Down With The Brown: Mick Foley’s Greatest Hits And Misses (2004)

Last week’s ECW column was written rather spur-of-the-moment which in doing so made me forget to mention my on-going tape sale as I continue to get rid of my tape collection to get some cash for my camera. Of course, fate has a way of stepping in as I had a minor car accident that pretty much wiped out most of what I had made and I’m pretty close to square one again. The list of 20 for sale is presently at:

http://hometown.aol.com/sydneyeight/sale.html

Feel free to find that Coliseum video for that loved one on your list. And if there’s a title or show you are looking for, drop me a line and I’ll see what I can do.

I hope everyone had a great holiday, I had the pleasure of working so mine was less than spectacular. Every Thanksgiving I steal Roger Ebert’s tradition and watch Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. I was in a different mood this year, and I put in The Ice Storm instead, maybe the darkest Thanksgiving flick you could see, but certainly a great film. I recommend either for future holiday viewings.

Well, I recieved a lot of positives over my ECW review, and a friend of mine traded me this one for a few days with that disc, so you get another somewhat recent DVD from the WWE.

I’ve had a few reservations about this disc, mainly because Foley has had a lot of discs about him already (three WWE titles and an ECW one) so you have to wonder how much new stuff you’re gonna get. Here’s what on the two disc set:

WCW:

-Cactus Jack vs. Sting (6/20/92)
-Cactus Jack vs. Big Van Vader (4/17/93)
-Cactus Jack / Maxx Payne vs. The Nasty Boys (4/17/94)

SMW:

-Cactus Jack vs. Chris Candido (11/18/94)

ECW:

-Cactus Jack vs. Sabu (6/24/94) & (9/30/94)
-Cactus Jack vs. The Sandman (2/4/95)
-Cactus & Raven vs. Terry Funk & Tommy Dreamer (11/18/95)
-Cactus Jack vs. Mikey Whipwreck (3/9/96)

WWE:

-Mankind vs. Shawn Michaels (IYH: Mind Games)
-Cactus Jack vs. HHH (7th Best RAW Ever)
-Mick Foley vs. Terry Funk (5/4/98)
-Dude Love vs. Steve Austin (5/31/98)
-Mankind vs. The Undertaker (HITC)
-Mankind vs. The Rock (1/4/99)
-Cactus Jack vs. HHH (Rumble 00)

And some extras:

-Mick Foley’s 1986 WWF debut match vs. The British Bulldogs
-Vegas Promos with Al Snow
-The infamous “Cane Dewey” promo
-ECW promos
-Early Mankind promos
-The birth of Mr. Socko
-WWE Confidential piece on why Foley left
-Sabu match & Sting match with commentary from Mick

What works:

-It’s really hard to criticize this collection as we get a look at all four major promotions that Foley was in (aside from World Class, I guess.) It’s a solid group of matches that are required viewing for any Foley fan and any wrestling fan. In fact, looking at the lineup for disc two, you have seven matches and arguably six of them are ****. Hell, the worst WWE match is Foley winning the belt and even THAT’S damn near ****. (though it’s ***** just for emotion.) Not a single bad match in the bunch.

-Great pre-match commentary. Mick Foley introduces every match with an anecdote about the bout, all of which add to the enjoyment. Though, I don’t know, I’m a huge Foley fan and all, a few of his remarks should certainly be put in the “retired” drawer by now.

-Some real gems here. Foley himself dug up the edited Vader vs. Jack footage because it showed too much blood. Jack wrestles Sandman in a match where it’s clear that Sandman is pretty much unconscious the entire time. And wonders upon wonders, a GREAT Nasty Boys match, arguably the first REAL hardcore match in the big two.

-A clean DVD copy of arguably the greatest WWF title win in history, and two of the largest pops you will EVER hear. Steve Austin hitting the ring to save Foley and then Foley winning the title from The Rock. Even if you’ve seen it a hundred times (like I have), listening to it in Dolby digital is just goosebump-inducing.

-You get to see Sunny in her old school business suit days. Grrrrrrowl.

What doesn’t work:

-LOTS of reruns here. I guess what’s rather frustrating is that they released a Foley disc about three years back and almost all of the matches on that one are repeated here. And this would make the THIRD WWE disc to contain Foley vs. HBK. It’s a great match, I get it. Enough all ready. It kinda reminds me of the Snuka/Muraco cage match and how half the Coliseum tapes seemed to have that match on it. Of the fifteen matches here, over half can be found on other DVDs. And that’s a small problem when you’re talking about a $20-$30 disc.

