We’re hearing that earlier this week WWE finalized the content listing for the 8 hour and 44 minute compilation on Kurt Angle and that we’ll all get eyes on it any day now. Fact!
Grab a copy of WWE’s “Kurt Angle–The Essential Collection” DVD on…
– UK/Europe: July 31st. Pre-order the Kurt Angle DVD right now here on Amazon.co.uk.
– United States: August 1st. Pre-order the Kurt Angle DVD right now here on Amazon.com.
– Australia: TBA. Look out for announcements on the Kurt Angle DVD at Madman.com.au.
WrestleMania 33hit stores this month amid the news that the domestic versions of the DVD and Blu-ray do not include any of the Kickoff Show. This has led to reports online that WWE purposely left them off to encourage WWE Network subscriptions. However, that is but a myth.
Instead the reasoning was solely due to space issues given the long runtimes of the event and the Hall of Fame ceremony. Not being able to fit on the Kickoff matches in their entirety combined with a tight time frame before the release led to the decision. The UK’s release is not until June 5th allowing the UK licensee, FremantleMedia, more time to execute a plan to include the extras, which ended up seeing the entrances of the matches cut but the full bell-to-bell footage left intact.
On the subject of WrestleMania DVDs, it was reported here last summer that plans were in place to re-release WM16 through 24 as individual releases, somewhat of a follow up to the WM1-15 DVDs. That hasn’t happened yet and judging by our feedback the WDN readers wish to know why.
We stand by our report as wholly true, however we can only assume that the titles ran into some sort of production or licensing issues because the original plan was to have the DVDs on shelves prior to this year’s WrestleMania season. The project appears to be on the back burner for now.
In recent months there has been speculation that Amazon were cancelling WWE DVDs entirely. This is untrue – all upcoming titles previously made “unavailable” have now returned.
With some Home Video releases now DVD-only there has been some concern from readers that the company is moving away from the Blu-ray format. However, Blu-rays are still coming as before with WWE now being a little more selective as to which DVDs go Blu-ray too.
Essentially, the more major titles do see a release on both formats and at the moment it appears that the documentary sets are taking precedence, a trend that you may have noticed looking at the Blu-rays we have on the remainder of the 2017 schedule:
Fight Owens Fight: The Kevin Owens Story (DVD/Blu-ray)
1997: Dawn of the Attitude Era (DVD/Blu-ray)
NXT: From Secret to Sensation (DVD/Blu-ray)
WWE Home Video UK recently addressed the DVD/Blu-ray situation on social media:
Some past titles have been slow sellers on [Blu-ray] so we’re considering each title and whether [they are] commercially viable on both formats. Unfortunately when it comes down to one or [the] other, DVD is still the most popular format by a wide margin.
Following The Undertaker’s retirement the rumors and speculation has spread on WWE producing a big ‘Taker DVD box set with a documentary main feature. This is a myth for now as there is nothing of the sort currently scheduled for 2017 and no solid indications for 2018 as of now.
If it does happen, this is a title sure to have a Blu-ray counterpart.
The “WrestleMania 33: Amazon Exclusive” with Undertaker collectible coin may have just turned into a myth too. The product page of the Canadian offering now reads “currently unavailable” and a few readers have been in touch to say their order never shipped! Did yours?
EBAY WATCH: Not enough Blu-ray in your WWE collection right now? All of these are going cheap in eBay auctions this weekend, including The KLIQ and Jerry Lawler documentaries…
No re-releases yet, but there’s 2 copies of the original print WWF WrestleMania 16 DVD up for grabs on eBay this weekend and the very first DVD that WWE ever put out…
I ordered my WrestleMania 33 DVD Amazon.ca exclusive well in advance and haven’t received it yet. I thought maybe it was just late for me but no one got a copy? If they cancelled the release then Amazon should’ve notified customers.
My pre-order is currently stating it’s expected by June 7th. But I’m curious if anyone received it yet at all, as that would help figure out if the item was just sold-out in advance, delayed, cancelled, or what. I’m hoping it’s just delayed, but if some people got it, it’s possible all copies are gone. Not holding my breath though, seeing as how my Wrestlemania Monday Blu-ray has not been officially cancelled by Amazon either, lol.
I contacted Amazon and they sent a standard reply of not knowing when the DVD will be available. I also purchased the WrestleMania Monday blu ray and was notified that the blu ray was cancelled on Amazon.ca so I just cancelled and bought the DVD.
