B – Good
C – Mediocre
D – Avoid
Release Date: 4th March 2013
Available From: www.wwedvd.co.uk
Price:
DVD £ 19.99
Blu-ray £ 22.99
Format Reviewed: DVD (3 Discs)
(Also Available on Blu-ray (2 Discs)
What It’s About:
Collecting the very best pay per view matches from 2012, waving goodbye to the’ End of an Era’, experiencing the ‘Once in a Lifetime’ match that no one ever thought they’d see, weathering the ‘Perfect Strom’ and riding the rollercoaster of C.M Punk’s meteoric WWE Championship reign.
Strengths:
Beginning at the Royal Rumble, C.M Punk vs Dolph Ziggler for the WWE Championship lacks the main event spectacle and feel that most other matches on this release have, nonetheless though it is a very good match which showcases Dolph Ziggler’s readiness to perform at the very top of the card and also what a great Champion he will be. C.M Punk is as excellent as usual, selflessly helping to get Ziggler over and John Laurinaitis as the second special guest referee is wonderfully smug at times, adding to the sense that had this match been a year later and a different time in both wrestler’s careers, it would have really felt like a must see main event.
Wrestlemania 28 is represented twice on the release, first off with the epic Hell in a Cell, ‘End of an Era’ match between The Undertaker and Triple H, with Shawn Michaels serving as the special guest referee. The whole match is an exceptional piece of storytelling with all three men playing their parts to perfection. Triple H as the obsessive challenger exudes an inspirational never say die attitude continuously coming back at the ‘Dead Man’; The Undertaker as the proud defending warrior who will do whatever it takes to win and Shawn Michaels as the torn referee bring a delightfully emotional tone to the whole outing and one which leaves the viewer as exhausted as the three men in the ring, before the bell rings for the final time. What Triple H and the Undertaker put into the match is evident by the sore bodies and the sickening bruises which display themselves on the Undertaker’s back during the match. The Undertaker’s shaved head which gets a superb reaction from the audience, Jim Ross on commentary – even though it’s clear by Michael Cole’s snide looks he doesn’t want him there and the sight of the three men at the top of the aisle together in one final embrace, tops off a match which should be shown to every developmental wrestler as a lesson in how to sell and how to get the crowd sentimentally involved in a match. The Undertaker vs Triple H really is the end of an era. The last time the attitude era will be in the same ring, at the same time, on the same show. For that reason amongst many, this match is the highlight of the release.
The second Wrestlemania 28 offering comes from the match billed as ‘Once in a Lifetime’. The Rock vs John Cena may have been mostly a mess in the ring but does warrant it inclusion in this section for the sheer spectacle that it brought to the grandest stage of them all. The video package shown before the match is superb and even though the musicians that sing a number before each man enters the arena are distracting, they’re worth sitting through for the sheer animosity that the crowd in the Sun Life Centre throw at MGK when he says about John Cena “We’re here to see one of the biggest egos get beat by one of the biggest underdogs.” Someone really should have told him that 1) John Cena is never going to be the underdog again as everyone expects him to win every match he’s in – that’s how WWE have trained its modern audience and 2) Florida is the Rock’s hometown. What kind of reaction did MGK think he was going to get after that outburst? As stated the match is mostly a mess but it does have a few highlights. The crowd are heavily involved from the beginning and had the stadium had a roof then you can’t help but think the audience would have brought it down its chants of “Rocky” and “Let’s Go Cena; Cena Sucks”; the reaction when the bell rings is unlike anything heard before in a wrestling ring; the final moments are handled very well and there’s a thunderous reaction when the Rock pins Cena; John Cena shows more than one moment of his potential as a heel during the match, the pinnacle of this comes when he goes to deliver the People’s Elbow to the Rock. The possibilities are there for all to see; there are downsides as well, such as Cena taking several of the Rock’s moves wrong and hitting the Rock with a leg drop from the top rope which we now know snapped a ligament in the Rock’s leg. Michael Cole on commentary also provides the dumbest quote of the night when he says “I don’t even think there was a loser tonight!” yes there was Michael, it was Cena. However, none of these things can blunt what was an absolute display of grandeur. Yes the match was weak but the atmosphere, the opulence, the crowd, the competitors and the fact that the whole thing takes place at Wrestlemania makes sure the Rock vs John Cena will go down in history.
Cody Rhodes vs Christian for the WWE Intercontinental Championship at No Way Out is extremely well handled by both men. Any fears that WWE may have had that Rhodes isn’t on par with the best singles competitors in WWE should have been quelled here. The whole match does a hell of a lot for Cody Rhodes as a singles star and WWE should have had the guts to capitalise on it. The impressive ariel and technical bout is capped off by a perfectly timed finish, ensuring both men come out smelling of roses. Interestingly enough, Michael Cole on commentary exclaims that the reason Christian chosen to alter his heelish ways is because he wants to be remembered like Edge. This is despite the fact that Edge was a heel for most of his main event career and the people loved him even more for it. It’s obvious that Christian is more comfortable in the heel role and WWE should make the most of they can of it. Anyone in doubt only needs to go back to 2003 to see what a superior job ‘Captain Charisma’ did as a loathsome jerk and his fine work in 2002 when he tagged with Chris Jericho.
