Very Best of Wcw Monday Nitro

I just got my copy of WWE's "The Very Best of WCW Nitro" 3-disc DVD set and wanted to chime in with a review
of the actual product. First, there is some confusion out there because some of the reviewers here on Amazon
are listing this set as having these special features: Rey Mysterio vs Mr. J.L. and a segment called DDP Monday Nitro
Highlights. These two extras are only found on the FYE exclusive version, not the version Amazon, or any other retailer,
happens to be selling. The FYE version contains those extras along with a segment of DDP talking about being afraid
of heights the night Sting saved him from an nWo attack and they escaped via Sting's harness to the top of an arena.
These 3 extras are only found on the FYE exclusive version, which is limited! So with that out of the way, here's my review...

Being a longtime wrestling fan (I started watching in the 70s) I can tell you without hesitation that the mid to late 90s were
the best time ever to be a fan, thanks to the Monday Night Wars. As Eric Bischoff put it in a WWE Legend's Roundtable show
a few years ago, "every Monday Night was like the Super Bowl". It was an amazing time to be a fan because when WCW went
head-to-head with WWF Raw on Monday Night both promotions started pulling out all the stops to capture ratings and win
over viewers. You never knew from week-to-week who was going to jump from one promotion to the next, there was more
emphasis on actual wrestling, promos blurred the lines of fantasy and reality as stars called out wrestlers and promoters from various
promotions and you would get to see world class main events and dream matches on virtually a weekly basis. No doubt, the Monday
Night Wars burned white hot and this new 3-disc DVD set featuring the best of WCW Nitro shows highlights from the WCW side
of this now legendary era in professional wrestling.
Now, this set is titled "The Very Best of WCW Monday Nitro", however this isn't always the case. My only complaint with this long
overdue look at WCW Nitro is that they included some pretty terrible moments here, that quite frankly, have no business being
on anything called the "Very Best of...". The DVD goes in chronological order and tells the history of WCW Nitro by showing
matches and memorable moments. I wish they hadn't gone this route because in giving a history lesson on Nitro, WWE has
included some moments and matches that are terrible. Why not just put together a collection of matches and moments that
are truly the "Very Best" from the show? This set could've been used to celebrate Nitro, instead it's a history lesson that includes
horrendous moments that should've been left out to allow for more memorable matches and moments to be included. For example,
WWE included the tedious in-ring speech from Vince Russo, Jeff Jarrett and Eric Bischoff in April of 2000 where they took the titles away from all
the title holders and hit the reset button on WCW. It's a long, boring segment of mic work that, while it does have historical significance (just
listen to what Russo, Jarrett and Bischoff say, and you'll know why WWE wanted to include this), it has no business on a "Very Best of"
Nitro collection. Also, we have to see footage of Vince buying WCW and gloating over his victory of winning the Monday Night Wars. Vince,
we get it, you won! Why not let WCW and it's fans have their time to reflect back on Nitro without reminding everyone the WWE is the
dominate force in wrestling? Plus, there are a few matches I wouldn't have included here to represent the best of Nitro. Sting vs Ric Flair
from the final Nitro is important, again for historical significance, but it's simply a terrible match from these two. They wrestled better
matches on other editions of Nitro, why not include one of those? Sid vs Kevin Nash? Yeah, you get the idea...
With all this aside, this is a pretty good collection worth picking up. It'll bring back a ton of memories for fans like myself who tuned in
back in the 90s and will expose new fans to what the Monday Night War was like from the WCW side of things. Diamond Dallas Page
hosts the DVD and thankfully he's not WWE's corporate puppet in this one! DDP said in interviews leading up to this release that he
had WWE change the script that they wanted him to read because he felt it was loaded with BS. DDP doesn't introduce every match
or segment, but when he does talk, he gives an honest perspective on what was happening in WCW at the time. I can't tell you how
refreshing this is on a WWE produced WCW release!
So, overall this is a must buy for serious wrestling fans. You're going to get a collection containing, I would guess 70% of what I would
call the "Very Best" of Nitro, plus some poor historical filler, but the good out weighs the bad here. Sting vs Macho Man Randy Savage,
Rey Mysterio vs Dean Malenko, Brian Pillman vs Jushin "Thunder" Liger, Syxx vs Rey Mysterio, Bret Hart vs DDP, Hogan vs Goldberg, the
debuts of Scott Hall & Kevin Nash, Sting walking out on Nitro, Flair returning to the Four Horsemen, nWo taking over... these are all
great matches and classic moments! As I write this review, the DVD is listed in the top 40 of Amazon's overall sales chart. I'm hoping the
success of this release will convince WWE to release more Nitro and other WCW events (Clash of the Champions, Starrcade, Halloween Havoc, etc..)
because it's clear that fans still remember and respect WCW... even if WWE doesn't.