I’m hoping Kurt Angle’s championship matches with Stone Cold Steve Austin from SummerSlam and Unforgiven in 2001 as well as his WCW championship win over Booker T. are included on the set
I don’t understand the explanation that there was more time to “execute a plan” to include the WrestleMania Kickoff matches in the UK. Wouldn’t they have easily been able to task that small conundrum to a member of staff in the US offices in the days after the show, who would’ve surely had the thought within the hour to say “Hey, we can include them if we remove the entrances…” I mean is that too difficult for the DVD design staff in the US?
Let me tell you something you morons, I personally don’t like you ganging up on me when I was sticking up for someone else and both of you take a hike or jump into the river before I join forces with Sven
First off Thomas, I did not want to have any argument with you. You were the one that made false claims about me saying all I do is complain about the names of all the PPVs, when mentioning Great Balls Of Fire. I then asked you to name at least one other of “all the PPV names” I complained about and you couldn’t do it. Don’t get it twisted.
I agree with you there Sven. he cannot mind his own business which he is a interfering son of a bitch which he gets his cronies especially RabidHeat to gang up on you and me which is not going to happen at all
I don’t understand the Network comment, as I live in the UK so my ‘Mania DVD will have the Kickoff matches and I don’t need the Network to watch them. I was just querying why the makers in the US didn’t also cut the entrances off to fit the matches on for our fellow buyers over there, Haha, how do you feel now, fool?
DVD or bluray, don’t care though bluray can fit more. Main thing is you’re right. Fans, especially Taker fans deserve a career retrospective doc on Taker, like the Bottom Line set for SCSA.
I’d personally also appreciate one on Kane too as like Taker, he’s also had a long HOF bound imho career.
An interesting note is that I just bought the DDP blu Ray in Australia and the cover is classified like an Australian release but the actual discs look like the ones released in the uk. Also instead of the mad man signature at the beginning it had Fremantle. How does that happen?
Hi AD. I think as of late Madman Australia have had some sort of a relationship with Fremantle whereby they use the UK discs (UK and Australia share Region B Blu-rays) but create their own packaging, thus making possible ‘limited edition’ runs of Blu-rays for the WWE titles they want to do it for in Aus.
I don’t understand why they would not put priority on Blu-Rays since you get higher picture quality and that nowadays, it’s not hard at all to get a decent cheap blu-ray player. I understand that maybe on a worldwide standpoint, DVDs are still the main format. People in poor places in the world probably cannot get an HDTV and a Blu-ray player so DVD is easier to get. Still, they cannot ignore blu-rays. At least, have all the documentaries on blu-ray. Old match compilations can be on DVDs, it makes no difference anyway…
When it comes to movies, Blu-rays outsell DVDs. Major movie studios are now shifting from BDs to 4K-UHDs. It’s just that wrestling fans, unfortunately, get a reputation for not being apt to spend more money. It’s why advertising rates for wrestling shows are so low.
Maybe it’s just because it’s only wrestling. I hate to say it because I am a wrestling fan, but a big chunk of DVD sales is that of the casual fan market, and casual fans might not care about wrestling being in HD because they only watch it for sh*ts and giggles. But they’re not gonna watch Transformers or some other Hollywood blockbuster in standard defintion, because of the CGI, etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if your average Hollywood blockbuster probably sells more than copies than all of WWEs yearly PPVs combined.
That’s an interesting question to ask. Whether it’s more casual fans that still buy DVDs or is it more hardcore fans. I would think, and I could be way off, but I would think the majority of wrestling fans left that still buy physical media are more of the hardcore completist fans. The fans that buy every single release. I don’t think there are that many fans left who just happen to come across a wrestling DVD in the store and buy it on a whin. But who knows?
They will put priority and what sells the most, whether it’s the better format or not. And obviously DVDs (for wrestling) still sell better. A lot of people who like BluRay for movies might still not shell out the extra coin to have their wrestling on it. Lots of casual viewers may not care whether their wrestling is in HD, but are going to want their Marvel Movies in HD, etc.
I have decided once in awhile to go with dvd over bluray when the extra content wasn’t that great. WWE 50 for example. It was way cheaper and I already had the Shawn Micheals vs Undertaker at WM 25 on Bluray.
I would not be shocked to see them phase out dvds completely. WWE has been getting lazy lately with their one hour documentaries and they could do so much better than what they have been releasing. I am looking forward to the highspots Bruiser Brody documentary coming out this month…
I call bullcrap on their reasoning for not including the kickoff show matches. Would it have killed them to make the extra effort and make a 4th disc for this set to include those matches, knowing full well how long these events are actually going? At this rate, we could see WM 34 and above going 6 hours +, which wouldn’t surprise me in the least bit for make an effort! And they should be held accountable knowing full well this is the direction McMahon seems to want to be leaning towards the length of this event, as these events have been getting longer by the year and it seems to be a trend that won’t cease anytime soon. A 4th disc would have solved this problem rather easily, but with WWE, where does logic fit in this equation?
