When you wake up tomorrow, it'll be like any other day. You'll open your eyes, brush you little teeth, make a little breakfast, and then hopefully, you'll check in with your good friend here and MouthoftheSouthShore.com. If this isn't part of your morning routine.......well, it should be! On this morning, it is of even more importance.
As you venture out into the world, either to your job, to school, or wherever life takes you, remember this advice that I am about to lay upon you. It is advice that will change your life, for the better of course, so listen closely.
Ok ok, so it's not important at all in the grand scheme of things, but if you are someone who frequently purchases WWE DVDs, this piece might be worth reading.
Tomorrow marks the release of WWE's "The Very Best of Monday Night Nitro". It will always be controversial when the WWE puts out WCW merchandise due to what some consider "revisionist history", but I think it's interesting to see exactly how they want to portray their former competition.
In thise case, rumors circled last year that just like Raw, Nitro would receive DVD's chronicling 2 years of its history until reaching the end. Thus, there would have been 3 sets of Nitro DVD's. However, with the mediocre sales from "Best of Raw: Volume 1", the WWE decided to release one set to chronicle ALL of Nitro, hoping this would suffice for all the WCW fans still out there.
While I was never a big WCW guy, this was a must-see for me. Actually, that's probably why it was must-see for me, since I regrettaby didn't see most of these moments live. I knew the moments would be limited given there were only about 9 hours of DVD to play with, but I was excited to see what, from all the hours of Nitro, would be chosen to be highlighted on this DVD set.
The one thing I did like was that Diamond Dallas Page hosted. Though WCW is often fairly criticized for not creating their own stars, DDP is one guy that became a star and was with WCW for the entire duration of Nitro. There's not too many guys out there than can make that claim, so Page to me was the perfect choice. His commentary was honest and direct and in all honesty, he didn't bash WCW the way perhaps the "Rise and Fall of WCW" did, making this tribute a bit more fitting to many. I appreciate the footage and commentary on both, so I'm not going to make that sort of judgment.
Because of the amount of footage they had to pack into just 3 discs, there weren't any special features. The discs were packed to capacity with footage and commentary, and I think this was the best usage of space they could have. Granted there were certain matches that seemed out of place on the disc, but for those that enjoy solid matches, that might just be the best part for them.
The discs were broken down just the way the sets were to be broken down. The first disc had approximately two year, the second disc had two more, and the final disc had over 2 years as it went from the end of 1998 to WCW's closing in March of 2001. What's interesting is that each disc you can truly see the evolution of the brand. The first disc chronicled the evolution from stagnant "wrasslin" company to trend-setter with the birth of the nWo. Next came disc two which showed the overextension of the nWo into its split in 1998 and the birth of Goldberg. Disc 3 of course showed the demise of the once juggernaut and concluded with the last match ever on Nitro between Ric Flair and Sting.
It was quite a journey, but to be honest, even the "best" moments towards the end were pretty bad. It's easy to see why the company was failing at that time, as things were simply too chaotic to succeed. Still, that time period from 1996-1997 changed the business forever and there were certainly some memorable moments there.
Overall, I'd say this was an average-above average DVD set. It's nothing spectacular as its tough to contain 2 years to just 3 hours, but they tried their best and they didn't degrade WCW in the process. This was an attempt to pain Nitro in the best possible light and I believe it did that. Pick this up if you have a chance. It's not the best WWE DVD set you've ever seen, but it's definitely worth a watch.
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