As you may know from my previous articles I enjoy reliving my favorite matches from years past as well as re-watching my favorite matches from recent history. Over the years I’ve bought many DVDs, even a few VHS, and now have started my blu ray wrestling collection. WWE has done pretty good job with their home video releases even if their documentary portions tend to re-write history on occasion. We are almost halfway through 2012 and so far this year we have seen The Best of Raw and Smackdown 2011, The Rock: The Epic Journey of Dwayne Johnson ( the 2nd Rock dvd set), The Story of Edge (his 2nd DVD set as well), and most recently Best of WCW Clash of the Champions (which seems to be this years installment of a some what annual WCW release.) In this article we’re going to take a look at what WWE has planned for the DVD/Blu Ray market in the next few months.
First before someone mentions that I left it out WWE has a new series of DVDs coming out soon called the Superstar Collection, I won’t be talking about them here because I will be devoting a whole article to them in the near future. Also UK distributor Silvervision usually announces the match listings for WWE releases months in advance, but recently there has been some issue between WWE and Silvervision and they have pulled all future WWE releases off their schedule so match listings for DVDs haven’t been announced as quick. Here is what we know so far.
Coming up in under two weeks is the latest ECW Release. It features matches from the original ECW non of the reunion shows, or SyFy TV show. This set will be hosted by Joey Styles. Here’s what you can expect
ECW: UNRELEASED Vol. 1 DVD
DISC 1
Welcome to the Land of Extreme
NWA World Championship Tournament Final
Shane Douglas vs. 2 Cold Scorpio
Hardcore TV – August 27, 1994
Tommy Dreamer vs. Raven
Hostile City Showdown – April 15, 1995
Mat Mastery
Dean Malenko & 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Eddie Guerrero & Tazmaniac
Heat Wave – July 15, 1995
ECW World Television Championship Match
Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko
Hardcore TV – July 28, 1995
The Hardcore Legend
Shane Douglas vs. Cactus Jack
CyberSlam – February 17th, 1996
ECW Unreleased Blu-ray 2012
DISC 2
Extreme Style
Tables and Ladders Match for the ECW World Tag Team Championship
Rob Van Dam & Sabu vs. The Eliminators
CyberSlam – February 22, 1997
A New National Audience
Sabu vs. Taz
ECW Barely Legal – April 13, 1997
ECW World Heavyweight Championship Match
Shane Douglas vs. Bam Bam Bigelow
November to Remember – November 30, 1997
ECW World Tag Team Championship Match
Sabu & Rob Van Dam vs. Hayabusa and Jensei Shinzaki
Heat Wave – August 2, 1998
Homegrown Talent
ECW World Television Championship Match
Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn
Hardcore TV – August 15, 1998
DISC 3
The Foundation of ECW
ECW World Heavyweight Championship Match
Shane Douglas vs. Taz
Guilty as Charged – January 10, 1999
Justin Credible & Lance Storm vs. Rob Van Dam & Jerry Lynn
Heat Wave – July 18, 1999
ECW World Heavyweight Championship Match
Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka
November to Remember – November 7, 1999
Breaking Allegiances
ECW World Heavyweight Championship Match
Tazz vs. Tommy Dreamer
ECW Cyber Slam – April 22, 2000
ECW World Heavyweight Championship Match
Tommy Dreamer vs. Justin Credible
ECW Cyber Slam – April 22, 2000
Rhyno vs. The Sandman
Heat Wave – July 16, 2000
Replenishing the roster
ECW World Television Championship Match
Rhyno vs. Spike Dudley
Massacre on 34th Street – December 3, 2000
Three-Way Dance
Yoshihiro Tajiri & Mikey Whipwreck vs. Kid Kash & Super Crazy vs. The FBI
Guilty as Charged – January 7, 2001
Closing the doors
BLU-RAY EXCLUSIVES
ECW World Heavyweight Championship Three-Way Dance
Terry Funk vs. Sabu vs. Shane Douglas
ECW The Night The Line Was Crossed – February 5, 1994
Tommy Dreamer vs. Jimmy Snuka
ECW The Night The Line Was Crossed – February 5, 1994
Towards the end of June on the 26th we will see Falls Count Anywhere: The Greatest Street Fights and other Out of Control Matches. This set will be hosted by Mick Foley and will include matches from WWE, NWA, WCW, and ECW. So far a partial list of matches for the set have been revealed.
