just under 2 minutes in length.

Christian: The former WWE superstar does a pretty good impression of a Warrior promo (without a script)!

Ted Dibiase: Dibiase tells the story of an autograph signing that included him, Sting & the Warrior. Apparently, Warrior demanded to appear alone.


COFFEE

Easter Eggs & Conclusion

EASTER EGGS

(1) Go to Page-2 of the ‘Extras’ menu, highlight ‘Warrior University’ & press ‘right’ twice for another strange advertisement for Warrior University.

(2)Go to Page-3 of the ‘Chapters’ menu, highlight ‘Name Change’ & press ‘left’ twice to see yet another strange advertisement for Warrior University.


CONCLUSION

All in all, this DVD on The Ultimate Warrior is interesting enough to be good. It’s 95 minute documentary is a decent enough look at the career of this former WWF Champion & doesn’t dig the boots in too hard to completely ruin it. I do feel that some of the rubbishing of Jim Hellwig is warranted, while at other times it’s completely biased & unnecessary. Overall though, it didn’t put me off.

The non-match extras may as well not be there & were simply comments correctly left off the documentary portion of the DVD. While the 5 matches chosen are the correct ones considering time restraints due to this (rightly) being just a 1 disc set. The bouts vs Hogan & Savage alone, pretty much make this DVD worth a look. They are indeed classics that will last the test of time. But it’s hard to say if they & a solid documentary are worth the purchase price alone.

So in conclusion, this is a solid & fascinating experiment of a DVD which I would only recommend purchasing to Warrior fans or at a discounted price. If you can rent it, it’s definitely more than worth a look though.


Ok, that's it for edition #171 of 'The Wrestling Menu'. I always presume that my DVD reviews may help someone decide on whether or not they will purchase it or not. Please don’t hesitate to ask me any questions about the Warrior DVD. I will endeavor to answer them as best I can. Also, let me know if you liked the review & ratings, whether you have seen the DVD or not. As always, I will reply to all feedback. My e-mail address is DaveyBoy123@bigpond.com

I should be right to access email from now on, but just in case, it may be better (if you are an LOPForums member), to leave feedback in my LOP Forums feedback thread. I should have easier access to this. You may do this by clicking on the following link: http://www.lopforums.com/showthread.php?t=4889

Once more, I am not promising anything column-wise for next Wednesday. Chances are that I will keep my weekly streak going, but I have no idea what with. If I struggle to get my computer back to 100% by the end of the weekend, it may have to be another DVD review. Whatever comes your way, look out for that column same Wednesday time & same LOP channel next week. Until then, this is DaveyBoy signing off & asking you to remember that dinner is best served in 3 courses.


DaveyBoy's Wrestling Menu. 2002-2006

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