WrestlingDVDNetwork.com is pleased to announce a brand new (Non-PPV) WWE DVD has been added to the 2021 schedule: WWE “Best of 1996: Prelude to Attitude”.
This 2-disc DVD compilation will pack in a total of 19 matches and segments witnessed on RAW, Superstars and PPV events during the course of 1996, between January and December.
And yes, the plan is for this to be a worldwide release — at this time we’re seeing the ’96 DVD scheduled for November 2021 in both the United States and the United Kingdom. The US version will have catalog number WB95831, the UK version catalog number FHEDWWE317.
Journey back to the 90s with WWE Best of 1996: Prelude to Attitude. Relive one of the most pivotal years in sports entertainment and enjoy matches and moments featuring Shawn Michaels, Bret “Hitman” Hart, The Rock, Undertaker, Mankind, Triple H, Sycho Sid and more!
[Notice: Kindly link back to this article if you are using any portion of its contents.]
The Prelude to Attitude
WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
Razor Ramon vs. Goldust
Royal Rumble • January 21, 1996
Vader Destroys Gorilla Monsoon
RAW • January 22, 1996
#1 Contender’s Match
Shawn Michaels vs. Owen Hart
In Your House • February 18, 1996
Bret “Hitman” Hart vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley
RAW • March 11, 1996
Undertaker Meets Mankind
RAW • April 1, 1996
No Holds Barred Match for the WWE Championship
Shawn Michaels vs. Diesel
In Your House: Good Friends, Better Enemies • April 28, 1996
“Wildman” Marc Mero vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley
In Your House: Beware of Dog • May 26, 1996
The Undertaker vs. Mankind
King of the Ring • June 23, 1996
King of the Ring Finals Match
Jake “The Snake” Roberts vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin
King of the Ring • June 23, 1996
Sunny Gets “Slopped”
Superstars • June 29, 1996
Shawn Michaels, Sycho Sid & Ahmed Johnson vs. Vader, Owen Hart & The British Bulldog
In Your House: International Incident • July 21, 1996
RAW Invitational Battle Royal
The Undertaker vs. Sycho Sid vs. Ahmed Johnson vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Mankind vs. Owen Hart vs. British Bulldog vs. Goldust vs. Savio Vega vs. “Wildman” Marc Mero vs. Justin “Hawk” Bradshaw
RAW • August 5, 1996
WWE Championship Match
Shawn Michaels vs. Vader
SummerSlam • August 18, 1996
WWE Championship Match
Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind
In Your House: Mind Games • September 22, 1996
WWE Intercontinental Championship Tournament Finals
“Wildman” Marc Mero vs. Faarooq
RAW • September 23, 1996
Stone Cold Takes Out Brian Pillman
Superstars • October 27, 1996
Traditional Survivor Series Elimination Match
Rocky Maivia, “Wildman” Marc Mero, Jake “The Snake” Roberts & The Stalker vs. Jerry “The King” Lawler, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Goldust & Crush
Survivor Series • November 17, 1996
Bret “Hitman” Hart vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin
Survivor Series • November 17, 1996
WWE Championship Match
Sycho Sid vs. Bret “Hitman” Hart
In Your House: It’s Time • December 15, 1996
Release Dates for WWE 1996: PRELUDE TO ATTITUDE DVD…
– United States: November 9th. Pre-order the Best of 1996 DVD very soon on Amazon.com.
– UK/Europe: November 29th. Pre-order the Best of 1996 DVD shortly on Amazon.co.uk.
– Australia: TBA. Look out for your release announcement soon at Madman.com.au.
The “Biography: WWE Legends” documentaries are coming to Home Video!
More good news as these Amazon product listings reveal that all 8 of the awesome A&E documentaries (on Stone Cold Steve Austin, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, “Macho Man” Randy Savage”, Booker T, Shawn Michaels, Ultimate Warrior, Mick Foley and Bret “Hitman” Hart) will see a DVD release to the United States this September.
These titles will not be released under the usual WWE Home Video/Warner Bros. banner (instead the studio appears to be Lionsgate), nonetheless we are being treated to TWO 2-disc DVD sets — Biography: WWE Legends Volume 1 and Biography: WWE Legends Volume 2 — that between them present all of the documentary features in physical form.
