In wrestling like other sports or any ongoing series like comics or a tv series you want to hook them young. Younger minds are more impressionable and drive merchandise sales. While a lot of DVD sets are geared towards adults who want to relive their past, recently WWE has been doing more to focus on promoting their current roster with DVD sets. The past few years we have had releases like the best PPV matches of the past year, and the best Raw/Smackdown matches of the last year and some kid friendly releases like multiple Rey Mysterio sets.
Last year I wrote an article discussing some things I’d like to see WWE do with their DVDs. I thought it would be a good to do a series of single disc releases at around $10 each to help get wrestlers over with the audience, especially kids. I would feature the lower and mid-card wrestlers that you think have potential, and occasionally feature a superstar who have been around awhile that kind of disappeared in the background and is now making another run towards the top. Use his previous big matches to show why he should be seen as a threat. The big thing with these releases though is they should be for people who don’t already have a 3 dvd set or multiple releases.
WWE recently announced a new series that is going to do something similar to this. The Superstar Collection will be single disc releases geared towards kids and will also be a budget line, under $15 most will be on sale for around $9.99. WWE is releasing 2 a month and has announced the first 8 releases 2 each in July, August, September, and October. While I’d like to see this series focus on featuring fresh faces a lot of the people WWE has announced for the first batch in this series already have multi-disc sets. Let’s take a look at what WWE has planned.
July – John Cena & Zack Ryder
The first two volumes in this series show exactly what I was hoping to see and exactly what I didn’t want to see in this series. Zack Ryder has been with the company for a few years with a couple different gimmicks but has finally come into his own in the past year. Ryder still has a ton of untapped potential. Releasing this the same day as a Cena release is a double edged sword. WWE has paired Cena/Ryder on tv to get Ryder over with all the younger Cena fans, the problem is kids usually have a small amount of money or the parents will only spend so much. so if they have a choice between these two releases they will most likely pick up the Cena release. Cena on the other hand already has 3 DVD releases and I don’t think he really needs a boost from this series. The Ryder set will have 6 six matches and Cena’s will probably be around the same. They are being announced as containing mostly unreleased matches, so I expect this series to focus on matches from the past year or two.
August – Sheamus & Daniel Bryan
I like both of these choices, even though both of these guys have held the World Championship neither one of them have had a DVD set devoted to them yet and have had some good matches and this will show people what they are capable of in the future as both of these men will probably top contenders for many years to come. Both sets are scheduled to have 5 matches each as well as bonus features.
September – Kofi Kingston & Shawn Michaels
Shawn Michaels has a ton of DVD releases already and is retired so I don’t really see the need to have him in this series. This is showcasing his last run including his final match with Undertaker and DX’s final run which means these matches are already available elsewhere. Kingston on the other hand was set to have a single disc release over a year ago which never saw release in the United States except for a brief run on PPV, it was given away as a freebie with WWE magazine in the UK. It is not know if this release is the same as previously planned, but it will have 3 ladder matches.
October – Randy Orton & Rey Mysterio
Mysterio is another wrestler who already has multiple DVD releases, this set will include his Wrestlemania match with JBL, plus matches with Punk and Jericho. While Orton has a ton of stuff that hasn’t been released on DVD yet he did just have a set put out last October and the stuff on this set will probably be more recent matches and not the older stuff missing form the previous set.
So out of the first 8 DVDs announced in this series I agree with half of them Zack Ryder, Kofi Kingston, Sheamus, and Daniel Bryan. The other 4 already have tons of DVDs on the market and a lot of other wrestlers could be featured in their place. Now lets take a look at what I would of done with the first 6 months/12 releases. First a little note CM Punk would be featured on this list, but he has a DVD set coming out this fall.
July – Brock Lesnar & Zack Ryder
August – Sheamus & Alberto Del Rio
September – Daniel Bryan & Santino Marella
October – Wade Barrett & R- Truth
November – Dolph Ziggler & Kofi Kingston
December – Cody Rhodes & Sin Cara
The only name really out of place on my list here is Brock Lesnar and chances are WWE is working on a big 3 disc set for him, but if not now would be a great time to drop a quick single disc set of matches showing him slaughtering Undertaker, Edge, Hogan, Mysterio and The Rock during his original run to let the audience who was too you or wasn’t watching during Lesnar’s first run now how much of a monster he is beyond his UFC status.
Beyond that I tried to feature one face and heel each month and I believe all of the above could benefit from a DVD release to help solidify their status and show fans why they are ready for the next level. The only real questionable choice is Sin Cara as he has botched a lot and been injured, but with some good editing the matches will come across well and probably sell well in international markets. Feel free to discuss in the comments below who you would like to see WWE feature as a part of this Superstar Collection.