It started in September of 1995 and quickly took over the WWE as the king of monday nights in the wrestling world. From bringing in former WWE talent, to the influx of crusierweight wrestlers from all over the world to the New World Order, the highs just seemed to keep coming. Of course eventually there were cracks in the armor and from mid 1999 to the closing in March of 2001 what was once a suprise filled 3 hour show filled with great action and great angles was reduced to being stale, tired and boring.

This is a 3-disc set of great moments and matches from WCW's flaghsip show Monday Nitro, hosted by former 3 time WCW World Champion Diamond Dallas Page he doesn't just read from a script here as whenever he appears he gives his honest opnions on what was going on in WCW and the world of wrestling at various times during the sets.

Personally I loved the video package they played to begin the disc, brought back some great and not so great memories.

Disc 1-The Rise and Takeover

-9/4/95, Jushin "Thunder" Liger vs. "Flyin" Brian Pillman: From the Mall of America its the very first match ever on Nitro and despite a few botched moves its a very good contest, though their '92 contest was better. Brian rolls up Liger and pins him. 7/10.

-9/4/95, WCW Championship Match, Hulk Hogan (Champion) vs. Big Bubba: The first main event in Nitro's history and in typical Hogan fashion he sells for Bubba and hits his usual spots including the big boot and leg drop for the win. Average match, 5/10. The face/off between Lex Luger and Hogan afterwards was fun to see, except Luger sounded stupid as always when he cut a promo.

-1/8/96, Ric Flair & Arn Anderson vs. Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage: What a star studded main event tag match this is. Its quite good as there's a good face/off between Hogan and Flair and both Anderson and Savage get good spots in. Flair and Arn cut off the ring and wear Savage down before Hogan gets the tag. Hogan hits the leg drop on Arn and pins him. 8/10. The aftermath where The Giant chokeslams both Hogan and Savage is pretty good.

-2/5/96, WCW Tag Team Title Match, Sting & Lex Luger (Champions) vs. The Road Warriors: Hawk and Animal returned shortly before this match and didn't look like they had missed a step and the champs weren't far behind them. The match itself isn't bad, lots of power moves from all the guys. There was some underlying tension between Sting & Luger as Lex was using some dirty tactics that Sting didn't approve of. Lex hit Animal with a weight lifting plate and covered Animal to keep the tag titles. 7/10.

-4/29/96, Parking Lot Brawl, Belfast Bruiser vs. Lord Steven Regal: Pretty hard hitting match where these two hit each other off of cars with Bruiser even hitting Regal with a bumper and a couple of windows get shattered when Bruiser hits them. Regla hits a piledriver on the roof of the car and pins Bruiser to win the match. This was a very enjoyable contest. 8/10.

-5/20/96, Ric Flair vs. Eddie Guerrero: Quite a good contest here, good counter wrestling and Flair made Eddie look great, while Guerrero showed he could hang with a main eventer. Ric locked on the figure four and had to resort to using the ropes and Eddie ended up getting counted down for the three count. Great match, 9/10.

-5/27/96, Scott Hall's Nitro Debut: We see Hall come in through the crowd, get in the ring and cut a promo which planted the seeds for the upcoming NWO storyline. Good segment.

-6/10/96, Kevin Nash's Nitro Debut: Scott Hall comes down to the announce booth and while Bischoff's back is turned Nash appears and he cuts a promo saying they're prepared to go to war.

-6/24/96, Triple Threat Match For The WCW Tag Team Titles, Sting & Lex Luger (Champions) vs. Harlem Heat vs. The Steiner Brothers: Interesting match here, the pistons didn't seem to fire right away but once they did the teams worked well together. This one is more remembered for Hall & Nash coming to ringside and security comes down to protect the WCW wrestlers, but during the chaos Luger gets rolled up by Booker T for the 3 count and Harlem Heat are the new Tag Team champions. 6/10.

-7/8/96, The New World Order Takes Over: The night after Bash At The Beach where Hogan, Hall & Nash formed the NWO we hear from Hogan as he talks about how they will take over and destroy WCW.

-7/29/96, Backstage Chaos: Jimmy Hart runs to ringside and gets Sting, Savage and Luger to come to the back. We see Hall & Nash beating up wrestlers in the back including Rey Mysterio being thrown head first into a trailer. This actually felt pretty real even for a wrestling show.

