Monday Night Wars DVD

[JustJoe2k5 0]

I bought the DVD last Friday at Best Buy and watched the whole feature as soon as I got home. I really like most of it, I'm glad Eric Bischoff hasn't been humbled by working with Vince McMahon, because he was definitely full of himself when they were talking about the tactics he used. The only thing that really got to me was the selection of matches and the lack of more extras, and Gerald Brisco's verbal blowjob to Vince at the end of the main feature. I hope they release a Best of DVD for WCW and the Cruiserweights after seeing what amazing quality WCW has kept all of their footage in. One quick question, in the feature they showed clips of a Mysterio vs. Juvi match where Mysterio was wearing lime green tights, can anyone give me a date of when that match took place because it looked pretty good from the clips they showed.

[ChrisMWaters 0]

Just a thing that irks me...

 

Why couldn't they have shown Scott Hall puking on Bischoff the same night as "Ric Flair Returns To WCW" on the DVD?

[Scroby 0]

Anyone find any easter eggs on it yet or is it easter eggless?

[Art Sandusky 0]

I can't remember, was this what they did instead of the Rise and Fall of WCW release or is that still yet to come out?

[ChrisMWaters 0]

I can't remember, was this what they did instead of the Rise and Fall of WCW release or is that still yet to come out?

I believe so, yes.

[Boxer 0]

After re-watching this DVD, there's something that bugs me here. So the WWF is all worried that Bret could take the WWF title to WCW and crap on it, so Montreal happened. Before Montreal there was Alundra Blyaze throwing the women's title in the garbage. Granted this is a DVD about the period of the Monday Night Wars, but I wish, I WISH, they included footage of Flair bringing the NWA/WCW world title to WWF TV. Although they didn't throw it in the garbage, they did kinda bury it by having Piper spit on the belt on an interview segment in late 91 or early 92. I just find horrible irony there on the WWE's part, and basically, they started this whole thing with bringing rival belts on to TV. Basically the WWE did what they feared WCW would do to them? I call that pot, kettle, black.

 

Anyone agree?

[ANKLELOCK 0]

Wasn't it Flair who owned the belt, not WCW, and brought it to the WWF?

[CBright7831 0]

I wonder if Benoit is still on this DVD ala I know they've been pulling footage of him now, and I know he's inteviewed a few times through out the documentary and plus he's there when Flair goes on his tirade against Bischoff.

[Vanhalen 0]

Well, he hasnt vanished off my copy

[Mike wanna be 0]

The WWF blurred out the belt, and eventually swapped it with a different title anyway; WCW wasn't so...courteous.

 

And speaking of eerie, try watching the Rise & Fall of ECW; Benoit tribute DVD shill, then a Guerrero DVD shill, open with the Public Enemy, then about 20 minutes later Benoit & Guerrero reminisce on their time in ECW. A bit later on you hit Mike Awesome...

[Enigma 0]

After re-watching this DVD, there's something that bugs me here. So the WWF is all worried that Bret could take the WWF title to WCW and crap on it, so Montreal happened. Before Montreal there was Alundra Blyaze throwing the women's title in the garbage. Granted this is a DVD about the period of the Monday Night Wars, but I wish, I WISH, they included footage of Flair bringing the NWA/WCW world title to WWF TV. Although they didn't throw it in the garbage, they did kinda bury it by having Piper spit on the belt on an interview segment in late 91 or early 92. I just find horrible irony there on the WWE's part, and basically, they started this whole thing with bringing rival belts on to TV. Basically the WWE did what they feared WCW would do to them? I call that pot, kettle, black.

 

Anyone agree?

The only reason Flair could do any of that is because the guy running WCW at the time, Jim Herd, refused to return his $25,000 deposit on the belt.

 

So, it was really WCW's fault all that happened.

 

It's not like Flair refused to give the belt back or just shockingly appeared on WWF TV a week after he'd been on WCW TV, like the case of Madusa and the feared case of Bret Hart.

 

Flair was fired from WCW in July 1991 and the belt didn't start showing up on WWF TV until a month later. WCW had a full month to give Flair his money back, and didn't. I do believe the belt first appeared at SummerSlam 1991 with Bobby Heenan holding it backstage. WCW did get a court-order for the WWF to stop showing the belt, which explains why it had to be censored. Flair started running around with a WWF Tag Title belt instead shortly after, but since it was covered heavily by mosaics, it didn't much matter. Flair finally got his $25,000 back in July 1992 and the belt was immediately returned to WCW.