To be fair, adding a 4th disc would possibly have pushed the price up for it, which they probably didn’t want to inflict on fans. But I still don’t know why they couldn’t just include the matches without the entrances, like they have for us in the UK.
I don’t understand the logic of Owens getting a blu-ray when he debuted 2 years ago, yet Angle finally gets one when he debuted 18 years ago and only gets a DVD after all he did. DDP got one and he wasn’t nearly as big of a name.
Some people will respond by saying Angle doesn’t need a blu-ray release since all of his WWE matches were before WWE started recording in HD. Of course that ignores the fact that blu-rays can fit more matches than DVDs, especially since it looks like WWE is just about using up the full space on the Angle discs, with an 8:44 runtime.
Didn’t you read the article? It said documentaries are the only ones going to Blu-Ray. Angle isn’t a documentary, Owens is. Simple as that. Stop whining
It all comes down to the fact that DVDs are better in every way possible than blu-rays. That’s why WWE DVD’s outsell blu-rays by a wide margin. It’s because the 1990s technology of DVDs is so far ahead of blu-rays. It has nothing at all to do with wrestling fans being cheap. Not even a little bit. 😉
Oh My Dear Heavens!!!
What on earth do you “Blu Ray” Freaks need???
The WWE itself is blatantly telling you posers how terrible that Blu Ray is, yet you guys instantly just proclaim that you are better than other wrestling fans because the rest are just brain dead morons!
I don’t think it’s gonna be ever. At the rate they’re going, they’re still stuck on selling a format from back in the 90s. I don’t see them moving forward.
The undertaker doc set has to come out eventually. It might be a “myth” for now but personally I think they are waiting for him to be inducted into the hall of fame and one would think that will happen at next years ceremony and when it does I think that will be included on the set.makes sence to me considering that he’s barely spoken over the years I think that would make for a great addition to the set. I mean how could they not make the set eventually? I’m pretty sure more than a few people at WWE realize that an undertaker doc set would probably break the record for sales for any set they’ve ever released. I can’t see the powers that be at WWE passing up on such an obvious huge money making opportunity.
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I ordered my WrestleMania 33 DVD Amazon.ca exclusive well in advance and haven’t received it yet. I thought maybe it was just late for me but no one got a copy? If they cancelled the release then Amazon should’ve notified customers.
My pre-order is currently stating it’s expected by June 7th. But I’m curious if anyone received it yet at all, as that would help figure out if the item was just sold-out in advance, delayed, cancelled, or what. I’m hoping it’s just delayed, but if some people got it, it’s possible all copies are gone. Not holding my breath though, seeing as how my Wrestlemania Monday Blu-ray has not been officially cancelled by Amazon either, lol.
I contacted Amazon and they sent a standard reply of not knowing when the DVD will be available. I also purchased the WrestleMania Monday blu ray and was notified that the blu ray was cancelled on Amazon.ca so I just cancelled and bought the DVD.
I ordered DDP Blu-ray from amazon.ca and never received it. Got an email this morning that said they cancelled my order because they couldn’t get it.
I’m hoping Kurt Angle’s championship matches with Stone Cold Steve Austin from SummerSlam and Unforgiven in 2001 as well as his WCW championship win over Booker T. are included on the set
Agreed! Those definitely belong. He’s had some good IC title wins that belong too.
I don’t understand the explanation that there was more time to “execute a plan” to include the WrestleMania Kickoff matches in the UK. Wouldn’t they have easily been able to task that small conundrum to a member of staff in the US offices in the days after the show, who would’ve surely had the thought within the hour to say “Hey, we can include them if we remove the entrances…” I mean is that too difficult for the DVD design staff in the US?
Oh just get the Network and get over it already
And the name-changing troll is back.
^ Oh look, it’s the child who’s obsessed with blurays who can’t mind his own business!
Who’s business is it? Just curious.
*Whose
*blu-rays
I didn’t use that term, so you’re not correcting me. You lose again!
Don’t worry about him, trolls like LP1 are just seeking attention as usual.
Truth!
And now you’re having conversations with yourself.
^^^ oh look, the trolling child spoke again.
Haha he thinks all these comments are mine and can’t comprehend that more than 1 person finds him annoying. How cute!
Way too many conversations on here going on so long that they get squashed up to the right side of the screen.
