We have some disappointing news to report today relating to the December “Raw 20th Anniversary Collection” box set.
For North America and Australia the Blu-ray edition of the Raw box set looks to have been cancelled. This according to WWEDVD.com.au, the official distributor of WWE DVDs and Blu-rays in Australia.
As you may know, the Australian market typically follows that of the US for WWE DVD releases, and it was mentioned on the Facebook page of the Australian distributor that the Raw 20th Anniversary Collection will no longer see a US Blu-ray release.
The Blu-ray was removed from the Australian site, with only the DVD version now available. Today it has also been removed from Amazon.com, as you can see here. Those who have pre-ordered it from the US Amazon will likely be receiving cancellation notices soon.
There is nothing solid currently known for the United Kingdom and Europe since release details of the Raw box set to that market have not yet been confirmed.
To clarify, the “Raw 20th Anniversary Collection” is still on the way for December 3rd release but it is now very likely to be produced only on DVD format.
Amid this breaking news, WWE have released preliminary cover artwork for the box set which you can check out below. This may or may not turn out to be the final artwork.
The 12-disc collection will contain the 20 greatest episodes of Raw “uncut and unedited” in a deluxe box set. It can be pre-ordered now at this link for $79.99, and will be released on December 3rd to the US, December 4th to Australia, and is expected to hit Europe in January.
I would like to buy it when it comes out
Actually, on amazon.ca the blu-ray version is still up! I don’t know if they are late in news or what, but if it’s cancel I do think it’s cancel everywhere?
Hopefully we don’t get screwed on what were going to be the blu ray exclusives… Ugh…
I noticed that the Wwe: Best Pay-Per-View Matches 2013 [Blu-ray]
Sold by Amazon.com LLC has also been removed from Amazon. I had
preordered it and it still appears on my order page, but it not found on the
site. Any chance that this also has been cancelled?
So disappointing!
I wish WWE could just tell us what the hell uncut and unedited means. Does it mean profanities and middle fingers are uncensored?, does it mean no WWF blurring/muting (Thought this wasn’t allowed to be advertised in the agreement, Benoit?, no commercial break interruptions?
I personally think it’s a mix of swearing (To not put off Anti PG buyers) Benoit and WWF logos and mentions.
Be clearer WWE.
Even with them saying unedited I would be surprised if there were not edits for choking spots here and there, as they have done on their video releases starting around Fall 2012.
I just hope for their sake they don’t edit a thing or they could have a legit false advertising claim on their hands.
The choking edits are pretty subtle. You barely hear about the editing on The Attitude Era set, the WCW Nitro Vol. 2 set or the new version of Wrestlemania XV. I think the same would apply to any edits on this set.
I may skip buying this now.
I am skipping this now that there is no Blu for the time being, Now I am waiting until I can find it dirt cheap in the discounts..
What about the cover? I know it’s preliminary but it ressemble a lot the one of the top 100 Raw moments.
I’m not sure about this set. I think they had the right formula with the season sets that were abandoned. I think sales might have been low for that set because 1993/1994 were not the best years to showcase, but if they’d stuck with it they’d be up in to the successful periods by now. I could be wrong, but I think they would have sold well once they hit those periods. In my opinion the handling of Raw on DVD has been really bad. There isn’t a meaningful Raw DVD out there except the 15th Anniversary one which was ruined with all those silly pop ups and clipped matches. I really just wish they’d put the effort in to make one truly great Raw set with possible sequels in the same vein as the Nitro DVDs. The Raw DVD catalogue is an absolute mess in my eyes. It deserves better.
so when it say uncut and unedited does that mean that they will show the action that took place during the commericals
*eyeroll* …. there’s always one.
and what does that mean
Gigi, exactly
ok people i understand ur being rude but i will ignore it im sorry i assumed cause it said uncut and unedited it also meant the action during the commericals would be shown so keep being rude
Everyone was assuming you were being sarcastic, as we assumed you are not that stupid
Is it true that money is actually lost due to poor wwe blu-ray sales as of late? If so this would explain the cancellation of this release. Some1 drop some knowledge on me…
Blu-ray is still pretty new, even though its about 7 years old, it still costs quite a bit to manufacture.
WWE probably thought based on recent sales of their Blu-rays, they won’t make much on the RAW set, especially now the price is over $100.
Thanks for the information. This cancellation is not a good sign as far as wwe blu-ray is concerned. At 36 years old it’s all the same to me, blu-ray or DVD. I go with DVD cuz its cheaper and I will be in diapers soon.
i’m also guessing UFC did the same thing with their Best of 2010 bluray or similar.
UFC only releases their “Best of’s” and certain compilations on Blu-ray…all their ppvs (except for UFC 100 which was on Blu-ray) are only on DVD.
Actually UFC has been releasing their Best of’s since 2007 and their bluray Best of’s since 2008 but the 2010 Best of on bluray was not released in all regions, just in USA.
This could change though, unless if said otherwise though.
Yes! Yes! Yes! DVD set rules!!!
This really sucks… REALLY sucks… it would have been their first blu-ray box… what a shame!
Ok…. that news really sucks.
Blu ray would have been nice, but hey, we’ll all save some money now! Could a full reveal of all 20 episodes be coming soon now that we have the cover? Hmmmm….
Given the fact that I pre-ordered the Blu-ray at $83.99 and the DVD is selling at $79.99 now, I’m not sure I’m going to be saving enough money to make it worth it.
Well at least it’s still going to be realesed.
Yeah, just happy it’s still gonna be released. But just wish we’d still have a Bluray option. I tend to avoid DVD releases now if there is a Bluray version :(.
I don’t mind, the majority of the episodes were in SD anyway. I only hate when they cancel something that was actually shot in 1080p.
I think this is a very relevant point. The real gains with SD material on Blu-ray are minimal if non-existant, depending on the source material and the encoding.
With how WWE handles their 4:3 material, the major advantage imo is that the Blu-ray can allocate all the available/necessary resolution to the program while the DVD takes a hit on resolution because instead of creating separate 4:3 and 16:9 masters they just downscale the 16:9 HD master so you essentially have a non-anamorphic pillarbox situation where the available resolution isn’t being used as effectively as possible with some of it going to black bars.
One has to question how much effort it would take to encode separate 4:3 and 16:9 masters, to use each format to their greatest potential, but then I’m not in the business of charging a premium for videotapes converted to Blu-ray over DVD.