Pre-Release Review of WWE ‘OMG! 2 – Top 50 Incidents in WCW History’ DVD

Oh. My. God. WWE decided to follow up on their 2011 DVD release charting the Top 50 Incidents in WWE history with a sequel – looking at the Top Incidents from World Championship Wrestling, thus we have OMG! Vol. 2: The Top 50 Incidents in WCW History.

Okay, let me start by stating this – I will be discussing the moments which make up the top 50, but I will avoid discussing their actual rankings, so as not to spoil it too much for everyone. So if you don’t want to know the moments, you might want to instead check out another fantastic article on your absolute favorite website – WrestlingDVDNews.com.

 
  
 

If you’re still here, I’ll begin…

As is typical with these Top 50/25 Countdown releases, their aim is to get us ‘rasslin fans all agitated about the rankings and inevitably you guys and girls fall for it each and every time. Personally, I’m at the stage where I don’t play attention to the actual rankings given, I simply watch for the entertainment value. However, with this particular release you don’t have too much to argue with for the top 10; at least in my opinion.

One of the most anticipated questions surrounding this release was, will it feature the iconic “Oh My God” theme tune from Vol. 1? For those who loved it: yes, yes it does; and for those who despised it, it is featured much less than on Vol. 1. So everyone wins (or loses, if you’re a glass half empty kind of person).

Let’s take a look at the type of moments featured on Vol. 2. Having re-looked at the 2011 list the vast majority of moments were shocking or cool ones. This time the general theme appears to be which were shocking, cool or stupid and just outright ridiculous. If you’re a fan of “wrestlecrap” you’ll really love this, if not you may not enjoy a fair chunk of the main feature. Personally, I really enjoyed the mix of moments.

The main feature clocks in at just under 2 hours and 15 minutes, and moves along at a great pace. Following an introduction to WCW each of the moments is given around 5 minutes, and comprises classic clips of the moment (and for some the build to the moment and in a few instances, the fallout). Each moment features interviews with wrestling personalities. Some interviewees are only included on one or two moments, however a number are featured more prominently throughout the feature, including: Booker T, Bill DeMott, Vince Russo, Tony Schiavone, Billy Kidman, Arn Anderson, William Regal, Hulk Hogan, Gene Okerlund, Jim Ross, Dusty Rhodes, Terry Taylor, Dustin Rhodes, Cody Rhodes and Justin Roberts.

The majority of interviews are shot in front of a green screen and utilize the old checker plate WCW logo from the Nitro set as the background, though a handful of classic interviews feature fixed backgrounds. Two of the interviewees who come across really well in this piece are Justin Roberts and Cody Rhodes; both offer a great “fan” perspective and are appear very knowledgeable about the moment they are discussing.

Something which I thought was really cool were the some of the comments and one-liners, which legit made me laugh out loud. The funnier moments were JR discussing Robocop, Mick Foley on being “Lost in Cleveland” and William Regal discussing the abortion that was Hogan, The Giant and The Yeti.

 

Really the moments can be separated out into three main categories: Shocking ones, Cool ones and the Ridiculous ones. While I’m not going to look at every moment here, I will look at a handful of each.

Shocking Moments

Garbage

This was one of the more shocking moments of the early months of The Monday Night War (and in fact even at the end, it was still shocking). The back-story to this moment was the WWE Women’s Champion, Alundra Blayze (aka Madusa) defected over to WCW without losing the title. She then proceeded to put the belt in a trash can live on Nitro, at the behest of Eric Bischoff. Discussion of this moment comes from fans at the time: Beth Phoenix and AJ Lee as well as industry insiders: Michael Hayes, Paul Heyman and even Vince McMahon! The moment really cemented the mistrust between the two promotions and was a true sign that the gloves were off in The Monday Night War.

Outside Invasion

This moment is again one of the most famous moments of the Monday Night War, as Scott Hall made his shocking debut on the very first two hour edition of Monday Nitro. Discussion of this moment is provided by Gene Okerlund, Michael Hayes and even some brand new interview footage with Scott Hall. This has to be one of the most iconic moments in all of pro-wrestling and key to the evolution of WCW and the nWo.

Who is the Third Man?

Another iconic moment in WCW history, a moment that really took the invading nWo angle to a whole new level with the reveal of the third man: Hulk Hogan. This segment featured interviews with the three men involved, including brand new footage with Scott Hall and Hulk Hogan. It was really cool to see these two interviewed again, as the previous interviews with these two regarding Bash at the Beach 1996 was from the 2002 “nWo: Back in Black”.

Masked Luchador

Chris Jericho was involved with some really entertaining angles around the Spring/Summer of 1998 in WCW and particularly with his feud with Dean Malenko which had already provided the famed “1004 Holds” segment and was about to provide the memorable “Conspiracy Theory” angle. The Masked Luchador segment comes from the 1998 Slamboree PPV where a battle royal was held to crown a #1 Contender for the Cruiserweight Title and the title match itself would take place immediately following the battle royal. The eventual winner of the battle royal would be a masked wrestler under the name Cyclope, who would unmask to reveal the returning Dean Malenko (who had taken several months hiatus), to the absolute delight of the fans in attendance, as they popped huge! This was a truly shocking, yet rather cool moment.

The Debut

The night when the War began. The very first edition of Monday Nitro saw the shock WCW return of Lex Luger, who had been appearing with WWE up until the night prior. In this segment we were given thoughts on the Nitro debut from current WWE superstars as well as insiders like Bill Apter. We are also given discussion of the logistics of the surprise from Lex himself. This segment is very similar to the part of the initial Monday Night War episode debuting on the WWE Network in just a few weeks (one which you should definitely check out, by the way).