Check out which documentaries will be bundled together with the cover artwork below:
I like that they including some stuff from raw as well but too many repeats too they should have added the parking lot brawl goldust vs piper I know that hasn’t been released in too many DVDs/blurays or hbk vs psycho sid from survivor series 96 or Ahmed Johnson vs goldust k.O.T.R. 96 or bulldog vs hbk beware of dog 2 just my opinion
Too many repeated matched on here. Not gonna she’ll put money for this garbage.
Tell me if it’s Todd Pettengill hosting the dvd? Pls make it happen WWE!
I like this 1996 dvd. I think WWE should realease more of these things maybe starting in the eighties. But given WWE owns such a vast tape library why not include a few big matches from other promotions as well? WCW, ECW NWA eg
Still no blurays.Sure you can enjoy the matches running at a higher frame rate, but I’d rather watch these matches on the WWE Network.
No Blu-ray, no buy
Warner Bros needs to stop this bullsh**. It was one thing to remove the digipack format (which rocked) but it’s cataclysmic to remove Blu-Ray’s entirely.
I’m actually VERY Thrilled about this dvd. 1996 was the first year I got into wrestling as a kid. And for nostalgia reasons included my favorite year in wwe. Anyways I’m aware match listings could be better but there’s some I’m very happy about e.g. the raw invitational battle royal, Faarooq vs Mero, hart vs sid, hart vs hhh and a few others I don’t have on dvd. But I was afraid I’d never get a 1996 dvd. I will TAKE IT. HOPE they release more footage from 96 like from raw and superstars. I’d like to achieve Leif Cassidy vs hbk, Jannetty vs hbk, goldust vs razor from raw (not the rumble) hbk and Ahmed vs smoking gunns, I believe taker and mankind had a raw match in 96 and many others. But like I said I will take it.
The Undertaker & Mankind had a host of great matches in 96. Fued of the year KOTR,SummerSlam & IYH Buried Alive & Survivor Seris 96
I believe the last match of the fued happened on Raw in December, but they continued their fued in short stints in 97 & 98
The Undertaker & Mankind had a host of great matches in 96.
Yes I am fully aware. Big wwe fan since early 90s hundreds of coliseum videos and hundreds of dvds lol. I was simply referring to taker and mankind having a raw match IN 96 (which yes was december) I would’ve liked to make the cut.
Yes. They did have a match in December 9, 1996 on RAW. The match you and Andrew both are referring to was a No Holds Barred match between them. And yes, they did continue their 1996 feud of the year in 1997 at IYH: Revenge of the Taker, the post WM13 ppv, and in 1998 with their HIAC match at the KOTR ppv. That HIAC is still being talked about today and highlights/moments are shown in whatever format from that match when it fits or is needed.
We need more Raw & Superstars matches, its mostly PPV. Stone Cold & Savio Vega had some good matches on Raw & Superstars
Still a good set, maybe missing bret vs shawn to allow the disc set to flo.
There was some good matches from IYH buried alive that should be included
Bulldog & Owen were a great tag team
i would like to see it in widescreen too
cant wait for the next releases never understood why they didnt made a dvd for christian when he was on wwf/wwe they didnt even made one for molly holly with her matches on it and really was hoping a dvd for victoria during her early years as well sad and many more superstars
Amazon.de has a Drew McIntyre DVD listed for December: https://www.amazon.de/Wwe-Drew-Mcintyre-Best-Scottish/dp/B09BYBJ4Z2/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&dchild=1&keywords=wwe&qid=1628767001&s=dvd&sr=1-1
Looks like we are getting more Non-PPV Releases 🙂
That’s interesting! Bizarre for it to show up on Amazon before ever being mentioned here.
Was hoping it would be a four or five disc set for each year for attitude and ruthless aggression era so many matches did’nt make the list especially really good matches
Doesn’t look bad, won’t be picking it up but it’s not a bad overview for 96. Only major misses that come to mind are the ironman, probably due to runtime, and sid’s win over shawn.
They really should continue the Unreleased sets. There’s so much life there bc they can cover eras/years, shows or superstars, however they wanna do it. There’s definitely superstars that haven’t gotten an Unreleased set on them yet but should. Austin, Rock, Daniel Bryan, Cena, Orton, Kane, Kurt Angle (WWF/WWE), Sting (pre TNA), The Undertaker now that his career is over. Another one on HBK and Bret Hart
They’ll sell and I’ll surely be doing my part to buy them all as I now own all the unreleased sets that WWE released
Don’t expect anything Sting-related as long as he’s with AEW. That includes DVDs, figures, shirts, anything.