-No Jesse Ventura. Jesse as you may recall successfully sued the WWF in 1990 for not paying him royalties for his appearances on Coliseum tapes. So his voice has been taken off all commentaries. And thusly you’re left with Tony Schiavonne and Vince McMahon talking to themselves during the matches. A little annoying. (Though if you listen REAL close, Jesse’s voice sneaks in at the end of the Bulldogs match as his “WHOA!!!” makes an appearance. Maybe Jesse can get some more cash out of this.)

-Some missed opportunites. The Vader-Jack match is here but not the follow-up where Vader powerbombs him on the floor or the Halloween Havoc grudge match. The Jack/Raven vs. Funk/Dreamer match is here but not the prior match when Foley set Funk on fire. Seems like no-brainers to me.

-Foley winning the title is still edited. One of the things that always bugged me is how blatantly edited the Foley title celebration is. And here was the opportunity to show everything in the proper order, in the proper perspective. As you may not know, after Foley won the title, the first thing he did was grab the title and run around the arena while the fans went insane. But instead, it was edited so that the show could close on that. As a result, you have this weird sequence where the fans are going crazy, suddenly calm down, and then get rabid again. If they could put the Vader match togther again, they could fix the RAW match.

The verdict:

I hate to say it’s a tough call, but it is. If you don’t have these matches, it’s no argument, GET THIS DISC. It’s harder for me to say that if you own ECW’s The Best of Cactus Jack or the WWF’s Mick Foley: Hard Knocks and Cheap Pops because so many of these matches are there. But how can you argue over one bad match in fourteen? Especially when the one (Cactus/Sandman) is still good in a car crash way. I just wish more attention had been paid to what had already been released. But I’m basing my verdict on the casual fan who may not have the huge tape collection, and if you don’t………

Thumbs up, highly recommended, B+.

And starting with this column, and every column thereafter, a Sydney Brown Top 10 list. 411 seems to be going list crazy and nobody loves a list more than me, so to jump start it, two lists, firstly, MY personal list of the 10 hottest women in wrestling history (since no one asked the first time around.):

1. Sunny. And as hot as she was in her early WWF days, I dare say she may have been even hotter in her less makeup and tight business suit wearing days in Smoky Mountain. A chick in a suit, as I said earlier………grrrrrowl.

2. Elizabeth. In 1986 and 1987, before she started getting physically involved in the matches, she was one of the hottest people on the planet, much less wrestling.

3. Torrie Wilson. I have nothing to add that you don’t already know.

4. Missy Hyatt. I’m talking about her WCW days, not now. She was the NWA girl that put all the others to shame.

5. Pamela Paulshock. Very underrated beauty who was quickly forgotten because of her appearances on the dying days of WCW, but she was quite the hottie. And she will live in history for her appearance in the weather sketch on the last season of Mr. Show.

6. Woman. Once again, we’re talking the WCW days, when she sexed herself up for Rick Steiner. Hell, even her nerdy Robin Green alter ego was rather hot, only because you knew what she looked like when the hat and glasses came off.

7. Stacey Keibler. Believe it or not, I used to work with a girl who looked JUST LIKE HER. AND she had a chest. Sadly, she was married.

8. Francine. I may get flack for it, because I know her touch of skankiness should be a turn-off, but for certain people it adds a little something……

9. Alexandra York. You know her better as Terri Runnels but this was when she was Mike Rotundo’s secretary in WCW, when she had the business suit and big glasses. There’s just something really sexy about a girl who dresses dorky when you know there’s a major hottie deep down.

10. Molly Holly. And this would be right after the heel turn when she became a brunette. Before she started sneering, and didn’t seem to know what approach she wanted to take, she was briefly the hottest girl in the WWF.

Honorable mention:

-Toni Adams
-Kimona
-Stephanie McMahon (99 version when she was the innocent dating Test)

And in honor of the Foley disc, and with an upcoming RVD retrospective, what future DVD titles would I like to see?

The 10 WWE DVDs I would part my hard earned money to get:

1. History of the World Heavyweight Championship (1962-1992) -Everything from the past decade is relatively easy to find, give me Bruno, give me Graham, give me Backlund, give me OLD SCHOOL World title bouts.

2. Season compilations of SNME’s. That’s what, 6-7 episodes a year, without commercials that’s about 70 minutes. You could do a 7 hour compliation of each season easily.

3. The History of MSG

4. From the Vault: Bret “Hitman” Hart

5. From the Vault: “Rowdy” Roddy Piper

6. From the Vault: “Macho Man” Randy Savage

7. From the Vault: Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat

8. The ORIGINAL PPV airings of Survivor Series 1987 and 1988 and not the chopped up Coliseum versions.

9. The History of Smoky Mountain Wrestling

10. The Bobby Heenan Show -to replace the fourth generation copy I have now.

-Sydney Brown