Yeah, better quit arguing 😉
Daniel Bee, you tell LP1 & RabidHeat to stop their arguing with me and Sven
I didn’t say they’re all yours, Mr. IHateKickoffs, ILoveGrammar, IHateTrolls, IHateFillInTheBlankOnWhateveTopicFitsYourPosts.
And I’m sure you’re gonna comment on me misspelling “whatever”.
You just said I was having a conversation with myself so yeah, you kinda did say that. You’re the worst troll ever!
Sven, I am on your side, I personally don’t like the trolls {LP1} which they have RabidHeat joining forces with them
I agree with you there Sven, LP1 was wanting to have an argument with me on here regarding WWE : WrestleMania 33 {DVD}
Thomas, do you copy and paste the full name of a DVD from Amazon every time you leave a comment?
Let me tell you something you morons, I personally don’t like you ganging up on me when I was sticking up for someone else and both of you take a hike or jump into the river before I join forces with Sven
First off Thomas, I did not want to have any argument with you. You were the one that made false claims about me saying all I do is complain about the names of all the PPVs, when mentioning Great Balls Of Fire. I then asked you to name at least one other of “all the PPV names” I complained about and you couldn’t do it. Don’t get it twisted.
I agree with you there Sven. he cannot mind his own business which he is a interfering son of a bitch which he gets his cronies especially RabidHeat to gang up on you and me which is not going to happen at all
I don’t understand the Network comment, as I live in the UK so my ‘Mania DVD will have the Kickoff matches and I don’t need the Network to watch them. I was just querying why the makers in the US didn’t also cut the entrances off to fit the matches on for our fellow buyers over there, Haha, how do you feel now, fool?
I feel fine thanks! How are you?
Not addressing that you were all kinds of incorrect then?
What was I incorrect about?
We need A documentary dvd for the undertaker
DVD or bluray, don’t care though bluray can fit more. Main thing is you’re right. Fans, especially Taker fans deserve a career retrospective doc on Taker, like the Bottom Line set for SCSA.
I’d personally also appreciate one on Kane too as like Taker, he’s also had a long HOF bound imho career.
An interesting note is that I just bought the DDP blu Ray in Australia and the cover is classified like an Australian release but the actual discs look like the ones released in the uk. Also instead of the mad man signature at the beginning it had Fremantle. How does that happen?
Import?
Hi AD. I think as of late Madman Australia have had some sort of a relationship with Fremantle whereby they use the UK discs (UK and Australia share Region B Blu-rays) but create their own packaging, thus making possible ‘limited edition’ runs of Blu-rays for the WWE titles they want to do it for in Aus.
That’s very interesting I didn’t know Aus shared regions with Europe in blu Rays
Is that the same with DVDs aswell, because I have never tried to watch a tna Europe DVD in a DVD player that wasn’t multi region. Thanks
It’s not the same with DVDs as Australia is Region 4, the UK Region 2. It works for Blu-ray as both are “B”.
I don’t understand why they would not put priority on Blu-Rays since you get higher picture quality and that nowadays, it’s not hard at all to get a decent cheap blu-ray player. I understand that maybe on a worldwide standpoint, DVDs are still the main format. People in poor places in the world probably cannot get an HDTV and a Blu-ray player so DVD is easier to get. Still, they cannot ignore blu-rays. At least, have all the documentaries on blu-ray. Old match compilations can be on DVDs, it makes no difference anyway…
When it comes to movies, Blu-rays outsell DVDs. Major movie studios are now shifting from BDs to 4K-UHDs. It’s just that wrestling fans, unfortunately, get a reputation for not being apt to spend more money. It’s why advertising rates for wrestling shows are so low.
Maybe it’s just because it’s only wrestling. I hate to say it because I am a wrestling fan, but a big chunk of DVD sales is that of the casual fan market, and casual fans might not care about wrestling being in HD because they only watch it for sh*ts and giggles. But they’re not gonna watch Transformers or some other Hollywood blockbuster in standard defintion, because of the CGI, etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if your average Hollywood blockbuster probably sells more than copies than all of WWEs yearly PPVs combined.
That’s an interesting question to ask. Whether it’s more casual fans that still buy DVDs or is it more hardcore fans. I would think, and I could be way off, but I would think the majority of wrestling fans left that still buy physical media are more of the hardcore completist fans. The fans that buy every single release. I don’t think there are that many fans left who just happen to come across a wrestling DVD in the store and buy it on a whin. But who knows?
