Superstar Billy Graham DVD

[JimmyHendricks 0]

Not sure if this belongs here or in the Old School folder, but we talked about Bret's DVD here, so what the hell.

 

I picked this one up yesterday, as I try and get all the wrestler specific releases. The main feature is the real (and perhaps only) reason to pick this up. It runs about 90 minutes. The first third is a little heavy on the Jesus stuff, but it's not too bad. It's obvious Hogan modeled himself after him, and he (Hogan) even says so. HHH says "With no disrespect to Hulk, but he's just a cheap Superstar ripoff--I think even he would admit that"

 

They cover his WWWF title win over Bruno, his title loss to Backlund, and his "martial arts" phase, which everyone said was a mistake. They cover his in ring comeback, but he blows out his hip in his first match back and retires.

 

The lawsuit is pretty heavily discussed, and Graham puts over Vince and Co. huge, saying he was addicted to drugs and desperate for money at the time.

 

The liver transplant is obviously covered, with his crying wife and pictures of the diseased liver after it was taken out. Ugh. It is a miracle he can still function.

 

They show his return backstage in 2003, and his first face to face meeting with Vince since the lawsuit. Hugs all around. They show his HOF induction in 2004 and HHH talks about how it was an honor to induct him.

 

Vince gets the last line, something about how it was a priviledge to watch Superstar wrestle. He actually got quite emotional, but blinked and shut his eyes so the tears wouldn't start flowing. Interesting to watch him almost lose it since he always conveys such an ego.

 

The extras are

 

a couple of matches from AWA All Star Wrestling (with it's cool overhead camera). Both are awful and last about 2 minutes each. Superstar arm wrestles one guy then defeats him after a simply bodyslam. Yeah.

 

His WWWF Title win over Bruno, with Vince on commentary.

 

A title defense against Ivan Putski in MSG from 1977.

 

A Texas Death Match vs. Dusty Rhodes

 

A rematch against Backlund from 1982, when he was in his "martial arts" phase. Man, he had no body left and he couldn't even cut a promo right. "I will become the world championship tonight".

 

7 promos, including that one from Wrestling Challenge in the mid 80's where he had spiders crawling all over him.

 

Easter Eggs: Go to the chapter selection and press left on "Growing Up" and right on "Meeting Valerie" (I believe) to get two 30 second interview snippets.

 

All in all, it was an interesting doc, since I didn't know too much about him. It's actually quite uplifting, and you feel good at the end, unlike the Jake Roberts disc. The extras are pretty much worthless, except for the Rhodes match and the promos, but it's interesting to see how the whole "Hogan" type character got started

 

Oh, and "20 years too soon" is a reference to how he was 20 years ahead of his time, and that the people weren't ready for him yet. They say he was the first heel that was so entertaining that he started getting cheered. It would have been nice to hear from the Rock on that part, but oh well.

 

J.R. and Christian are both interviewed for the doc, so it must have been completed some time ago. And of course the Brooklyn Brawler is there to talk about how great Superstar was.

 

It's 19.99 at Best Buy.

[spman 0]

I saw this yesterday at FYE for 16.99 but I passed. I'm more interested in reading his book.

[Downhome 0]

It's $15.64 at my local WalMart, so I'm off to buy the DVD right now.

[Guest Hass of Pain]

The DVD is pretty good but it could have been way, way better. His new book on the other hand is phenominal and up there with the best wrestler bios ever written.

 

I hope the next time a Triple H DVD comes out someone like John Cena is like "With no disrespect to Hunter -He's just a cheap Harley and Flair ripoff".

[Guest droptoehold]

I bought it, and pretty much saw it as the Vince Mcmahon PR DVD.

Vince is a great guy he forgave the supa-sta. The last quarter of

the dvd is pretty much sucking up to Vince for letting him back in

the family. Yeah it was big of Vince to do that, and that lawsuit could

of ruined him. We got the point.

 

Im glad i bought it. I did enjoy it for the most part.

[Masked Man of Mystery 0]

What amazes me is they honestly deal with his steroid usage. I thought I'd never hear steroids brought up on a WWE production(unless they were mentioned in the Warrior one, and that should hardly count). I really liked the DVD, although I'd kind of wished they had asked him how he chose his ring attire or something. Haven't gotten into the extras yet, though. I really liked the documentary, though

[razazteca 0]

The DVD is pretty good but it could have been way, way better. His new book on the other hand is phenominal and up there with the best wrestler bios ever written.

 

I hope the next time a Triple H DVD comes out someone like John Cena is like "With no disrespect to Hunter -He's just a cheap Harley & Flair mark and Shane Douglas ripoff".

[Guest Duke_The_Dog]

Just watched it, Made me come away with more of a "boy this guy was the 1st roid freak, and a Another drug wack job" vibe than "Boy he was 20 years ahead of his time"

 

I enjoyed the promos, wish we had more (He tied himself to a cross in the desert for a promo, but that may have been Florida, which was the "Satanic" angle he implied he wasn't fond of.)

 

The matches were tedious to watch, minus the Dusty match. i would've liked his match vs Reed at MSG that was his final sell out in 1987

 

That 1st AWA jobber he faced was terrible at selling, even in the whole minute the match took.

 

Anyone catch that the ref of the 2nd AWA squash match was Doug Somers. (i assume this was Doug Somers of AWA fame - Buddy Rose partner)

 

Dusty Rhodes: "Supastar Graham wuz the first guy who looked like a Star was supposed to look" - That's great coming from Dusty who made millions partially off of his common physique.

 

I feel I should add i've been a fan for 21 years now and I remember SS Graham's last few years, so this opinion is not just some smarky BS complaints.

[Guest Arnold_OldSchool]

I like how Shillin Brawler Steve Lombardi put over Graham as a excellent color man, and then they go to Bruce pritchard, who then elegently puts down Graham's commentating skills

[Guest Wisdom]

Vince really did show a more "personal side" of himself, and even remarked that he hadn't realized how over as a hell his "mr. Mcmahon" character had gotten. It really did feel like he made every effort to help the guy.

 

I guess the documentary for me painted vince in a different light than I have alway perceived him. Most paint him as the promoter that spit on history and made his own stuff up. But after this video, I saw him as a guy that took care of some of the "old-timers" and held on to some of the "classic" ideas as long as he could. When he was talking to Superstar for the first time in xxx years at the WWE show in Arizona, the soundbite of hime saying that Grahm was 20 years before his time and how all the old promoters thought he was "supposed to just be a heel", made me think that it was one of the things Vince saw as a missed opportunity, that he said he would not miss again if the opportunity presented itself again.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

I'm guessing that 3 part series shown on Confidential is part of the feature?