Down With The Brown: WWE Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony (2004)

Okay, 411mania is the best site on the Internet. They gave me a job and I love them dearly. But a good second place goes to Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer site because they managed to release the Hall of Fame DVD early, and I was able to get a copy to review for you lucky souls before the scheduled release date.

And I’m going to switch gears in how I review this one much like I did with the Ric Flair DVD review, because, yes, this is a 6 hour 2-disc series and quite frankly, I wanted to enjoy the disc rather than watch it and analyze it simultaneously.

So to borrow from the style I used to review the Flair DVD, I’m going to look at what works, what doesn’t work, and sum it all up for you.

But first, here’s what is on the DVD:

-Inductions of the 2004 Hall of Fame: “Superstar” Billy Graham, Greg Valentine, Pete Rose, Big John Studd, Sgt. Slaughter, Bobby Heenan, Tito Santana, Harley Race, Junkyard Dog, and Jesse Ventura.

And these extras:

-Superstar Billy Graham Confidential piece
-Superstar wins the WWF title from Bruno Sammartino in its entirety (4-30-77)
-Superstar promo from 6-14-77

-Pete Rose’s three WM appearances.

-Big John Studd on “Roger’s Corner” (4-20-83)
-Big John Studd vs. Andre the Giant (4-25-83)

-Sgt. Slaughter vs. Pat Patterson Alley Fight (5-4-81) (****)
-Alternate Commentary with both men
-Sgt. Slaughter 1991 promo turning face

-Four Prime Time Wrestling bits with Bobby Heenan (1988)
-Grape squashing with Andre the Giant (2-25-91)
-Bobby Heenan Confidential piece
-Heenan reflects on his first night in wrestling

-Greg Valentine vs. Tito Santana Cage Match (7-6-85) (***1/4)

-Junkyard Dog vs. Harley Race (WM III) -DESPITE the claim that it is from SNME.
-Promos from Race and JYD

-Don Muraco vs. Pedro Morales (6-20-81)
-Don Muraco promo on Bob Backlund (3-20-83)

-Jesse Ventura vs. Bob Backlund (3-14-82) Special Referee: Ivan Putski
-Jesse promo on Bob Backlund (1-16-82)

-The inductions of all at WMXX.

-Plus easter eggs involving the origins of the nicknames “The Hammer” and “The Weasel.”

-And a nice little sheet that lists all the previous inductees from Andre the Giant all the way down to Johnny Rodz. Which gives us all hope that someday we’ll see the induction of S.D. Jones.

What Works:

-Obviously, the speeches. If you were like me, and you grew up on all of these talents, you’ll enjoy hearing these men humbled in front of their peers. It’s also kinda fun to see these guys name drop to see whose name gets applause and whose doesn’t.

-Bobby Heenan. The man still has it. Easily the best speech of the night, and you can tell he has a pulse on the audience the entire time. Even when a joke fails, just his reaction at the non-reaction makes up for it. As you may know, Bobby has gone through chemo due to his bout with throat cancer, and as a result, a few of his comments are hard to understand, but despite that, the humor and the timing is still impeccable.

-A perfect copy of what remains one of the all-time great brawls as Pat Patterson wrestled Sgt. Slaughter in an Alley Fight in 1981 in MSG where Slaughter set the standard for bloodletting. (Seriously, someone needs to kill the Muta scale, because Slaughter bled like a stuck pig first, and he did it JUST right. It’s enough blood that you’re concerned for their safety, but not so much that you think they’re gonna die. Slaughter’s bloodletting to me REALLY should set the standard, because if you bled more than he, THEN there was a problem. Bleed less, and it’s not so bad.)

-A pretty cool commentary of said match with Pat Patterson and Sgt. Slaughter as both men tread a fine line between shoot and kayfabe and dance over it nicely. Pat admits he couldn’t believe how deep Sarge bladed, and for the record, did not know when the match would end. Sarge points put how Vince McMahon Sr. was so concerned about his blood loss, that he came to ringside at the end to check up on him.

(Much like Vince did with Eddie Guererro……………..*cough*)

(Another aside, as Michael Cole defies the odds by calling Vince “Vince McMahon Jr.” on the air and is allowed to keep his job.)

-The extra matches are all uncut. No clip jobs here as we see Superstar win the WWF title for what I believe is the first time on video in its entirety ( I THINK the History of the Heavyweight video version is clipped)., Don Muraco and Tito Santana winning the I-C titles, and a decent though not necessarily enthralling Ventura-Backlund match. And it’s nice to see an Andre-Studd match chosen from their first go-around back in 1983 as opposed to the 1985 run.

