By Fred Topel | Image property of respective holders
The Rise and Fall of WCW
Of all the WWE video releases, The Rise and Fall of the WCW intrigued me because I always saw it as the B grade wrestling franchise. For the few years I was into WWF, I only knew of WCW through the video games and crossover characters. Oh, and the free Pay Per Views my old cable company accidentally gave us.
The Rise and Fall of WCW on DVD
This documentary rekindled my passion for wrestling, and brought back an odd nostalgia through a time capsule I barely noticed the first time around. In the clips of matches you really appreciate the showmanship of the ‘80s performers. They had big reactions that told the story visually, not with all the mic’ed up talky drama of today. They flew around the ring selling the beating they were taking, and amazingly didn’t kill each other.
Seeing the green tinted 3rd generation videotape of the oldest stuff is a fun contrast to the well preserved archival material. In each era you can see it was so ‘80s, and then so ‘90s. It’s fascinating to see the highlights of the storylines, eventually going from daringly genre breaking to just batsh*t crazy. They had a rich history of characters and storylines that I just don’t see in today’s WWE.
When the documentary makes you interested in the old matches, there’s a healthy selection of full bouts on two extra discs. They really used what they had in the old days. It was just a ring and the performers so they made the most of their abilities. The energy is so contagious I want to get back into wrestling, but you just can’t go home again.
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