WWE Unreleased: Just What The Longtime Fan Ordered

Gold. Usually I wait until the last paragraph of a review to summarize, but I choose to do it right now instead with just that word. WWE Unreleased is a DVD treasure trove of matches and segments that wrestling fans have been asking for for years.

It's well-documented that the WWE vault is massive and contains footage from the classic yet common to the ultra-rare and unseen. It's the latter that is contained in WWE Unreleased. Mainly consisting of dark matches from television tapings with a house show match or two thrown in, truly everything on here is never-before-seen to my knowledge. It's stuff that we've heard of, yet always had to visualize in our heads.

The set is hosted by Charly Caruso and, one of my all-time favorites, Sean Mooney. The interstitial segments display that Mooney still very much gets the company and its humor, as it's jokingly implied that the former WWF announcer actually lives in the film archive below the "Event Center." There are a few nods to Mooney's frequent broadcast partner, the late Lord Alfred Hayes, and be sure to stick around after the WWE Home Video logo pops up at the end. There's also a great gag in the last hour or so of the set that is sure to make frequent WWE DVD watchers smile.

The set is labeled "1986-1995," which in a way doesn't please me. I know that there is loads more unseen footage from that era that didn't make the cut. Missy's Manor? Jimmy Garvin's 1992 tryout? The last encounter between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant (a tag match pitting Hogan and Big Boss Man against the Colossal Connection at a 1990 tv taping)? Pay-per-view dark matches? Griping aside, what we do get is honestly unheard of.

If you're a fan of Andre, The Ultimate Warrior, or Randy Savage, this is the set for you. All three seem to show up very frequently early on. There is also a big dose of The Hulkster, with The Undertaker and Bret Hart generously peppered in as well. The real gems here, for me, are the tryout matches. We see the Warrior, Owen Hart, Crush, Earthquake, Tatanka, The Smoking Gunns, and Taz all in some of their initial appearances. We also get the never aired 1992 return of Piper's Pit featuring the Brooklyn Brawler and an absolutely shocking line for the time from "Hot Rod" regarding what the company was facing in the real world.

We are reminded that Mike McGuirk, in addition to being an extremely sweet individual, was criminally underrated as a ring announcer. We see some obvious "run thru" matches to prepare for the "real deal" down the line. We also see the infamous (thanks to WWE.com) Toxic Turtles match which clearly was never intended to go beyond the venue in which it was held.

Picture quality changes from match to match, as obviously some of the master footage has deteriorated. There are some odd frame rate issues in a couple of matches, and some wavy sound problems in others. Nonetheless, we aren't seeing this stuff any other way. I'll take it any day. As far as music changes, I only noticed two: the horrible Rick Rude music edit that crept up earlier this year, and a change for the Smoking Gunns tryout entrance theme. Speaking of tryout entrances, be sure to check out those for both "Earthquake Evans" and "War Eagle."

A few of the matches are seen only from the hard camera view, and it should be pointed out that there is no commentary here at all. Some would probably argue that commentary could have been added, but I would be against it. These are dark and house show matches. View them as originally intended with the natural audio of the event as your soundtrack. Nothing more is needed.

Buy this thing. Why? One reason is because it's one of the most interesting and unique WWE DVD releases of all-time. Another reason is that if sales are great, we may see more content like this down the line. While matches from after the time frame covered in this set wouldn't interest me quite as much, we have no idea what WWE has stored away. In the meantime, let's enjoy what has been unleashed with "Unreleased."

Wrestling Treasures On DVD & Blu-Ray...Just Not Enough!

DVD and Blu-Ray were two of the best gifts ever to come to wrestling fans.  Instant access to matches in the best possible quality.  Full length documentaries about your favorite stars.  Collections of matches from many of the all-time greats.  The question is, have these releases lived up to expectation?  After all, the kingpin of these releases owns virtually every piece of classic wrestling footage known to be available.

Most fans have been very pleased with the offerings of the past ten years.  Well-produced profiles on many of the industry's greats have earned loads of praise from even the most jaded of fans.  Although the occasional cry of "revisionist history" is heard regarding these releases, the productions have done well for the most part.  Much of the discussion has surrounded the choices of matches released in these new formats.