-8/12/96, Scott Hall & Kevin Nash vs. Sting & Lex Luger: Starts off with Luger taking on both men, then Sting blind sides Nash & Hall and we have more of a brawl than anything else. 6/10. What this is remembered for is the beginning of referee Nick Patrick joining the NWO. The horsemen run down and run the Outsiders off.

-8/26/96, Taking Over: We see the final couple of minutes of Sting/Luger vs. McMichael/Benoit, (yes I said Benoit), the NWO comes down and Hogan brands McMichael, Sting and Benoit. The Horsemen come down but they get taken out. Good segment where the fans throw more stuff into the ring and at the NWO.

-9/9/96, The Turncoat Sting?: Luger gets called to the back by referee Nick Patrick and we hear from a limo Sting telling Ted DiBiase he needs to take Luger out. Sting appears out of the limo and he and the NWO beat up Luger in the rain.

-9/16/96, Vindication: The real Sting appears one night after the War Games match the night before where he was thought to have joined the NWO. He proved he was not a traitor that night and here in the ring he says those who doubted him can stick it. Great segment.

-11/18/96, Easy E's Reign Begins: Piper comes out, the crowd goes nuts and he confronts Bischoff. We get the usual ramblings from Roddy and this leads to the NWO coming down and it being revealed that Bischoff is part of the group. Very well done segment.

-12/30/96, Rey Mysterio vs. Dean Malenko: A very good rivalry in '96 that continues on the final Nitro of the year. Its short but very good moves by both men. We do seem some actual mat wrestling from Mysterio along with his high flying moves. Dean uses some wear down offense including working on Rey's knee. There was a 10 minute time limit that expired so that match is declared a draw. 7/10.

Extras

-8/29/96, Rey Mysterio vs. Mr. JL: Good match here, JL is Jerry Lynn (pre-ECW), its quite good given the short time its given. Rey ends up taking this one with a springboard hurricarana. 8/10. A good NWO moment where Hogan, Hall and Nash spray paint the production truck is also shown during the match.

-Diamond Dallas Page Monday Nitro Highlights: A montage of his best moments on Nitro, good extra here.

-6/9/97, Afraid of Heights: DDP is interviewed where he talks about how Sting saved him and took him up into the rafters. Pretty cool extra here.

Disc 2: The Peak and Plateau

-1/13/97, DDP vs. Mark Starr: This is a fairly quick squash that sees DDP hit the Diamond Cutter and cover Starr for the win. The aftermath is much better than the match as Hall and Nash come down to recruit DDP to the NWO, but while Nash's back is turned DDP hits Hall with the Diamond Cutter much to the crowds delight.

-3/3/97, Suspended: Eric Bischoff comes out and cuts a promo talking about how the NWO is the reason they are all here in this arena. Harvey Schiller the president of Turner Sports comes out and after a couple of minutes he suspends Bischoff, which as the crowd going nuts.

-3/17/97, From The Rafters: As the Steiners and Harlem Heat are having a match, the entire NWO comes down and destroys all four men. Luger and The Giant come down and clear the ring. Sting decends from the ceiling and the crowd goes nuts.

-4/21/97, WCW Cruiserweight Championship Match, Rey Mysterio vs. Syxx: Not a bad one here, Syxx had Nash at ringside and Rey seemed a little more agressive than usual. Rey almost has the title won, when Nash interferes and Jacknifes Rey, Syxx locks on the crossface chicken wing and the ref calls for the bell. 6/10. Post match sees a fan run into the ring and get kicked by Syxx and Rey is carted to the back and put in an ambulance.

-8/4/97, WCW Championship Match: Hulk Hogan (Champion) vs. Lex Luger: Its Hogan vs. the man the NWA and WCW believed could be the next Hogan, Lex Luger. Power for power here, Hogan wears down Luger in the early going with kicks, fists and clotheslines, in fact besides a small flurry by Luger, Hogan dominates the first part of this match, having him pinned down but not out a few times. Luger does kick out of the Hogan leg drop, then makes his comeback, taking out the interfering members of the NWO. He slaps on the Torture Rack and Hogan gives up. Winner and new WCW Champion, Lex Luger. 6/10.

-9/1/97, The NWO Parody: This was the infamous mockery of Arn Anderson's retirement speech, where the NWO well mainly Nash, Konnan, Syxx and Buff Bagwell mock the Four Horsemen. Its stupid in parts but I found parts of it funny. Being a fan of the Horsemen like I was it was a little much to watch the whole thing.

