Best Wrestling DVDs
 

I am looking at making a collection of the best wrestling DVDs. Which ones do you recommend? I am searching for rarer titles and not the ones WWE comes out with (I have seen a lot of them). Highspots is a pretty good site for wrestling DVDs.

Sledger, Masterblaster, any one?

Depends what you are looking for really, I would recommend getting some of the classic PPVs rather than any of the "best of X" stuff, generally speaking. The best of the Ladder match DVD and the best of Mick Foley are good ones, but it does get a bit repetitive watching the same kind of match over and over again, though there are obviously some really awesome matches to be had on them.

See if you can get hold of something like Wrestlemania 17 or Wrestlemania XX, or any of the PPVs from around that time I suppose.

I am quite interested in getting the recently released best of Smackdown DVD, as that looks to have a load of great stuff on it. The best of RAW is another good one which I have, has a load of really interesting features and interviews as well as the matches.

Edit: just realised you didn't want WWE ones, try one of the ones about the stories of the monday night war perhaps...or something like that, I dunno really. I have a load of old ECW DVDs which are pretty awesome, but I don't imagine they are readily available much these days.

The best wrestling DVDs are generally from the WWE library as they include the NWA, WCW, ECW tapes etc.

The first one that springs to mind outside of this category is the documentary on WCCW and the Von Erichs. There was a WWE version released, look for the one that came out before that though. The title escapes me, I'll ask my mate whom I borrowed it from next time I speak to him, but it is brilliant.

The ones I have -

Superstars of the 80s
The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection (3 Disc Set)
The Dusty Rhodes Story
The Chris Benoit Story
Wrestling Gold
The Spectacular Legacy of AWA
The Triumph and Tragedy of WCCW
Heroes of World Class - The Story of the Von Erichs (I think these are the two WCCW ones you are referring to Martyn)

Then I have seen the Rise and Fall of ECW, also the other ECW documentary (not from WWE) on the fall of ECW, Parts of the Austin DVD set and some others.

Highspots offers a very good choice of alternate matches and shoot interviews which aren't accessible any where else. I will definitely buy the one on Benoit from Highspots as he is my favourite wrestler of all time. Some others I am thinking of buying from highspots -

Hayabusa: The Phoenix Never Dies Triple DVD-R Set - Highspots.com

Terry Funk - Around the World 6 DVD-R Set - Highspots.com

Vader in Japan Triple DVD-R Set - Highspots.com

The Many Faces of Muto 5 DVD-R Set - Highspots.com

Surviving The Dungeon - Stu Hart

I have very little knowledge of the best PPVs I should have sledger. Which ones do you recommend (don't mind a long list, the more the better, also would love some recommendations from other federations)?

The triumph and tragedy of WCCW was the one I was talking about.

PPV wise, a few older recommendations:

Wrestlemania 3
Survivor Series 88
Wrestlemania 8
Summerslam 92
Wrestlemania X

sledger will fill you in on the newer stuff so I thought I'd cover off some more vintage type stuff

Best PPVs off the top of my head, would be WM17, WMXX and WMXI to name a few. It may be worth getting hold of one of the big Summerslam anthology packs as well if you can find them cheaply enough. I'll have a think and see if I can remember any other events that really stood out.

It's hard to look past WWE DVDs because they are usually the best produced and they have all the rights to just about every wrestling company past and present. That being said, you can't go past The Rise and Fall of ECW. That would probably be the best WWE produced documentary DVD there is.

In terms of Superstar compilations, Shawn Michaels, Eddie Guerrero, Edge, The Rock all have pretty fantastic DVDs with some great matches on there. The Ladder Match DVD, Hell in a Cell and History of the Intercontinental Championship have some pretty good matches on there too.

For non WWE DVDs you can't really go past some of the shoot interviews. The best one would have to be the Ric Flair shoot interview. If you want to watch one of the greatest of all time talk about absolutely everything about the wrestling business and his career, you have to get the Ric Flair shoot interview.

The other non WWE ones I'd recommend are the Guest Booker DVDs starring Jim Cornette. Anything with Jim Cornette is both entertaining and fascinating. He's got one of the best minds in professional wrestling and if you want to learn more about the booking and backstage working of a professional wrestling company then I'd recommend those DVDs.

Thanks. Which ones would those be?

Guest Booker... Jim Cornette Double DVD - Highspots.com

I think this is what you would be looking for.

Yeah cheers. Just found that.

I am in two minds regarding buying the Ric Flair Shoot interview. I might postpone it tell next year when my brother comes from the US rather than this year.

If you can get hold of ECW Anarchy Rulz 99 or 2000 from anywhere then I would also seriously recommend it, but I imagine they would be quite hard to find.

I have movies to watch for 1.5 years. After that, I plan to see sports documentaries, Wrestling DVDs and Seinfeld (6 months each)

The 26 wrestling DVDs I have chosen tetatively (this will change of course as we get new DVDs in stock) are -

Superstars of the 80s
Superstars of the 90s
The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection (3 Disc Set)
Ric Flair DVD 2
Ric Flair Shoot Interview
The Dusty Rhodes Story
The Chris Benoit Story
Chris Benoit 2 (Pegasus Kid in Japan)
The Spectacular Legacy of AWA
The Triumph and Tragedy of WCCW
Heroes of World Class - The Story of the Von Erichs
Hayabusa: The Phoenix Never Dies Triple DVD-R Set - Highspots.com
Terry Funk - Around the World 6 DVD-R Set - Highspots.com
Vader in Japan Triple DVD-R Set - Highspots.com
The Many Faces of Muto 5 DVD-R Set - Highspots.com
Surviving The Dungeon - Stu Hart
Guest Booker... Jim Cornette Double DVD - Highspots.com
Hulk Hogan
Shawn Michaels
Triple H
Rock
Stone Cold
The Rise and Fall f WCW
Eddie Guerrero
Eddit Guerrero 2
History of the WWE Championship

I have already watched the 2 documentaries on the rise and fall of ECW (the WWE one and the independent one)

I wouldn't bother with the Triple H DVD, wait until he retires IMO, and the Hogan DVD, well if you've seen one Hogan match you've seen them all

Think I'll buy a wrestling DVD on Wednesday when I get paid, thinking of this one:

Shawn Michaels: Heartbreak and Triumph DVD (3 Discs) : Silver Vision

Anyone got it?

Pitt has it, from what he told me it sounds pretty decent.

RE: Pratters. Don't bother with the History of the WWE Championship DVD, from what I've heard it leaves out a hell of a lot of stuff and some of the matches only come as highlights packages. Apparently the history of the Intercontinental Championship is a lot better, so I'd go for that one instead.