So, I’m trying to watch some more wrestling stuff, and I’ve gotten a few wrestling DVDs in, which I’ll be reviewing over the next couple weeks. First up is more of a documentary focused DVD, based around various managers in the WWE’s history… as if you couldn’t tell in the title.
The Premise: Hosted by Todd Grisham, we take a walk back memory lane and discuss some of the greatest managers in the WWE’s history, and what made them great, as heels, or as faces. We have interviews with the managers in question, as well as with various WWE Superstars talking about those particular managers, and what makes a good manager in general. The individual mangers who get profiled include Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, Captain Lou Albano, Paul Bearer, Jim Cornette, Paul Heyman, Sunny, “Classy” Freddie Blassie, “The Sensational” Sherrie Martel, and “The Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart, The Grand Wizard Of Wrestling, and The Lovely Miss Elizabeth, as well as a general profile of female managers/valets in wrestling (with particular mention given to Debra, Chyna, Trish Stratus and Rena Mero).
The Good: I’d seen some of these guys before – most of these guys before, but I’d never gotten an opportunity to hear these guys cut actual promos, with the sole exceptions of Paul Bearer and Bobby Heenan. The tone is generally respectful, even for managers who didn’t work for the WWE often, if at all. I’m particularly impressed to see the Grand Wizard of Wrestling and, considering who he’s managed in the past, I’m surprised I’d never seen much of him before. They are a little not disrespectful of Tammy Lynn Sytch (Sunny), but they do give the impression in their coverage that she had self destructed in the past. I did so some research and apparently she was fired from the WWE for drug problems combined with no-showing appearance, but otherwise it’s okay.
The Bad: For a DVD about managers, it really needs more promos. I don’t care much about matches for something like this, unless it’s something really major (like the Midnight Express/Road Warriors Scaffold match). However, for a DVD about the managers, you really need promos for all the managers. In particular, there aren’t any Grand Wizard of Wrestling promos, which I was most disappointed over, as from what I saw really impressed me.
The Ugly: This DVD drop-kicks Jim Cornette under the bus. Seriously. Their entire segment on Jim Cornette was spent bad-mouthing his gimmick, bad-mouthing him as a person, bad-mouthing his promos and generally being insulting and disrespectful to the man.
The Verdict: It’s a decent DVD, with some a good list of names for future research into these managers if you weren’t familiar with them before. For that matter, if you’re getting into a Wrestling RPG campaign and you’re going to role-play a manager, this basically has some pretty good advice on how to play a manager. Otherwise though, I wouldn’t recommend buying this.