Falls Count Anywhere: The Greatest Street Fights and other Out of Control Matches
Alley Fight
Sgt. Slaughter vs. Pat Patterson
Madison Square Garden · May 4, 1981
Chicago Street Fight
The Road Warriors vs. Booker T & Sting
WCW Uncensored · March 24, 1996
Falls Count Anywhere Match
Sting vs. Cactus Jack
WCW Beach Blast · June 20, 1992
Street Fight
Mr. McMahon vs Ric Flair
Royal Rumble · January 20, 2002
Fully Loaded Strap Match
The Rock vs. Triple H
Fully Loaded · July 25, 1999
Unsanctioned Street Fight
Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels
SummerSlam · August 25, 2002
Blu Ray extras
Boiler Room Brawl
Mankind vs. Santa Claus
Raw · December 20, 1999
Street Fight
Triple H vs. Sheamus
Extreme Rules · April 25, 2010
Falls Count Anywhere Match
Rey Mysterio vs. Cody Rhodes
Extreme Rules · May 1, 2011
Street Fight
Kane vs. Randy Orton
Smackdown · July 22, 2011
This is only a partial list so more matches will be announced for this set in the near future. The set is to feature over 2 dozen matches and according to WWE we will see matches from Sgt. Slaughter, Sting, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, the Road Warriors, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Bret “Hit Man” Hart, Triple H, The Rock, Kane, Big Show, Ric Flair, Randy Orton, John Cena, Shawn Michaels, and more. The cover features Stone Cold front and center with Mick Foley, HHH and Shawn Michaels in the background.
On July 3rd we get something all of us Hulkamaniacs have been waiting for when the 1989 film No Holds Barred featuring Hulk Hogan comes to DVD for the first digitally remastered. Unfortunately there is no plans for a blu ray release at this time. Also I really think they missed the boat here not including the WWF matches between Hogan and Zeus as a bonus.
Back to the matches on July 24th we get a look at one of the most famous undefeated streaks in wrestling when we get WWE Undertaker: The Streak. This will feature all 20 of Undertaker’s Wrestlemania matches as well as a documentary featuring current and former wrestlers discussing this feat. WWE has said this will be 4 dvds or 3 Blu Rays similar to last years Steve Austin release so there is plenty of room here for extras to show the build to these big matches. It has also been said that all of the Wrestlemania matches will be showing their entirety, not clipped like the previous Wal-Mart exclusive 15-0.
On August 21st we will get the latest edition to WWE’s top 50 series when they release The 50 Greatest Finishing Moves in WWE History. As always with any WWE made list expect controversy and at least one angry tweet from Kurt Angle. Shawn Michael’s sweet chin music is front and center on the cover, with HHH’s pedigree, Undertaker’s Tombstone, Rey Mysterio’s 619, and Austin’s stunner all featured so I’d expect them all to be in the top 10.
So far this is all the release that have official release dates, but WWE has confirmed a couple more future releases.
In October we get a 3 DVD/2 Blu Ray CM Punk set. I’m excited for this release for many reasons beyond the fact that I’ve enjoyed Punk since his early days in RoH, FIP, and IWA:MS. One of the main reasons being it has been said by many sources the CM Punk is very hands on with this project and supposedly has final say on what goes on the set. When the set was first announced there was rumors that WWE was contacting various Indy’s that Punk worked for. It was not said exactly what they hoped to gain from these meetings, but hopefully it means Punk’s Indy history will be included in the documentary portion as well as a few matches. WWE has mentioned Punk’s RoH past recently posting pictures to hype his feud with Daniel Bryan.
Other interesting parts for this set include Paul Heyman being interviewed as well as Good Ol’ J.R. Then there are what appear to be some extras being filmed. WWE recently filmed Punk at a concert headlined by Rancid whose lead singer is a huge wrestling fan. Then there is what could be a DVD set in it self but is a bonus I’m really looking forward to, Punk announced via twitter that he was filmed taking a tour of the WWE warehouse where they keep all the props, signage , memorabilia and pretty much everything ever used on a show ever. I mean Katie Vick’s violated corpse is probably gathering dust in one of the corners. I always wanted to get a look inside that place and hopefully one day it will become a regular show on WWE Network, but I guided tour by CM Punk sounds like a lot of fun.
The other releases for the rest of the year haven’t been officially announced yet but they have said we will see another volume in the Greatest Rivalries series. Originally it was intended to be Rock/Austin, but instead they both recently got solo releases. My vote would be for Undertaker/Mankind, but with Undertaker already having a set this year I doubt it. WWE has had plenty of huge rivalries over the years so it will be interesting to see what they pick next in this series.
WWE has also had other project in the works that have been put on the back burner for the time being that we could possibly see released later this year. HHH was scheduled to have his 3rd DVD set released a couple of weeks before Wrestlemania 28 and was even listed on some retail websites before being pulled off the schedule for the time being. We could see this release in August leading into the potential Brock/HHH match, or it could be held off for either a holiday release or until another unknown date.
A Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase set has been rumored for a couple of years now, but within the past year they filmed the documentary portion and did interviews with various people so we could see that pop up on the schedule soon.
WWE is currently working on a film about the life and career of the legendary Gorgeous George, this is planned to be an actual theatrical film, but documentary footage and interviews have been filmed as well so we could see these as well as a couple matches show up as bonuses, but don’t expect this until sometime in 2013.
Other projects that have been rumored to have been on the schedule in the past year or so that haven’t been officially announced yet include sets for Jerry Lawler and Greg “The Hammer” Valentine. I will talk more about these sets and other sets I’d like to see happen in 2012/2013 in a later article. Stay tuned for my next article about the previously mentioned upcoming Superstar collection which will be a series of single disc releases at a low price.