 

Flair was going to the WWF regardless and it just so happened he had ownership of the belt. The situation just fell into Vince's hands. And honestly, in that situation, Vince would have been stupid not to parade the rival company's belt on TV when it was their own stubbornness that let it happen.

[The Buzz 0]

The one thing that pissed me off about this dvd, was the lack of some key players during the whole Monday Night Wars. It just seems they don't have a hard time getting the AWA guys to talk, they almost had the Ultimate Warrior signed on to work on his dvd when the WWE decided to stop returning calls, they've brought Bret Hart out to talk on a dvd, why not grab Sting, Goldberg, and a few others for the Monday Night War?

[edgehead69 0]

Agree... Where was Austin, Rock, and HHH? (If HHH was ther i sure as hell dont remember

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

This question has never been answered. Did Bischoff want/tell Bret to show up with Nitro with the belt?

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

This question has never been answered. Did Bischoff want/tell Bret to show up with Nitro with the belt?

I'm sure he would have wanted that to happen, and it's the excuse Vince gave to the locker room the next night when defending his actions, but it could never have happened. Bret was still under contract to the WWF until November 30th, and showing up on Nitro would have breached that contract and opened up Bret, Eric and WCW to legal action from Vince that they would have lost.

[zappafrank 0]

After re-watching this DVD, there's something that bugs me here. So the WWF is all worried that Bret could take the WWF title to WCW and crap on it, so Montreal happened. Before Montreal there was Alundra Blyaze throwing the women's title in the garbage. Granted this is a DVD about the period of the Monday Night Wars, but I wish, I WISH, they included footage of Flair bringing the NWA/WCW world title to WWF TV. Although they didn't throw it in the garbage, they did kinda bury it by having Piper spit on the belt on an interview segment in late 91 or early 92. I just find horrible irony there on the WWE's part, and basically, they started this whole thing with bringing rival belts on to TV. Basically the WWE did what they feared WCW would do to them? I call that pot, kettle, black.

 

Anyone agree?

 

While I don't doubt that the Alundra Blaze incident was on Vince's mind, I think it might have had more to do with the fact that for whatever reason, Bischoff legally was allowed to announce Bret's signing the night after SurSer, and Vince was afraid that Bischoff would go on national TV and announce that he had signed his competition's world champion.

 

Don't forget that Nitro opened up with the nWo signing the Canadian national anthem (whether they would have done that regardless of whether Montreal had happened, or rather did it in response to it is a matter of conjecture, but nevertheless the obviously made reference to Bret being an acquisition).

 

EDIT: I just saw the post above mine, and I could have sworn that in Meltzer's big report on the situation, there was something about the timelines being such that after SurSer, Bischoff was free to use Bret however he wanted, or at least start promoting him.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

the belt on Nitro was always an excuse by Vince to try and placate the boys in the back. there was never any real chance of that happening. WWF could have easily dropped it off of Bret later on, WWF would have had him under contract to do so. there might have been a concern about Bischoff announcing it (supposedly bisch had promised Bret at that point not to do so until he was gone, but who knows), but there was never any chance of Bret showing up on nitro with the belt.

[luke-o 0]

IIRC, didn't Bret agree to loose the belt, just as long as it wasn't in Canada?

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Yep. IIRC, the plan he, Vince, and Shawn agreed to was that SurSer would end in a double-DQ after interference by both DX and the Hart Foundation, and then as soon as they were back in the States (either the next night or a week later) there'd be a rematch where Shawn would win the belt. Vince agreed, but obviously, at the show, he didn't...

[Boxer 0]

So does anyone really know why Goldberg, Rock, HHH, Austin, Nash, Hogan, etc..... weren't on the DVD? I mean man, why didn't they get the REAL PLAYERS of the Monday Night War?

[garfieldsnose 0]

it was Vince's fault, but Bret was an asshole for not wanting to drop the belt in Canada. Like he thought all of his fans would kill themselves, God forbid he drop the title on Canadian soil.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

it was Vince's fault, but Bret was an asshole for not wanting to drop the belt in Canada. Like he thought all of his fans would kill themselves, God forbid he drop the title on Canadian soil.

 

The Montreal Screwjob was a big slap in the face to Bret, but I never had much sympathy for him either. When you are on your way out of a territory, you do the job. I don't care if he offered to do it somewhere else, his employer asked him to do it in Montreal and it was right for business to do it then. That match was 18 months in the making... you don't do a DQ finish and then drop the belt at a house show or Raw. I don't care what the circumstances were.