I also believe (from memory) that WCW didn’t quite archive matches like WWE always have; so you might be able to get Nitro and PPV matches that have never been released on DVD, but nothing wholly unreleased in any format, like WWE’s 86-95 or Attitude Era 3 sets.
Or bryan since he’s been pulled from their licensing.
1. We’ll I did say pre TNA when mentioning Sting.
2. They allowed Jericho to do something on the WWE Network while he was in AEW. And despite being in AEW, they still put out content that includes him when they could have cut him out. But they left him on. I think that’s bc many in the company and many of their fans are fans of Jericho and respect him. Same goes for Sting. Vince is a noted Sting fan. It’s why he tried Sting him back in 89.
3. Sting won’t be in AEW very long. I don’t expect him to at this stage of his career and bc of his age as well as his spinal stenosis condition even if he’s over it. The man’s got a family and a life of his own outside of wrestling he more than likely wants to engage in. How could he not at this point in time after all the years he’s spent missing out on all of that by wrestling??
I own 90% of the content here . I’d rather they continue the “best of RAW” yearly set… or rather have us choose which RAW episodes we want in dvd
pleasant surprise that there is another non-ppv release.
Have to get this dvd looks way better than hell in a cell dvd 2021 and money in the bank 2021
You can’t really compare a current PPV with an archive compilation release; it’s apples and oranges.
What i was getting at was they dont put much effort in the new pay per view it’s not a pay per view dvd i know but i dont own much of the old dvds and this one looks pretty good cause most old dvds with the wwf logo they either took down or it’s out of stock i like the attitude era and ruthless aggression more some of the dvds were better than the ones now
Can’t wait for “WWE 1987: A Decade Before Attitude”!
I would love for them to do that too. They need to make another Unrelease dvd.
Stone Cold, Rock (they’ll capitalize on his 25th as much as they can in any/every way they can), Kurt Angle, Undertaker are just some names that have spent enough time wrestling in WWF to warrant getting unreleased sets on them. They should also get entire career spanning documentary sets on them too. Now is the perfect time with it being Rock’s 25th anniversary and with Angle and Taker retired. Austin already got a career doc Blu-ray set on him released. I think Kurt Angle did too but I’m not sure about that.
You might like Timeline – The history of WWE 1987 with the Honky Tonk Man.
I’m really surprised that they are releasing this, I’m an avid DVD collector, so yes I definitely want this. The moments and matches are some I’ve wanted. I just wish it was a Three instead of a two disc set . I’m happy though, definitely buying this one, might get it for Xmas who knows. Lol
When we got the ‘1997: Dawn of Attitude’ set, I kinda thought to myself, they’re still gonna milk this further one day and eek out a 1996 set, and try to tie it into “Attitude” to boost sales. Then time went by and I thought they had actually surprised me by not being so obvious. But here it is, lol.
I really don’t know how I feel about it. I think I would have rather they just called it something to the effect of ‘The Best of 1996’ rather than trying to shoehorn yet another “Attitude” title, because despite Austin’s 3:16 speech foreshadowing Attitude somewhat, I’m sorry, but 1996 is NOT part of the Attitude Era.
Content-wise however, it’s a shame this isn’t three discs, but they’re clearly at the stage of reducing production costs now that physical media is dying. I really think there are too many PPV matches that I already own on here to justify a purchase though. I kinda wish it had been an ‘Unreleased’ set, but then again, the significant unreleased 1996 matches were included on A.E. Vol. 3 (which again made no sense).
May pick this up for a bargain price much further down the line.
Where to begin my dear dear friend, it’s called Prelude to Attitude, it’s saying it’s before Attitude in the title. Hence what prelude means. I mean they didn’t really categorize this as attitude Era. They only put like maybe 4 matches on the unreleased attitude Era DVD so I get you there. However this is not the same thing,not even close.