-Pete Rose. Say what you will, the guy really seemed to be enjoying himself there. I don’t agree with his being inducted, of course, but it’s kinda cool to see him accept the honor in just the right way.

-Included with the matches are promos with most of the inductees, which in some cases (Jesse) are better than the matches. Though they certainly picked a weird Jesse promo as he’s messing up his words a bit much in it.

-The chance to play the fun game “How far down the pecking order is your favorite WWE Superstar?” by seeing how many rows back that particular person is sitting. On that note, I’m pretty sure Steven Richards was an usher at the event.

What Doesn’t Work:

-You like the “Don’t Try this at Home” promo? Well, good, because EVERY time you put this disc in, you have to WATCH the damn thing. You can’t skip it, you can’t fast forward through it. You have to WASTE 30 seconds of your life EVERY SINGLE TIME you put the DVD in. I am NOT a fan of this practice, and it concerns me to think how far this type of advertising may go in the future.

-The ceremony is NOT complete. The best line in the entire ceremony isn’t even ON here. Which is Mick Foley’s comment: “I prayed to God that I didn’t have to follow Bobby Heenan.” I believe all the inductees speeches are intact, but the inductors’ speeches themselves are not. Which to me is a shame, because I’d rather hear others praise their betters than here people talk about themselves.

-Don’t expect to watch this in one sitting. A couple speeches are nice, but ALL of them at one time is a bit much.

-Don’t get me wrong, the extras are nice, but I feel a better job could have been done on some of them. Choosing Harley Race vs. JYD at WMIII as a representation of both men’s careers just seems a little lazy as both men had INFINITELY better matches (Hell, I would have taken the two on SNME, at least that one I hadn’t seen as much.) And while I’m thrilled to see a lot of these matches on pristine DVD quality, seeing as I had seen most of them before, I wasn’t as thrilled as I COULD have been. Most of these matches could be found on older Coliseum releases, so it was a little disappointing.

-Michael Cole in the commentary section sporting a “Your Friends and Neighbors” salmon Polo shirt. If you’ve ever seen the movie, you’d know you NEVER EVER wear a shirt that looks like that. (And just for the record, I feel Your Friends and Neighbors is the all time greatest GREAT BAD movie. It depends on the mood. Some times I love that movie to death. Some times I can’t stand it.)

-Poorly edited Confidential bits. Superstar Billy Graham’s and Bobby Heenan’s segments for Confidential are unnecessarily edited down for time. Personally, I think looking at Superstar’s mid-80’s comeback would have meant more had we seen him during his early 80’s “Kung Fu because I’m badly out of shape” gimmick. And half of the Heenan clips appear in uncut form on the extras anyway. I’d rather have seen something else.

-You be the judge. Is that canned laughter during Foley’s speech?

-An unnecessary harsh remark Harley Race makes especially for the DVD right before the WMIII match where he basically brags that he could have a good match with anybody. Yes, JYD wasn’t exactly teaching a wrestling clinic in the 80’s, but there’s no need to point out his lack of skill. If anything, Race’s intro only makes JYD’s botched moves in the match even THAT much more obvious.

The Verdict:

First and foremost, I applaud the WWE for releasing this night on DVD. It was an unbelievable night, one that would have been unfathomable once upon a time, and it’s great to see Vince embrace the history of his company rather than ignore it as he once was so infamous for doing.

In all honesty I had high expectations for this one and as much as I enjoyed it, I have to admit, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would have liked. I feel my expectations may have been a little too high. Watching it all at once may not have helped either. A few speeches go a LONG way when I think watching a few inductees at a time may heighten the experience. The extras are great, if for no other reason, but to finally see some of the all-time great matches on DVD. Believe me, you don’t know how bloody Sgt. Slaughter was, unless you’ve seen it like this.

And despite a few minor complaints, this is one of the few extended DVDs I finished in two days. I had every intention of gradually watching it over the next week, but once I started watching, I couldn’t stop. It grabs your attention, and makes you hope for a new induction ceremony in 2005.

Not that you asked, but if there WERE one next year, and let’s be honest, Hogan and Bruno aren’t getting inducted any time soon, (and I’m guessing Piper and Savage aren’t real popular with Vince either), but if there WERE one next year, and I could choose eleven:

-Ricky Steamboat
-Ken Patera
-The British Bulldogs
-Bret Hart
-Ivan Koloff
-S.D. Jones (You thought I was kidding earlier, but he’s maybe the best enhancement guy there was. The only jobber I thought really COULD pull off the upset.)
-Ric Flair
-Adrian Adonis
-The Samoans (Afa & Sika)

-Thumbs up, highly recommended, A-.

-Sydney Brown