-9/29/97, Buff Bagwell vs. DDP: Pretty decent one here as Bagwell's ego come back to bite him as DDP makes his comeback, Vincent interferes and gets the Diamond Cutter and then one for Bagwell right after, DDP makes the cover and wins. 6/10.

-10/27/97, Hulk Hogan vs. DDP: Here we see the final few minutes with Hogan beating up on DDP, but no matter how hard he tries DDP just won't stay down. The NWO runs down and beats up on DDP, Sting makes his way through the crowd and beats up the NWO.

-2/2/98, Sting vs. Randy Savage: Pretty good but short match here, with two of the all time greats. Sting takes it to Savage early on before Randy turns it around beating on the Stinger. When Savage actually had Sting down after the elbow drop, Hogan stops the pinfall causing a DQ. 7/10. Luger comes down and runs off Savage, the NWO gets run off and Hogan follows to avoid facing Sting.

-3/30/98, 1,004 Holds: Chris Jericho cuts a promo where he talks about how he knows more moves than Dean Malenko. Its an entertaining segment with Chris in his heel stage. Funny stuff.

-7/6/98: WCW Championship Match, Hulk Hogan (Champion) vs. Goldberg: With 43,000 plus in the Georgia Dome on hand, this match saw the mega launch of Goldberg as he beat Hogan for the WCW World Title with the spear and jackhammer. Major, major league pop for the finish, though the re-dubbing of the music with Goldberg's WWE music was pretty annoying. 8/10.

-7/20/98, WCW Tag Team Championship Match, Kevin Nash & Sting (Champions) vs. Scott Hall & The Giant: Its not a bad tag team match, but this was more about Nash wanting to get his hands on his former best friend Hall. There's a good face/off between Nash and Giant. While Sting has Hall down, Bret Hart interferes, Hall hits the Outsider Edge on Sting from the top rope and he covers Sting to win the tag team titles. 7/10.

-8/3/98, Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio: Jericho was the Cruiserweight champion but this was a non-title match, but also a very good one too as these two have rarely had an off match. Rey was in revenge mode as Jericho had injured him several months back and just recently cost him a title shot at Hog Wild. With the referee down and Rey having Jericho pinned, Dean Malenko came down and counted Chris out, so Rey wins. 8/10.

-9/14/98, WCW Cruiserweight Championship Match, Juventud Guerrera (Champion) vs. Billy Kidman: This was right after Kidman and everyone else had walked away from Raven, thus disbanding The Flock. Its actually a very good match and shows why fans loved the cruiserweight wrestlers as both men just go all out. Kidman hits the Shooting Star Press to win the title, great match. 9/10.

-9/14/98, Ric Flair Returns to WCW: Great emotional segment that saw the return of Ric Flair. Nice promo by Arn Anderson and great promo by Flair. The tension between Flair and Bischoff felt so real mainly cause almost all of it was. There was a major, major, major pop for Flair when he came out to the ring. Best segment on the DVD in my opinion.

-10/26/98, United States Championship Match, Bret Hart (Champion) vs. DDP: The night after DDP almost won the world title from Goldberg, he has the chance to beat Hart for the U.S. title. Bret was a lot dirtier in his tactics as he uses the ropes during some submission holds and cheats to gain the advantage. DDP does make a comeback and when Bret misses with a loaded punch, he gets the Diamond Cutter and DDP covers to win the U.S. title. 8/10. Afterwards Bret uses a chair to destroy DDP's leg and he locks on the sharpshooter, Goldberg runs down and Bret leaves.

-12/28/98, Ric Flair vs. Eric Bischoff: For the control of WCW, we have a segment/match, Bischoff tries to leave but the Horsemen (Benoit again included) carry him to the ring and Flair beats up on Eric. The NWO and the Horsemen brawl around the ring, The Giant comes down and goes to chokeslam Flair, but Savage comes to the ring, hits a lowblow on Giant and leaves the ring. Ric slaps on the figure four and Bischoff gives up. 7/10.
Disc 3: The Fall and the End

-1/4/99, WCW Championship Match, Kevin Nash (Champion) vs. Hulk Hogan: Boy did WCW build this up during the show and during the entrances, it had such a big main event feel. Unfortunately this featured the finger poke of doom, where Hogan barely touched Nash who fell down and Hogan covered him to win the title. Such a waste, but honestly kind of a fun segment, so 7/10 as a segment. Goldberg runs into the arena to get revenge but he gets beaten down and thus began the downfall of WCW. It did get a great reaction from the crowd though.

