Csonka Reviews WWE’s Attitude Era Vol. Two DVD Set (Disc One)

In the spirit of full disclosure, the following DVD set was provided to 411 by WWE for review purposes.

Runtime (total set) is approximately 6 hours.

Synopsis: What does everybody want? Head to the nearest man cave, give your boss a Stone Cold salute and spend the next six hours watching The Attitude Era Vol.2, the hottest set to be released since Sable’s handprint bikini. If you are old enough to order a Steve-Weiser, “Hello ladies” was your pick up line in college and you loved WWE before “Federation” became the new “F” word, then here is what you need to do. Take this all new collection, shine it up real nice, flip it sideways and stick it straight up… your DVD player!!

DISC ONE REVIEW

* Michael Cole welcomes us to the DVD set. This will be matches and segments with talking heads, not a documentary like the first version according to Cole.

Bare Essentials: We’re looking at the ladies of the WWE here. Sunny discusses the era being very PG until she wore a thong-backed swimsuit on WWE TV. Things loosened up after that.

Miss Slammy Swimsuit Competition: Sunny vs. Sable vs. Marlena vs. The Funkettes – Slammy Awards • March 16, 1997: Todd Pettengill was the host of the Slammys. Ken Shamrock is very impressed with Sunny. Triple H arrives and says he withdrew Chyna from this competition. He buries Sunny for only having talent that you can’t show on TV and says his “friend” can vouch for that. Lawler makes a Crying Game joke in regards to Chyna. The Funkettes are impressive, I don’t remember them, but they had some… talent. Lawler is in vintage form with all of his sexual innuendo, at least he’s motivated. Ken Shamrock is really enjoying this competition, and especially Sable.

WWF Title Match: Owen Hart vs. Shawn Michaels – RAW • December 29, 1997: Chyna is with Shawn. Owen attacked pre-match as Shawn made his way to the ring. Triple H, on crutches, would later appear. They spent a lot of time on the floor brawling. I haven’t watched a lot of Owen in a long time; the last time was likely when I worked on my Best of In Your House Matches column. Yeah, he’s still really good. Triple H hit Owen with the crutch at about 8-minutes for the DQ so that Shawn could keep the title. This was fun, but not nearly their best outing. [**¾]

Bad Ass Dad: Billy Gunn discusses being recognized from his time on WWE TV. He doesn’t think of himself as a big star, but instead as a guy that got lucky doing what he loved. He tells a story of a guy talking shit to him while he was with his kids at the mall, which he didn’t appreciate. Sometimes you need timer with your family, and the guy understood, after he got jacked up against the wall.

New Age Outlaws vs. Cactus Jack & Chainsaw Charlie – RAW • January 26, 1998: The Outlaws are wearing catcher’s gear to protect themselves from the crazy bastards. They brawled early and then went into a more traditional tag match. They had a match; it was fine and was basically there to kill time until Chainsaw tossed in chairs, leading to OMG UNPROTECTED CHAIR SHOTS TO THE HEAD and chaos. DQ finish at about 6-minutes, Cactus Jack & Chainsaw Charlie took out the ref and Charlie hit a moonsault onto Road Dogg, who was under a pile of chairs. I love crazy Terry Funk, because that’s the only kind of Terry Funk. [**]

Intercontinental Championship Match: The Rock vs. Ken Shamrock – Royal Rumble • January 18, 1998: Rock mocks Michael Cole (some things never change) and discusses Bill Clinton using protection when he slept with Paula Jones. This was a solid match, one of the matches in a series of Rock screwing Shamrock. Shamrock fought off Kana and D’Lo, Rock used bras knux and hid them in Shamrock’s tights. Shamrock had scored the pin with the belly-to-belly suplex, but Rock then ratted him out and retained the title via DQ. [**½]

Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Mr. McMahon – RAW • April 13, 1998: Even back then Vince was discussing not being afraid of the Government or Ted Turner. This was supposed to be the big match between Vince and Austin, so we were to believe. They hyped the match the entire show and Vince used Austin’s words against him to agree to having one arm tied behind his back. But Dude Love would get involved and take out Austin with the mandible claw, leading to a huge ratings victory for the company. This was well built throughout the show, and came off as a tremendous angle at the time and was fun to go back and watch. [NR]

Leather & Chains: Sunny discusses getting the chance to manage LOD 2000. She loved the LOD, but then spoke more about her outfit, which was of… leather and chains. Fascinating.

Owen Hart & Legion of Doom w/Sunny vs. Triple H & New Age Outlaws w/Chyna and X-Pac – RAW • April 20, 1998: These six men face in title matches on the OOV later in this week, Owen vs. Triple H for the Euro Title and NAO and LOD for the Tag Titles. The main theme was Triple h doing his best to avoid Owen at all costs. Matches like this make me miss Jim Ross so much; he’s calling the action but weaving in the stories to build the PPV Sunday and the two feuds this match is containing. It’s simple, it’s easy and he does it so well. Billy Gunn bumping like a champ for everyone, he was never meant to be the big singles star they tried to make him, but at times he made lots of guys look awesome. Chyna tries to abduct Sunny after Road Dogg takes an awesome doomsday device, leading to X-Pac hitting Animal with the chair. Bully Gunn finished with the piledriver at about 9-minutes, adding heat to the asshole heels. We got good work, the match was fun and commentary was on point. [***]

D-Generation X Takes New York – RAW • June 8, 1998: DX hit New York to spread the word about Summerslam. They talk with Asian people, make Godzilla jokes, mock a Pakistani dude, get a chick to flash for them and do crotch chops with police officers. This would obviously never make TV today.

