DVD Review WWE The True Story of Wrestlemania

WWE The True Story of WrestleMania By Phil Allely


It may seem odd to some that as the WWE try to step away from the word ‘Wrestling’ this latest DVD box set looks at the very wrestling event that put the company where it is today WrestleMania. Let’s concentrate on the main feature first. The two hour documentary style piece on offer here gives a pretty decent overview of how the concept for Mania grew out of Vince McMahon Jnr’s idea of combining rock and wrestling. With that collaboration initially between 1980s pop icon Cindi Lauper and the Hulk Hogan led (then) WWF, the seeds were sown to use the media, TV stars, pop stars and celebrities to boost the WWF’s profile and get the grapple game out of sweaty gyms and into the media spotlight.

Longtime fans will already know the story of how McMahon gambled most of his money on the first WrestleMania. Fortunately for him his dream of a wrestling supershow of epic proportions took the world by storm and has now evolved into the must-see event of the year for many of us (even the odd flop main event or lack of star power can’t harm the buzz Mania season brings).

The main feature houses a host of talking heads giving their insights, thoughts and stories of their Mania experiences. There are some vintage quotes from The Hulkster amongst other veteran stars, these sitting nicely with current WWE superstars and even celebrities who participated in the events.

Told in a semi-chronological order (some pieces skip forward to illustrate the event returning to a venue etc.) this is an at times warts and all look at how Mania has grown to become the jewel in the WWE crown, attracted some huge star endorsements and broken attendance records along the way. Of course this being a WWE production there are some of the more unsavoury pieces of history erased, but overall that is minimal and the fact that McMahon himself admits some ideas worked better than others certainly makes for welcome viewing. Diehard fans will enjoy the little trivia snippets sprinkled across the disc, anyone who has ever wondered why Flair/Hogan at Mania never happened or how Sgt Slaughter was convinced to portray an Iraqi sympathiser will be in their element.

This may be a slightly sugar-coated look at the ‘Grand daddy of the all’ but this is perhaps the best potted history of WrestleMania that we will ever see. By skipping at a reasonable pace through the years and pausing briefly on only key storylines and matches, the overall target of celebrating the success of the company’s annual extravaganza is met perfectly.

Of course the subject of best match ever is touched upon and whilst we all debate what that is, this release does let you glimpse some matches that maybe get overlooked for the more obvious Undertaker/Michaels bouts, Michaels/Flair and even Hogan/Rock outings. Some of these are luckily featured on discs two and three, including the exciting Warrior/savage scrap from Mania VII, Mania 2000’s three way ladder brawl for the tag team gold and a thoroughly enjoyable Shane versus Vince McMahon Street Fight from Mania 17.

WWE The True Story of WrestleMania is released on May 23rd by Silver Vision. www.silvervision.co.uk

Available on triple disc Blu-Ray and DVD, both RRP £29.99