Thanks to these releases, the days of watching some of the best remembered matches in history on multi-generation VHS copies is long over.  To see these matches in the best quality possible is a real treat, one especially deserving of the only sport that thrives upon repeat viewing.  The problem begins for the fans who want a bit more than the famous main events and stars of the past.  This fanbase wants full releases of television episodes from any of the various promotions that WWE owns the film library of.  They also want previously unreleased footage and full unedited events from any era in the history of the game.

The truth is that WWE is a business and only wants to release what will sell.  The fanbase that wants these rarer matches isn't as big as the market that will eat up release after release of John Cena, CM Punk, and The Rock.  A certain price point must also be considered.  If the company were to release "season" sets of various wrestling programs of the past, retail prices would be astronomical and simply not be profitable to WWE.

To WWE's credit, more and more of the "rarer" matches are beginning to see the light.  The upcoming "Bret Hart: The Dungeon Collection" set will include a plethora of lesser known bouts from The Hitman's career including matches from Stampede Wrestling.  And although the matches themselves are hardly rare, WWE will once again dive into a fan favorite topic from the past, the legendary War Games.  Slated to be hosted by Dusty Rhodes, the War Games set has been long demanded by fans.  Seeing as that the War Games matches have been conspicuously omitted from past sets where they would've fit in, the announcement of this release comes as a small, but otherwise welcome, surprise.

War Games and some rarer Hart stuff?  Great.  But there are ways that WWE can make some money and appease the fans who want some really rare stuff all at the same time.  In the past several years Warner Bros. has taken a look at their properties and began The Warner Archive Collection.  These releases are movies and television properties that are actually produced upon purchase.  While they're just as nice and attractive as a release purchased in a brick-and-mortar store, these are properties that Warner feels would not produce numbers big enough to warrant a full blown release.  Warner makes a profit.  Fans get the films that they want.  Everybody wins.  With the known record of the WWE marketing machine, I'm shocked that they haven't at least tried out this route.  Video on-demand does not count.

Personally, I would love to see things that have never been released anywhere.  Period.  Absolutely never before seen aside from the people who were there.  My number one release in this category?  A simple title.  One that Craig DeGeorge introduced to the WWF fans of the 1980's on a Coliseum Video:

"The Dark Match." 

If you're reading this blog, you should know what a dark match is.  If you don't, it's very simple.  A dark match is a match held before a show that is going to be taped and/or televised.  In some cases they're used to try out new talent and gimmicks.  Otherwise they can be used to test the television equipment or simply warm up the crowd.  Other times dark match "main events" are used to give the live audience a big match before ending the night.  To me, dark matches have always been one of the most appealing parts of attending a live taping.

Keeping with WWE's tremendous archiving habits going years back, it's safe to assume that many dark matches still exist.  I would begin with the "missing" dark matches of WrestleMania.  Aside from a few photos, nothing has been seen of 'Mania dark matches featuring Paul Roma vs The Brooklyn Brawler (VI), Koko B. Ware vs The Brooklyn Brawler (VII), The Bushwhackers vs The Beverly Brothers (VIII), El Matador vs Papa Shango (IX), and The Heavenly Bodies vs The Bushwhackers (X).  Mat classics?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Regardless of that, any true fan of the classic era of WrestleMania should be chomping at the bit to see these matches.  Dark matches from other pay-per-views of the era would also be welcome, as would the three SummerSlam '92 matches that were only seen in America on Prime Time Wrestling.

No room for a release like that?  No problem.  It's time for another WrestleMania Anthology.  Now that "WWF" is allowed to be uttered in classic footage according to the never-ending "F" controversy, it's time for a re-release.  The DVD WrestleMania releases also omitted many themes that WWE seemed to think that they didn't have the rights to at the time but now have no issue releasing.  Why not throw these dark matches on as extras?

WWE Home Video is doing a great job and is one facet of the company that truly seems to try and appeal to every type of fan.  They wouldn't have won The 2011 J\/\/ Award for Best Product Line if they weren't!  All that I'm asking for is...let us see the...dark!