I think it’s a bit of a silly set really. I get that it’s WWE’s spiritual home (though not highly regarded enough to hold ‘Mania XXX there, apparently!), but really, what actual theme does that give this set? Nothing. Just matches and moments we’ve seen before, but only the ones from Madison Square Garden. I’m sorry if it’s sacrilege to say, but in general, it’s about the moments themselves, not where they take place.
There’s no way Mania XXX could’ve been held at MSG. WWE would’ve either had to take a major cut in revenue or jack the prices up so high that it wouldn’t be affordable for anyone. Ticket prices for Mania have gone up drastically since Mania XX in 2004. Downgrading from an 80,000 seat building to an 18,000 seat building would’ve cost WWE millions of dollars in ticket sales.
As for the theme of this set, Madison Square Garden is more than just a random arena where some great moments happened, it was also the monthly home of the old “WWF From Madison Square Garden” TV show that aired on the MSG Network for nearly 20 years. No other arena had a TV show dedicated to it for as long a time period. Yes there was “Spectrum Wrestling” that aired on the PRISM Network and there was “Maple Leaf Wrestling” in Toronto, but the Garden show every month was THE big show every month in the days before pay-per-view. So it’s no different than having a compilation of best Raw matches or In Your House matches or any other compilation set.
I’d like to see some of the battles between Superstar Billy Graham and Dusty Rhodes for the WWE title that took place at MSG. They had great matches that sold out the Garden plenty of times back in the day. I hope some of those matches are on here.
I would expect Austin/Taker, Rock/HHH(ladder) or Mankind vs Outlaws from Summerslam 98. At least one of them should be on there. Also, I hope there is a lot of pre-Wrestlemania stuff and not too much recent stuff. I just think it used to feel more special and I think they should focus on those days rather than raw in 2009.
Bob Backlund vs Harley Race:Unification Match
Bruno Sammartino vs Stan Hansen
Dynamite Kid vs Tiger Mask
Andre The Giant vs King Kong Bundy
Bootcamp Match Sgt Slaughter vs Iron Sheik
The Bruno/Hansen match where Bruno had his neck broken would be very cool to add on here, also on that same show Ric Flair wrestled his 2nd MSG match (against Frankie Williams, I think).
A Bruiser Brody match would be nice as well like vs. Bruno in the Texas Death Match or even the 3 out of 5 Falls 6-Man Tag.
Howard Finkle’s MSG debut in 77 would make a cool extra or Easter egg as well.
Since you mentioned Flair, I wonder if the first Hogan/Flair match from 1991 will make the cut? I’m guessing that Gene Okerlund will be lobbying for it’s exclusion.
Considering they’re releasing a Best of Sammartino DVD next year, it seems a tad unlikely. Am sure he’ll be used as a talking head and/or appear in at least one of the matches or moments though.
Would love to see matches one of the Santana-Valentine classics for the IC belt, the cage match between Hogan and Muraco from 6-15-85 10 min bloody classic, Texas death from 83, Backlund defending against IC Champ Muraco.
I’m really looking forward to the MSG release. I expect there to be PPV matches on there, as there should be, but I hope they dig up some classics as well. WWE Classics On Demand has good shows from the 1970’s at MSG playing every month. I certainly hope they have some matches from the 70’s and 80’s on there.
MSG 1984 – Sgt. Slaughter vs. Iron Sheik (Boot Camp Match)
WrestleMania 1 – Hulk Hogan & Mr. T vs. Roddy Piper & Paul Orndorff
SummerSlam 1988 – Ultimate Warrior vs. Honky Tonk Man
SummerSlam 1991 – Ted DiBiase vs. Virgil
Survivor Series 1996 – Shawn Michaels vs. Sid
Royal Rumble 2000 – The Hardy Boyz vs. The Dudley Boyz (Tables Match)
Survivor Series 2002 – First ever Elimination Chamber Match
RAW 2003 – Triple H vs. Kane (Title vs. Mask)
WrestleMania 20 – Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle
SmackDown 2009 – Jeff Hardy vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho vs. Kane (Elimination Match)
RAW 2009 – John Cena & The Undertaker vs. DX vs. Jerishow
Survivor Series 2011 – CM Punk vs. Alberto Del Rio
Add some rare classics featuring Hogan and Savage from the 80’s and I’m happy
Their was a smackdown show back in 2009 that was taped in madison square garden, the raw from november 2009 that featured DX v Y2J Show v Undertaker Cena but that match has been released on DX one Last stand as Blu-ray Exclusive, Their was a Saturday Night main even taping in MSG back in 2008 that featured Jeff Hardy v Edge which was a good match, Not really any other moments from this era to include tbh,
I hope as a Blu-ray Exclusive Extra we get the Full Royal Rumble 2008 Match, I would love to own that in HD because the DVD version isnt even 16:9 widescreen and it was only released on DVD and was the first ppv broadcasted in HD.
I would happily purchase the Blu-ray version just for the Rumble 2008 match in HD
It’s a shame that nothing from the 50’s and 60’s Capitol/WWWF library exists anymore. Bruno’s entire first reign as Champion can’t be seen with the exception of a few matches that exist at the very end of his reign in 1970-71. With that said you gotta expect stuff on this set from the Morales era, Bruno’s second reign, the Backlund era and obviously the Hulkamania era through the attitude era and then today. Although there really isn’t much MSG stuff from today that could be used. They’ve only had 1 Raw taping there in the last 5 years. I actually wouldn’t mind anything from the 2008 Rumble being included since that PPV was never released in HD format.