Yet another highlight is brought to us from Money in the Bank and thankfully whilst it is the No Disqualification Match for the WWE Championship, fought between C.M Punk and Daniel Bryan, sadly it is the only C.M Punk vs Daniel Bryan match on the release. More on that later. The whole contest is near perfect and you’ll find it hard to spot a move which doesn’t look good or is out of place. Both Daniel Bryan’s flying knee off of the apron onto a standing Punk and Punk’s boarder clothesline from barrier to barrier look terrific. Bryan’s ‘Yes / No’ lock applied with a Kendo stick which would seem awkwardly done anywhere else seems to a piece of executed perfection. A tremendous match with countless first rate counters is set off nicely by A.J Lee as the special referee and her ability to portray the mentally unbalanced with such exactness.
‘The Perfect Storm’ pitting Triple H vs Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam divided audiences when it took place. I read numerous letters and opinions of people who said it was boring and uneventful. That of course is there opinion. I would like however to know how many of them either know what to look for in a great wrestling match or took into account the stages and effort it takes to tell a flawless story. Either way, this match can be looked upon as nothing but a success on every level. No, there wasn’t a whole lot of actual wrestling contained in the thirty minutes; however that can be forgiven when you see how well both men tell the story that needed to be gotten across. Delectably, WWE gave Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler permission to mention Lesnar’s UFC career and achievements as UFC Champion. An approach that should be taken with every wrestler who comes to WWE from another promotion, be it wrestling or other; The lights being turned down for the in ring announcements that are only usually present in a Championship bout cast a darker and more intense feeling over the whole fight; The idiots at ringside who shouted “You can’t wrestle!” at Lesnar need to learnt heir wrestling history before they attend another event. It doesn’t ruin the match any but it really does annoy me when people attend events not knowing enough about wrestler’s history and then proceed to vocally share their limited knowledge with the whole world; Paul Heyman is as wonderful as ever as the scheming and despairing mouthpiece and coupled with consent from WWE to mention Lesnar’s history of stomach problems – one of which nearly ended his career and killed him – gave the whole match another level of realism; even though Brock Lesnar takes a leaf from ‘the John Cena handbook of selling’ and no sells the pedigree right at the death, instantly applying the Kimura Lock for the tap out victory, the match isn’t tarnished and builds itself to a pitch perfect conclusion; Triple H doesn’t instantly get the desired reaction from the audience having to listen to chants of “You tapped out!” but if you keep milking something long enough the you get what you want in the end and the crowd surrender the chants for those of “Triple H!” SummerSlam has set the stage for one final match between the two and it promises to be excellent.
Night of Champions gives us a sickeningly brilliant match between Randy Orton and Dolph Ziggler and is yet another strong argument as to why WWE needs to stop burying its future World Heavyweight Champion and start getting the WWE machine behind him. Even though the outcome of the match is the wrong decision and Dolph Ziggler should have defeated Orton to set him up for Survivor Series and his ultimate push towards Wrestlemania 29, that minor gripe can’t put a flaw in a well fought technical encounter which boasts several admirable moves and a killer RKO finish. If you have just purchased Night of Champions 2012 on DVD or Blu-ray, then this match is worth sitting through again and again.
The final match on the release is the rewarding Sheamus vs Big Show from Hell in a Cell for the World Heavyweight Championship. I still stand by the fact that this should have been a Hell in a Cell match, nevertheless, both men sparkle like they never have before. The winner here is the Big Show of course, who puts in a performance he’s been missing since he left WCW. Sheamus copes tremendously with Show’s size and the ‘White Noise’ on Big Show has to be seen to be believed. Every perfectly timed near fall helps advance the contest to its blistering finale and signals great things for Big Show going forward.
Weaknesses:
The World Heavyweight Championship Elimination Chamber Match from Elimination Chamber; fails to live up to previous Elimination Chamber matches and suffers because of it. The inclusion of both Big Show and the Great Khali is one big man too many. The Great Khali is as good as redundant here as he is in most of his matches. When he does exit his chamber he lasts mere minutes. Chants of “Boring” can be heard less than five minutes into the match and when you consider there’s still twenty five minutes to go before every man is released from their chamber let alone the time it takes to get to the conclusion of the encounter, you can see how desperate fans were to get the whole thing over with. Once again the commentary is less than favourable as Michael Cole comes out with such outlandish comments as “Santino is the sentimental favourite to win this match!” To be a sentimental favourite you need to have been around at least ten years and have an act that has touched the fans’ hearts. Santino has neither done or had either. It’s not all bad though as Cody Rhodes cements himself yet again as a solid, dependable worker even if he doesn’t get a fair crack at the spotlight and the exchanges between Santino and Daniel Bryan in the final few seconds are dynamite which the crowd lap up. For a few seconds you really do believe that Santino could be the next World Heavyweight Champion. Don’t get the wrong impression that this match should be avoided because it shouldn’t. It’s still a fairly decent match, it’s just that on this release it’s one of the weaker ones.