-3/29/99, How To Stop The Spear: In Toronto, Canada, Bret Hart cuts a promo in the ring that has the crowd hanging on his every word. Its a very good, real emotional speech by the Hitman. Goldberg comes down and spears Hart, but he's knocked out, Bret stands up and takes off his jersey to reveal a metal plate. He then tells Bischoff he quits. What a great segment.

-4/26/99, WCW Championship Match, DDP (Champion) vs. Sting: This is the definition of a great title match, both guys really bring their A-games and there are plenty of close calls. Sting blocks a Diamond Cutter and hits the Scorpion Death Drop to win the title. 9/10.

-6/21/99, Eddie Guerrero vs. Juventud Guerrera: It was Eddie's first match on Nitro since his car accident months back and while not great it was quite good as Eddie was more agressive than normal while he showed very little ring rust and Juvi did get some high spots in as well. Its always great to see Eddie in the ring as his WCW stuff was very underrated by the company. Eddie wins after hitting the frog splash in a good comeback match. 8/10.

-8/9/99, Sting, Goldberg & Hulk Hogan vs. Kevin Nash, Sid Vicious & Rick Steiner: For the first time in over 3 years Hogan returned to the traditional colors of red and yellow, which had the crowd going nuts and thats what this match is most remembered for. Its not a bad six-man tag match, though I don't understand what Rick Steiner is doing with all these main eventers, nothing against him but he doesn't seem to belong here. Hogan, Goldberg and Sting hit their usual moves, Hogan hits Sid and Nash with a chair, Sting locks on the Scorpion Death Lock on Nash and the referee calls for the bell. 7/10.

--8/16/99, Billy Kidman vs. DDP: It starts as an interview where at one point Kidman mentions DDP's wife, which brings DDP down to the ring and he starts to beat on Kidman. This turns into a pretty good match as Kidman takes a beating but just won't quit. DDP even had Kidman down but pulls him up before the 3 count a couple of times. DDP goes for the Diamond Cutter but gets rolled up by Kidman for 3 in a bit of a shocking upset. 7/10. Great aftermath where DDP hits the Diamond Cutter on the referee and then on Kidman.

-12/20/99, Match For The Vacated WCW Championship, Bill Goldberg vs. Bret Hart: The previous night at Starrcade Bret had suffered a concussion that would lead to the end of his in ring career and while he did well that it was quite obvious that he was a bit off. Good match though that sees Hall and Nash come down and beat Goldberg with baseball bats, soon Bret joins in the beating, Piper comes down to protect Goldberg. Bret covers Goldberg to win the title. 7/10. Jeff Jarrett comes down and hits Piper with the guitar and we see the rebirth of the NWO.

-1/24/00, Match For The Vacated WCW Championship, Sid Vicious vs. "Commisioner" Kevin Nash: Power for power here and both men try and the crowd cheers for Sid but its not really that good of a match. Each guy does hit some impressive moves, though Nash wearing Sid down with a sleeper is a bit of a downer in the pacing of the match. Jeff Jarrett interferes but gets knocked out, Sid hits Nash with the guitar and pins him to win the world title. 5/10.

-4/10/00, The Bischoff & Russo Era Begins: Everyone on the roster was around the ring, Russo talked about change, Bischoff comes down and does excellent mic work especially when he rips Sting, Luger and Sid. Russo and Bischoff say they're rebooting the company, thus everyone is stripped of their titles. This started the New Blood/Veterans angle that ran for a while. Its a pretty good piece in the history of WCW, though it is quite a long segment.

-4/24/00, Steel Cage Match For The WCW Championship, Jeff Jarrett (Champion) vs. DDP: Not a great cage match honestly but not horrible, though there is some nice brawling on the outside before both men enter the cage. There's some good action and some interference by Mike Awesome but Kaynon stops him and DDP covers Jarrett for the win to become a 3-time champion. 6/10.

-7/18/00, Six Man Tag Team Ladder Match, 3 Count vs. The Jung Dragons: We open with former MMA fighter Tank Abbott introducing 3 Count who bring a ladder to the ring. Basically the idea is to climb the ladder and get 3 Count's gold record. Its not very long though there are a couple of brutal falls from the ladder, including Shannon Moore getting a huge suplex from Jamie Noble. Evan climbs the ladder gets launched out of the ring, and looks like he wrenches his ankle badly. Jamie climbs the ladder and grabs the gold record to win. 6/10, cause it was so short.

