WWE - DVD Review - The True Story of Wrestlemania - 3 Disc Set

This three DVD collection consists of a feature length documentary on disc one, with discs two and three compiling 11 classic matches. The bouts included on the second and third discs are quite predictable, but when grouping a “best of” Wrestlemania collection, certain choices are unavoidable.

Disc 1 

The documentary is actually very good, and while I didn’t really learn anything new, the film has been pieced together quite nicely making it an entertaining watch. It does unfortunately contain some reused footage from previous releases but this was at no determent to the finished product.

           

The film starts off by explaining how Vince eventually bought out territorial wrestling forcing most wrestlers to work with him at New York, subsequently leaving the remaining companies in financial peril. The film then flows quite fluently through Wrestlemania 1 – 26, concentrating mostly on the first 3. It seems like quite a lot of effort has been put into this documentary, unlike some other biographical superstar releases that seemed to have been rushed.

Here are some interesting facts I noted down that I thought might be interesting to read.

Wrestlemania 1, which was hosted in Madison Square Garden, was a make or break event. Due to the sheer amount of money spent preparing this wrestling extravaganza, Vince could have quite easily lost his company if Mania 1 proved unsuccessful. An idea known as closed circuit television, which is basically a primitive version of the PPV hosted in theatres, sold over a million tickets and helped recoup the financial gamble. Celebrity involvement played a huge promotional role in the event and forced wrestling purists to frown upon its lack of integrity.

“NWA was sports, WWF was entertainment”.

I thought Wrestlemania 1 was a bit shitty; I don’t want to see Mr.T trying to wrestle.

            Three different cities shared Wrestlemania 2 (the whore that she is), each one hosting an hours worth of live stadium wrestling and two hours worth of live televised wrestling. So you basically had to pay the full ticket price but you only actually saw one third of it happening in front of you. Clever Vince; he must have made a fortune on that one. New York had the first hour, Chicago had the second and Los Angeles hosted the third. Closed circuit television was still in effect at this point.

Still a bit of a shitty Mania in my opinion.

            Wrestlemania 3 used a combination of closed circuit television and PPV. This is where things started to change with the obvious factor being Macho Man Randy Savage and Ricky the Dragon Steamboat proving that you don’t have to be huge to steal the show. This match really changed the face of wrestling and encouraged a lot of the wrestlers we watch today to follow their dreams.

That match was immense, but there was a lot of shit too.

They sold 93173 tickets

            Wrestlemania 4 joined forces with Donald Trump and was hosted at the Trump Plaza in Las Vegas (trying to get the kids into gambling). This was the first Wrestlemania to be exclusively PPV. I bought this one when I was a kid on double VHS, it cost something like £24.99, bit of a waste of money really.

            Wrestlemania 5 revisited the Trump Plaza and is subsequently the first and only Mania to be hosted consecutively at the same ground. Curt Henning vs. the Blue Blazer, Macho Man vs. Hulk Hogan.

            Wrestlemania 6 was hosted at the Sky Dome in Toronto which meant Mania had gone international for the first time. I’m a stickler for the main event on this card because I remember it well. The Hulkster vs. Ultimate Warrior was a meat head sted fest really, but it brought a tear to my eye when the Real American lost the strap. 

            The documentary pays most attention to the first three Mania’s, but does cram as much information in as possible about the rest. I’d recommend this nostalgic DVD collection, I had a good time watching it and found myself yearning for some more of the spectacular, over the top, cocaine driven 1980’s wrestling that I used to watch as a child.

8/10

Disc 2

 Hulk Hogan & Mr. T vs. “Rowdy” Roddy Piper & Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff
WrestleMania, 31st March, 1985

WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
Randy 'Macho Man' Savage vs. Ricky 'the Dragon' Steamboat
WrestleMania III, 29th March, 1987

WWE Championship Match
Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant
WrestleMania III, 29th March, 1987

Retirement Match
The Ultimate Warrior vs. Randy 'Macho Man' Savage
WrestleMania VII, 24th March, 1991

Ladder Match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship
Razor Ramon vs. Shawn Michaels
WrestleMania X, 20th March, 1994

Disc 3

WWE Championship Match
Shawn Michaels vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin
WrestleMania XIV, 29th March, 1998

WWE Tag Team Championship – Triangle Ladder Match
The Hardy Boyz vs. The Dudley Boyz vs. Edge / Christian
WrestleMania 2000, 2nd April, 2000

Street Fight
Shane McMahon vs. Vince McMahon
WrestleMania X-Seven, 1st April, 2001

The Rock vs. Hollywood Hulk Hogan
WrestleMania X-8, 17th March, 2002

WWE Championship Match
Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar
WrestleMania XIX, 30th March, 2003

WWE Championship Match
John Cena vs. Triple H
WrestleMania 22, 2nd April, 2006

Matches: 7/10

They missed out a few too many classics for my liking