The WWE Divas Championship Match between Layla and Beth Phoenix from Over the Limit has its moments and maintains a few very good moves from both women. However thanks to its limited action mostly down to Layla who seems to cut a pathetic figure, most will find it a waste of time and considering the state of the Divas Division in 2012 and 2013, it’s unthinkable that WWE would even consider including a Divas match on a release such as this.
C.M Punk’s WWE Championship defence against John Cena at Night of Champions is held together entirely by C.M Punk and is a match, if already seen, really doesn’t need to be viewed again. If you haven’t seen it already then you will need to be warned that it takes a lot of dedication to sit through. Those seeking the very best, technical and ariel action will not find it with this addition. Patchy, inconsistent and necessitating Punk drops his game down a level to match Cena’s woeful style; WWE should have left this match off of its release in favour of replacing it with one of a host of others.
Scott Stanford provides the links between matches and whilst he handles it better than most hosts of past WWE releases (the memory of Matt striker and Maria hosting and providing links for the ‘Macho Madness’ DVD and Blu-ray is still horrifyingly fresh in our minds) for some reason he sounds like he’s either providing the voice over for a documentary or auditioning for a major motion picture. It’s not enough to ruin the links between matches but it does become distracting.
Blu-ray Exclusive Extras:
Elimination Chamber: February 19th 2012
Ambulance Match
John Cena vs Kane
Extreme Rules: April 29th 2012
2 out of 3 Falls Match
World Heavyweight Championship Match
Sheamus vs Daniel Bryan
Money in the Bank: July 15th 2012
Smackdown Money In the Bank Ladder Match
Christian vs Tensai vs Cody Rhodes vs Sin Cara vs Dolph Ziggler vs Santino Marella vs Damien Sandow vs Tyson Kidd
Hell in a Cell: October 28th 2012
Hell in a Cell Match
WWE Championship Match
C.M Punk vs Ryback
Backstage Pay-Per View Access
C.M Punk discusses his match at the Royal Rumble
Sheamus discusses his involvement at Elimination Chamber
Layla discusses her match at Extreme Rules
Christian discusses his match at Over the Limit
Paul Heyman discusses Brock Lesnar’s match at SummerSlam
The Miz discusses his match at SummerSlam
John Cena discusses his match at SummerSlam
C.M Punk his match at SummerSlam
Conclusion:
2012 was the year for sub names in wrestling. The Prefect Storm, Once in a Lifetime, the End of an Era all leant a credible edge to the best matches on this release. Incredibly, WWE have neglected some matches which did deserve an inclusion here and they’re suspicious by their absence seeing as there really aren’t enough pay per view encounters to satisfy ones craving once you get hooked into the set. Even after you’ve sat through the marathon matches you’ll be eager to see the likes of C.M Punk vs Daniel Bryan (Over the Limit), John Cena vs Brock Lesnar (Extreme Rules), Randy Orton vs Alberto Del Rio (Hell in a Cell), C.M Punk vs Chris Jericho (Extreme Rules), The Shield vs Ryback and Team Hell No (TLC) which are all inexplicably missing. The Blu-ray release includes only one match which should have been featured on the main body, the Money in the Bank Ladder Match ultimately won by Dolph Ziggler. Had they all been present either in the main section or at all, this would have been an unbeatable set of matches.
In truth though, this box set is rendered a little pointless should you own every pay per view event of 2012. Apart from the Blu-ray extras there’s nothing to tempt those who already own either every 2012 event or these particular matches on DVD or Blu-ray. The DVD release has no extras at all and I can’t imagine the Blu-ray exclusive extras will last very long by the looks of them. It’s strange that WWE decided to produce this DVD before they released Survivor Series 2012 and TLC 2012 as without the two events it can’t boast the title ‘Best of 2012’ and as a result is somewhat incomplete. Maybe it would have been more sensible to put back the release date and include at least one match from each pay per view event.
Glaring omissions aside and one or two questionable inclusions that have obviously been highlighted just to get said wrestler on the release, ‘The Best Pay-Per View Matches of 2012’ really is just that. An impressive array of the greatest matches 2012 produced and if you don’t own every pay per view event of last year, I highly recommend you get you hands on this.
Rating: A
Onwards and upwards...