A bigger shame is that this isn’t a 3 disc blu ray set. Blu-ray quality is superior to dvd. So much so that the superior quality even shows up on 2000 and pre 2000 content and these are years before Blu-ray (and even dvd depending upon what pre 2000 year would specifically be talked about) existed. But it’s also my understanding that Blu-ray Discs have more space therefore each disc can hold more content than dvd discs. Now keep in mind that idk if that’s completely true or not but it’s what I’ve been led to understand and that’s not just bc it’s what I’ve been told.
Those unreleased sets, glad they’re 3 discs, but should’ve been in Blu-ray too. But I think they’re doing less Blu-rays now at least here in the US (idk about the rest of the world, maybe it’ll eventually follow if it’s not a complete no more WWE blurays world yet)
UPDATE: looks like it’s a complete no more WWE dvds or Blu-rays world as I just now read they’ve cancelled all upcoming/scheduled dvds and Blu-ray sets besides the updated version of a previously released Rock set, Drew McIntyre set, and some ppv releases. I’ll miss them and wish they released more but I get why they’ve stopped. Production costs being one reason. But it can’t be denied that we live/have been living for years now in a digital world. Before, physical media was the only way to watch whatever movie/series, play whatever game, listen to whatever music you wanted to whenever you wanted to bc streaming didn’t exist. Now the only people who buy physical media are those who prefer watching that way and/or collectors who are collecting them while many others prefer streaming to engage in whatever form of media they want whenever wherever they want to.
I would have preferred a little more from Raw & Superstars instead of the PPVs, but I am glad we are getting a releases, that fits in right between “Unreleased Matches 85-95” and “Dawn of the Attitude”. As far as the A&E docs are concerned, glad we are getting them. Does anyone know, if a DVD-release of “Dark Side Of The Ring” is planned ?
Not happening showed WWE in too much of a negative light. Unless you are asking that question to be a jerk, otherwise what could they possibly gain other than negative media and maybe a few bucks?
This new title WWE BEST OF 1996: Prelude to Attitude if can have all the matches from raw and wwe superstars will be even better.
Preordered the Documentary dvds and I am hoping that WWE does more documentary releases.
A shame they won’t do a 2nd volume of WWE Unreleased Never Before Seen Matches 1986-1995 Volume 2. I’d buy that in a heartbeat.
Me too, but at least they are producing some non-ppv releases so maybe there is some hope.
Hoping that the documentary dvd get a UK release
On another note, unless it’s an eventual plan, I’m surprised there isn’t a 2001 – End of an Era release since this year obviously marks 20 years since the Attitude Era ended (or the beginning of the end, whatever side you’re on) and the end of the Monday Night War.
To clarify, this isn’t necessarily a want for me, this is just me acknowledging that I know how WWE is when it comes to releases and it wouldn’t be shocking of they did this due to the significance attached.
Oh God yes – that will be next: ‘2002: Aftermath of Attitude!” * rolls eyes *
Very similar to the 1996 Year In Review VHS that would have been released at the time , only covering Survivor Series & IYH12
Will be a good DVD although nothing not available on the network
But more a case of what we know now than back then , Austin 3:16 & The Rock rise to prominence
Glad the legend biographies getting a release, will pick up even though Lionsgate usually Region 1 but hoping they also get a UK release too
That’s a VERY good point actually. I have the Tagged Classics ‘Year In Review’ DVD for 1996 and it covers a lot of the bases here in terms of recapping the key points and feuds of the year.
To be fair to them though, apart from the ‘Mind Games’ Michaels/Mankind match, I think they’ve chosen a completely different match listing to the ‘Year In Review’ tape? From skimming the listings anyway.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful the Attitude Era unreleased set provided what it did and it was a great set still, but for that set to feature 1996 matches and the fact that they’re now saying this is the “prelude to attitude” it’s almost funny that WWE is saying they don’t know when their own era began and ended.
Yes, a case can be made that 1996 planted that seed with Austin 3:16, but taking this into consideration, plus 1997 – Dawn of the Attitude, it’s kinda humorous.
2001 may be the end of the Attitude Era, but some believe it ended in 2002 after the first draft, do that’s why I also mentioned the don’t know where it started or ended.
Regardless, this may be something I pick up for the novelty and it being part of what I grew up with. Looks rushed, but somewhat decent.
Fantastic news that a non PPV DVD is finally coming out it’s a shame the listing is lazy and piss poor
Hopefully this is a experiment by wwe to retest the DVD waters since the peacock deal has been a slap in the face to fans.I really hope they put more DVDs out