-8/7/00, WCW Championship Match, Booker T (Champion) vs. Lance Storm: Horrible commentary by Mike Awesome who had one of the worst gimmicks ever in wrestling history and that covers a lot of ground. This was during Lance's best run in WCW as he had three titles and was going for the big one, but standing in his way was Booker T. Its not a bad match at least Booker and Storm try hard. But its fairly basic as Booker fights out of the Canadian Maple Leaf and hits the Book End to make the cover and retain his title. 6/10.

-9/4/00, Triple Cage War Games Match for the WCW Championship, Sting vs. Scott Steiner vs. Kevin Nash vs. Jeff Jarrett vs. Booker T vs. Kronik vs. Goldberg vs. Vince Russo: Every 2 minutes a man comes into the match and honestly I don't know how to call this match. The idea is you have to climb up to the second cage, then the third one, grab the title belt then make it back into the first cage and out the door with the title in hand. Confusing? Somewhat, Sloppy? Yes, Badly booked? Absolutely. It is a tad fun for being a confusing mess, there's some good weapons used, the Harris Brothers also make an appearance on behalf of Vince Russo. Near the end, Goldberg is about to walk out with the title when Bret Hart comes through the crowd and kicks the door in Goldbergs face. Nash walks out with the title in hand along with his buddies, Jarrett, Steiner and Russo. 5/10.

-3/26/01, Vince Buys WCW: We get the promo from Vince McMahon on Raw where he announces he has bought WCW, which didn't need to be on here as we already know that he won the war.

-3/26/01, Sting vs. Ric Flair: Not their best encounter but it certainly was emotional given that this was the final Nitro ever. They did have some good back and forth action, though Flair was very blown up as he hadn't wrestled in months and he was wrestling with a shirt on which he never did. Sting nails a superplex and locks on the Scorpion Death Lock and Flair gives up. 6/10. When these two hugged and shook hands afterwards it was a very emotional moment.

Its certainly some of the best and some of the worst moments and matches from Monday Nitro's history and it was certainly a great time capsule. DDP was also a very refreshing host on this DVD. I think I can safely say this is a worthy purchase for anyone's wrestling library, I know I'm happy I bought it.

Discs One and Two of this set reminded me exactly why WCW was the number one brand in professional wrestling in 1997-98; Disc Three reminded me why the company crashed and burned like a led balloon only 3 years later. The Very Best of Monday Nitro could have been more aptly titled "The Essential Monday Nitro" or "The Rise and Fall of Monday Nitro," in line with some previous WWE releases regarding their late 90's competition, as it is really more of a chronology than a "best of" set. The set plays in chronological order, detailing most of the major mile-markers in the history of the program, and is pretty fairly balanced between matches and the non-wrestling segments that gave the 90's Monday shows their episodic feel. Watching this set really brought back the old feelings of excitement about wrestling. I actually felt more engaged by some of these 15 year-old segments than I do about the current WWE product (and of course the abysmal TNA show).

As far as the particulars go, I'll say this:

PROS -
* Pretty much all the biggest moments are here.
* Some of the really memorable moments are actually propped up by some of the less memorable ones, which helped to give the segments a little context that is lost on YouTube.
* The chronological ordering helps the set to feel like a highlight-reel version of the entire Nitro run.
* The set does a good job of resisting the urge to cater to the internet-only crowd and doesn't get buried in 23 different Psychosis vs. Cyclope matches. Those matches were great live, but much like MMA fights, I feel like once they're done, they're done. They really don't have much value 15 years later without any storyline or context.

CONS -
* There is no documentary.
* The diamond-plate sidebars clutter up the screen. I ended up stretching the image to fill the screen so I wouldn't have to see them.
* Once things got messy after Starrcade 1997, the highlights were sort of few and far between. Disc Three especially suffers from a lack of great moments. Still, it does a good job of chronicling the facts of the WCW world in 99-01.
* The WWE continues the annoying practice of replacing certain theme songs with generic music beds. The worst offense here is changing Hogan's theme from Voodoo Child to the main nWo theme for his match with Goldberg. I know why they do it...but it still sucks.

Again, the thing that will be most apparent to the viewer will be the reaons why WCW ended up going out of business. The fresh, fast paced, and exciting content of the first two discs gives way to a plodding, repetitive, jarbled mess on disc three. When seen back-to-back and quickly as presented on these discs, the causes of WCW's demise become crystal clear. All things considered though, I can say this was easily the most satisfying WCW release yet from WWE.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 36 reviews  3.9 out of 5 stars