Cool Moments

Scaffold

The most famous scaffold match in the history of pro-wrestling has to be this very match between The Midnight Express and The Road Warriors which culminated their feud at the 1986 Starrcade event. What might be more famous than the match is the angle following the match with the bump which is taken by Jim Cornette off the scaffold. This segment is narrated by Terry Taylor, Arn Amderson, Cody Rhodes and of course the 2005 archive interview with Jim Cornette. It’s always great to see Corney on these features. I really wish WWE would get him in to do another more in-depth interview for future releases.

Caged Horsemen

One of wrestling’s most vicious and sustained rivalries has to be the one between the beloved Dusty Rhodes and the despised Ric Flair & The Four Horsemen. This fateful September night in 1985 saw the Anderson’s and Ric Flair lock Dusty in the cage, before breaking his leg. The reaction from the crowd for this was simply incredible as the fans began to no climb and barricade the cage, not allowing the Horsemen to escape. Today in the era where everyone is “smart” it’s really cool to see this old school legit heat, as those fans wanted to save Dusty and were willing to lay down their own safety to do just this.

La Parka

In the midst of the Randy Savage and Dallas Page feud, and while the nWo were rolling over pretty much everyone in the promotion, this one was a very cool moment as “La Parka”, who was all but buried by the announcers, hit the Diamond Cutter on Macho before revealing his true identity as DDP and heading into the crowd.

Helicopter

Sting was known for his descents from the rafters around this period and on this particular occasion as part of their “Spring Breakout” Nitro emanated from Club La Vila, however the lack of a ceiling posed the Stinger with a conundrum: where to come down from, the answer… A HELICOPTER! Sting arrived in style by helicopter providing a cool Nitro moment; this tale is recounted by the stunt coordinator who handed the stunt.

Junkyard Brawl

Rounding out the cool and bordering on ridiculous: The Junkyard Battle Royal. Held in the summer of 1999 when hardcore wrestling was itself bordering on coolness into ridiculousness, the match basically involved a group of then lower-mid carders battling in a legit Junkyard and the first to escape would be crowned victorious. The match caused a lot of legitimate injures (a point not covered in the countdown) but rather we do hear comments from Bill DeMott, William regal and Finlay (the winner of the contest) along with Dusty Rhodes who apparently help setup the whole fiasco.

Ridiculous Moments

Electric Chair

The Chambers of Horrors will hold a prestigious place in wrestling history as one if the most gimmicky gimmick matches of ALL time. The match featured two all star teams made up of: Sting, The Steiner’s, Vader, Cactus Jack, Adbullah the Butcher, Scott “The Diamond Stud” Hall… and… El Gigante; the winners would be the ones to place a member of the opposing team in the electric chair and pull the leaver. If you don’t know this match, you will really love this segment. If you’ve seen it and blocked it out if your memory, sorry.

Forklift Match

It’s WCW. The year is 2000. Vince Russo is involved with creative; how shocked are you so far that this made my ridiculous list? Well this one involves Buff Bagwell taking on Chris Kanyon with the aim being to release Judy Bagwell (Buff’s legit Mom) from the forklift truck in the entrance way. If you think this one already couldn’t get much worse, look out for an appearance by former WCW World Heavyweight Champion, David Arquette who makes a surprise appearance during the bout. I’m done talking about this one. LOL!

Lost in Cleveland

Question: How do you make a guy who looked homeless, look homeless? Answer: By combing his hair and shaving both his beard and eyebrows. This is the moment where Cactus Jack became Lost in Cleveland. Coming out of a vicious series of matches between Cactus and Big Van Vader, Cactus suffered amnesia and became homeless, believing he was a former sailor. These Oscar quality vignettes were hosted by Catherine White who attempted to track down the missing Cactus Jack. Of course this incredible TV came from the creative genius behind: “Spin the wheel, make the deal”, “The White Castle of Fear” and the summer blockbuster “Beach Blast: The Mini Movie” (which you can also relive in the countdown). It’s really fun to hear Mick Foley and Dusty Rhodes discussing these infamous vignettes.

49ers Match

Straight from the mind of Vince Russo comes the 49ers match. A match in which Booker T and Jeff Jarrett would do battle for the vacant WCW Championship (caused by Russo himself winning and vacating the title, yay WCW 2000) with four wooden boxes handing from each corner of the ring. The boxes contained three vicious weapons (which turned out to be: a coal miners glove, a blow up doll and a picture of Scott Hall) and the WCW Championship. The first to open the box with the Title Belt would be the new WCW Champion. Yes, WWE crowned Randy Savage it’s champion with a star studded 14-Man Tournament, but in WCW we got cheap wooden boxes (ON POLES!) *sigh*. It is however really fun to hear Booker T describe this lunacy of this match.

Cobo Chaos

This is one of the funnier moments in the countdown. This moment looks at both the Monster Truck Sumo Match and the finish to Hulk Hogan vs. The Giant, a finish which involved a hellacious dry humping delivered to the Hulkster, courtesy of the Giant and the debuting Yeti (dressed as a mummy). What makes this moment even better is the hilarious commentary from William Regal during this segment of the DVD countdown.

All in all the main feature moves along at a great pace and the 2+ hours just flew by, something which I can’t say for other countdown style features WWE has done. So if you’re a member of the “WCW Universe” (yes, that apparently is a thing now) I think you’ll love the trip down memory lane and if you’re a newer fan, I still think you’ll find it an enjoyable watch.

Without a doubt I would say pick up OMG! Vol. 2: The Top 50 Incidents in WCW History when it is released or just pre-order your copy now using the links below.

 

Get your OMG! WCW Incidents DVD or Blu-ray…

 

– USA: This Tuesday! Gets yours now here on Amazon.com.

– UK/Europe: August 25th. Pre-order now from WWEDVD.co.uk.

– Australia: September 3rd. Pre-order now from WWEDVD.com.au.