*on a whim
actually afaik that very much depends on the country and even the individual releases.
http://www.the-numbers.com/weekly-dvd-sales-chart
http://www.the-numbers.com/weekly-bluray-sales-chart
They will put priority and what sells the most, whether it’s the better format or not. And obviously DVDs (for wrestling) still sell better. A lot of people who like BluRay for movies might still not shell out the extra coin to have their wrestling on it. Lots of casual viewers may not care whether their wrestling is in HD, but are going to want their Marvel Movies in HD, etc.
I have decided once in awhile to go with dvd over bluray when the extra content wasn’t that great. WWE 50 for example. It was way cheaper and I already had the Shawn Micheals vs Undertaker at WM 25 on Bluray.
I would not be shocked to see them phase out dvds completely. WWE has been getting lazy lately with their one hour documentaries and they could do so much better than what they have been releasing. I am looking forward to the highspots Bruiser Brody documentary coming out this month…
I call bullcrap on their reasoning for not including the kickoff show matches. Would it have killed them to make the extra effort and make a 4th disc for this set to include those matches, knowing full well how long these events are actually going? At this rate, we could see WM 34 and above going 6 hours +, which wouldn’t surprise me in the least bit for make an effort! And they should be held accountable knowing full well this is the direction McMahon seems to want to be leaning towards the length of this event, as these events have been getting longer by the year and it seems to be a trend that won’t cease anytime soon. A 4th disc would have solved this problem rather easily, but with WWE, where does logic fit in this equation?
I am going to second this. WWE in the past has done bigger set, recently the best of the 2000’s. They could do an extra blu ray disk or extra dvd…
Exactly my point as all it would take is a little effort at their end to make it happen.
I just don’t understand why the US staff didn’t have the same idea to remove the entrances, if a 4th disc was an issue.
To be fair, adding a 4th disc would possibly have pushed the price up for it, which they probably didn’t want to inflict on fans. But I still don’t know why they couldn’t just include the matches without the entrances, like they have for us in the UK.
I would hope they include Kurt Angle vs. Owen Hart on Angle’s set.
I don’t understand the logic of Owens getting a blu-ray when he debuted 2 years ago, yet Angle finally gets one when he debuted 18 years ago and only gets a DVD after all he did. DDP got one and he wasn’t nearly as big of a name.
Some people will respond by saying Angle doesn’t need a blu-ray release since all of his WWE matches were before WWE started recording in HD. Of course that ignores the fact that blu-rays can fit more matches than DVDs, especially since it looks like WWE is just about using up the full space on the Angle discs, with an 8:44 runtime.
Oh here he goes again. We read all of this from you on the last article.
Doesn’t make it any less true.
I know, but you made all the same points yesterday. We’ve read it all before, is what I mean.
Fair enough.
I am just happy NXT is getting a blu ray.
Didn’t you read the article? It said documentaries are the only ones going to Blu-Ray. Angle isn’t a documentary, Owens is. Simple as that. Stop whining
Owen Hart debuted 2 years ago? Huh?
Oh Unreleased Matches is not a blu-ray? Ugh! Horrible Choice!
At least angle is 8:44 so that’s good news.
It all comes down to the fact that DVDs are better in every way possible than blu-rays. That’s why WWE DVD’s outsell blu-rays by a wide margin. It’s because the 1990s technology of DVDs is so far ahead of blu-rays. It has nothing at all to do with wrestling fans being cheap. Not even a little bit. 😉
Oh My Dear Heavens!!!
What on earth do you “Blu Ray” Freaks need???
The WWE itself is blatantly telling you posers how terrible that Blu Ray is, yet you guys instantly just proclaim that you are better than other wrestling fans because the rest are just brain dead morons!
Way 2 Stay Classy… Blu Ray DORKS!
I’m gonna go out on a limb and venture a guess that 4K-UHD releases by WWE won’t be happening at all. Call it a hunch.
That’s what I was thinking. Not this decade.
I don’t think it’s gonna be ever. At the rate they’re going, they’re still stuck on selling a format from back in the 90s. I don’t see them moving forward.
DVD didn’t really become widely used by people on a normal wage until the 2000s.
The undertaker doc set has to come out eventually. It might be a “myth” for now but personally I think they are waiting for him to be inducted into the hall of fame and one would think that will happen at next years ceremony and when it does I think that will be included on the set.makes sence to me considering that he’s barely spoken over the years I think that would make for a great addition to the set. I mean how could they not make the set eventually? I’m pretty sure more than a few people at WWE realize that an undertaker doc set would probably break the record for sales for any set they’ve ever released. I can’t see the powers that be at WWE passing up on such an obvious huge money making opportunity.