[Jericholic82 0]

it was Vince's fault, but Bret was an asshole for not wanting to drop the belt in Canada. Like he thought all of his fans would kill themselves, God forbid he drop the title on Canadian soil.

 

The Montreal Screwjob was a big slap in the face to Bret, but I never had much sympathy for him either. When you are on your way out of a territory, you do the job. I don't care if he offered to do it somewhere else, his employer asked him to do it in Montreal and it was right for business to do it then. That match was 18 months in the making... you don't do a DQ finish and then drop the belt at a house show or Raw. I don't care what the circumstances were.

I agree 100 percent

 

However, there might be motive for Vince "screwing" bret, I mean he dumped him a year after going out of his way to stop bret from going to wcw, then suddenly he wanted him gone?

[Boxer 0]

So after re-watching this disc, which match do you think was better?

 

Match #1:

 

Owen/Bulldog vs. Austin/HBK

 

or

 

Match #2:

 

Austin/HHH vs. Jericho/Benoit

 

Both seem to have simliar vibes to their matchs with the faces actually winning the straps. I didn't think either team would win the matches let alone the titles. The formulas were the same and the crowd was HOT for both matches. Both were from Raw, but as time goes by, I'm gonna say the Austin/HBK vs. Owen/Bulldog was the better match. I just loved how they booked the match and back then, tag partners who hated each other hadn't been worn out yet like it is today.

 

 

[pappajacks 0]

it was Vince's fault, but Bret was an asshole for not wanting to drop the belt in Canada. Like he thought all of his fans would kill themselves, God forbid he drop the title on Canadian soil.

 

The Montreal Screwjob was a big slap in the face to Bret, but I never had much sympathy for him either. When you are on your way out of a territory, you do the job. I don't care if he offered to do it somewhere else, his employer asked him to do it in Montreal and it was right for business to do it then. That match was 18 months in the making... you don't do a DQ finish and then drop the belt at a house show or Raw. I don't care what the circumstances were.

 

Didn't Bret have a clause in his contract that he had creative control of the finishes of his matches 30 days prior to the expiration of his contract?

 

BTW, more people watch RAW than order PPVs, so losing the belt on RAW would have been viewed by a few additional million people.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

it was Vince's fault, but Bret was an asshole for not wanting to drop the belt in Canada. Like he thought all of his fans would kill themselves, God forbid he drop the title on Canadian soil.

 

The Montreal Screwjob was a big slap in the face to Bret, but I never had much sympathy for him either. When you are on your way out of a territory, you do the job. I don't care if he offered to do it somewhere else, his employer asked him to do it in Montreal and it was right for business to do it then. That match was 18 months in the making... you don't do a DQ finish and then drop the belt at a house show or Raw. I don't care what the circumstances were.

 

Didn't Bret have a clause in his contract that he had creative control of the finishes of his matches 30 days prior to the expiration of his contract?

Yes. Bret had the contractual right to turn down any match finishes during the last 30 days of his contract.

[pochorenella 0]

So after re-watching this disc, which match do you think was better?

 

Match #1:

 

Owen/Bulldog vs. Austin/HBK

 

or

 

Match #2:

 

Austin/HHH vs. Jericho/Benoit

 

Both seem to have simliar vibes to their matchs with the faces actually winning the straps. I didn't think either team would win the matches let alone the titles. The formulas were the same and the crowd was HOT for both matches. Both were from Raw, but as time goes by, I'm gonna say the Austin/HBK vs. Owen/Bulldog was the better match. I just loved how they booked the match and back then, tag partners who hated each other hadn't been worn out yet like it is today.

I agree with your choice, but not by much. Both are fantastic matches IMO and are pretty close in my book, but with HBK being on that match I have to give it the nod. I remember being amazed at how fast HBK was and how he showed no ring rust despite coming back from a "career threatening injury." Yeah, right. Still, I wish Austin/HHH vs. Y2J/Benoit would be available on dvd, but it seems unlikely now.

[Jericholic82 0]

the main program is available on 24/7 on demand right now

[Jericholic82 0]

oh crap no its not, it s a legends roundtable discussion, sorry about that

[JJMc 0]

So does anyone really know why Goldberg, Rock, HHH, Austin, Nash, Hogan, etc..... weren't on the DVD? I mean man, why didn't they get the REAL PLAYERS of the Monday Night War?

 

I believe Hogan had left by that point over his payoff for Wrestlemania, and Nash had also left/been released. Goldberg was on the outs with WWE. Rock was off doing movies. Not sure on HHH. I'm sure any of these guys could have been signed up to do it if WWE wanted, I'm just venturing a guess.