Falls Count Anywhere #1 Contenders Match for the WWF Championship – Mankind vs. “Kane” – RAW • July 6, 1998: Vince and Steve Austin are put for commentary. Undertaker was supposed to be the third man, but never came out for the match, so we got Mankind vs. “Kane”. I say “Kane” because this is the match where Undertaker took out Kane and dressed up like him for the match. They did a good job of keeping the lights down with the red from Kane’s entrance to mask this. Vince makes Chimmel announce that Undertaker is a chicken shit for not showing up, and makes it a no holds barred, falls count anywhere match. Mankind refuses to fight, so “Kane” its him with a chair as he sits by the steps. “Kane” crosses the arms and pins Mankind, and unmasks to the shock of the crowd, Vince and Austin. All angle here, but a fun one. [NR]

Letting the Dogs Out: Jerry Lawler discusses his popular catchphrase, “puppies”. He says the Road Dogg came up with it.

Bikini Contest: Sable vs. Jacqueline – Fully Loaded • July 26, 1998: This is the famous “handprint bikini” moment for Sable. Sable and Mero were feuding, and Mero has aligned himself with Miss Jacqueline. Miss Jacqueline was quite put together, and about popped out of her “bikini” if you want to call it that. Lawler’s reaction to Sable is priceless.

Val Venis & Taka Michinoku vs. KaiEnTai – RAW • August 3, 1998: This was when Val was sleeping with Mrs. Yamiguchi-San, the manager of KaiEnTai. Taka was the Light Heavyweight Champion at the time. KaiEnTai was Dick Togo and Funaki for this match. Mens Teioh and Yamiguchi-San were at ringside. Taka turns on Venis, and reveals that Mrs. Yamaguchi-San is his sister. They beat down Venis, dragged him backstage and were about to “choppy choppy his pee pee!” The lights went out, and we later revealed that John Wayne Bobbitt saved Venis. For the younger crowd, John Wayne Bobbitt became “famous” when his wife Lorena cut off his penis with a knife because she claimed he raped her. Bobbitt was acquitted of spousal rape. His penis was later surgically re-attached. Once again, not much of a match, more of an angle. This is the kind of shit that I am glad isn’t on WWE TV anymore. [NR]

WWF Championship Match: Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Ken Shamrock – RAW • September 14, 1998: I really dug Shamrock during his WWE run, I felt he worked well and they did a good job making his appear to be a complete bad ass at times. This was the timeframe when Vince was doing anything to get the title off of Austin. The next PPV was to see Austin defend against Kane and Taker, but Kane and Taker were not allowed to pin each other. Outside of Austin and Shamrock noticeably talking a lot during this, I felt that this was developing into a damn good wrestling match. Shamrock had his moments (dodgey selling aside), but Austin was a great ring general and put together a good piece of business here. He also gave Shamrock a lot here, which is what made it truly work. Taker and Kane hit the ring 11-minutes in for the non-finish. They were doing some really good stuff here until that. Rock and Mankind made the save, much to the dismay of Vince. [***½]

Boot Camp Match for Al Snow’s Contract: Al Snow vs. Sgt. Slaughter – RAW • September 21, 1998: Shane McMahon and Jim Cornette are on commentary here. Cornette spends the entire match making fun of Snow for being crazy; they also make a lot of jokes about Slaughter’s chin. They used a belt and some chairs; it was slow and not very interesting. Snow used Head to escape the cobra clutch, kicked Slaughter in the balls and then hit him with Head to score the win ay about 6-minutes. The Stooges attacked post match, but 2 Cold Scorpio made the save. [*]

Six-Man Elimination #1 Contenders Match for the European Championship: Edge vs. Gangrel vs. D’Lo Brown vs. Jeff Jarrett vs. Droz vs. Marc Mero – RAW • September 28, 1998: Gangrel basically fell off the second rope trying an elbow drop, and Edge them pinned and eliminated him. D’Lo is in chest protector mode here. Jarrett and Droz got counted out. Edge eliminated Mero. Gangrel returned with the mystery man (Christian) to distract Edge, and cost him the match at about 5-minutes. It was fine, going back and watching Edge here and seeing how much Raw potential he had and what he would grow into is a fun exercise. [**]

Extreme Name Change: Waltman discusses the Syxx name in WCW, which he didn’t like. Hogan called his Syxx “Pack,” and his friends called him Pac. When he came back he didn’t want to be “The Kidd” again, and decided on “X-Pac” when he joined DX.

WWF Championship Match: The Rock vs. X-Pac – RAW • November 23, 1998: X-Pac is the European Champion here, accompanied to the ring by the Outlaws. The Rock has friends, as The Big Bossman and Ken Shamrock accompany him to the ring. Commissioner Shawn Michaels appears and boots all of the corner men to make this one on one. Pac still had great speed here, and sold everything like death. The crowd hated everything the Rock, as corporate champion, did out there. Jim Ross was great selling Pac’s chances at winning and bringing in some great emotion. Shawn did the turn here, hit X-Pac with the chair, allowing Rock to hit the People’s Elbow to retain at about 10-minutes. They were doing some really good stuff here, and then the finish happened and that killed some of it for me. Bossman and Shamrock brawled with the Outlaws post match as Shane, Vince, Shawn and Rock did crotch chops. [**¾]

5.0

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

Two discs to go.