Do you know for a fact nothing exists for WWWF/Capitol Wrestling library anymore? Do you know what happened to it? Taped over or Tapes deteriorated over time before technology could catch up to transfer/save them or what?
Here is a list of what WWEs Library contains as of 2010. It is a wikipedia page so not sure whats for 100% accurate and even how much they even taped matches back then in regards to 1950s, 60s wrestling. But Capitol wrestling is on the list of footage they have supposedly. Obviously they did a lot of matches in Wash DC though then too not MSG In NY.
Most wrestling companies back in the 50’s-70’s(and some even until the early 80’s) didn’t see any monetary future in old video tapes. You have to remember that home video rentals didn’t begin until the late 70’s and didn’t really boom until the mid 80’s. Companies would save money on master tapes by recording over old ones. It’s really a shame when you think about. The WWWF was actually way ahead of the curve when it came to archiving their tapes before any other wrestling companies. The earliest known footage I’ve ever seen WWE produce is from 1970. There may be some rare tapes here and there prior to 1970, but if they do exist there’s not many.
If you search Youtube or Dailymotion or one of those sites you will find that there is one set of tapes from a 1965 WWWF tv taping that do exist. I’m not sure if WWE has that footgae in their own personal library though as I’ve seen that footage on the net going back over a decade and I’m not too sure if the network that aired the shows owns the footage or if WWE themselves own it.
There’s also several home videos of matches taped at MSG during the 70’s(including the match where Ivan Koloff won the WWWF Title from Bruno) that have popped up online over the years, but they’re not professionally recorded. They were recorded by a fan at ringside. I guess those were the early Fan-Cams. I forgot the name of the guy who recorded those tapes, but he has many of them.
It’s really a shame when you think about it all the great matches and footage that are lost forever.
I hope this becomes a series where WWE will look at the best of The Philly Spectrum, The Boston Garden, Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, obviously a volume 2 on MSG because of the amount of history there.
I’m looking forward to this minus the Cena rumble win(who cares)!! There is so much history from the garden that too bad it can’t be broken into 2 parts. One part being from late 70’s to the 80’s. The other part be from the 90’s to today minus anything with Cena. I’m shocked that there ain’t no small documentary at least.
Been looking forward to this release for years and years (had been hoping for an MSG set long before it was announced, so very happy that it’s confirmed). Am hoping that one of the moments is the Shawn Michaels / Hulk Hogan tandem coming together at the 04/18/05 episode of Raw. Michaels was being beaten down by Hassan & Daivari, and Hogan made the save to a huge pop. The two then posed for a long time, and it was very cool (especially as it was the first time it happened).
Also, is Michaels vs. Christian from Raw in October 2004 a possibility? Hardly a classic MSG moment, but a very good TV match that happened to take place at MSG (and worthy of a DVD release at some point, for sure).
I’m expecting Kingston vs. Orton or Cena/Undertaker vs. DX vs. Jerishow to be the “new era” matches on the set, can’t think of anything else “never before seen”
Enough with ramon vs hbk match! I own it a million times my self! No one can say that it is not good but let’s stop filling the dvds with same stuff -_-
Yeah, I’m usually forgiving when it comes to repeats, but when a match starts popping up all over the place, I get a little irritated. They can’t find ONE MORE MATCH to put in its place?!
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It got me excited to read about Bruno Sammartino but they lost me at John Cena.
i wanna see Benoit’s World Title win celebration with Eddie Guerrero.
Best head to Amazon and order yourself a copy of WMXX then.
I think it’s a bit of a silly set really. I get that it’s WWE’s spiritual home (though not highly regarded enough to hold ‘Mania XXX there, apparently!), but really, what actual theme does that give this set? Nothing. Just matches and moments we’ve seen before, but only the ones from Madison Square Garden. I’m sorry if it’s sacrilege to say, but in general, it’s about the moments themselves, not where they take place.
There’s no way Mania XXX could’ve been held at MSG. WWE would’ve either had to take a major cut in revenue or jack the prices up so high that it wouldn’t be affordable for anyone. Ticket prices for Mania have gone up drastically since Mania XX in 2004. Downgrading from an 80,000 seat building to an 18,000 seat building would’ve cost WWE millions of dollars in ticket sales.
As for the theme of this set, Madison Square Garden is more than just a random arena where some great moments happened, it was also the monthly home of the old “WWF From Madison Square Garden” TV show that aired on the MSG Network for nearly 20 years. No other arena had a TV show dedicated to it for as long a time period. Yes there was “Spectrum Wrestling” that aired on the PRISM Network and there was “Maple Leaf Wrestling” in Toronto, but the Garden show every month was THE big show every month in the days before pay-per-view. So it’s no different than having a compilation of best Raw matches or In Your House matches or any other compilation set.
I’d like to see some of the battles between Superstar Billy Graham and Dusty Rhodes for the WWE title that took place at MSG. They had great matches that sold out the Garden plenty of times back in the day. I hope some of those matches are on here.
Sounds like a promising set, hopefully there will be rare matches instead of alot of repeats
I would expect Austin/Taker, Rock/HHH(ladder) or Mankind vs Outlaws from Summerslam 98. At least one of them should be on there. Also, I hope there is a lot of pre-Wrestlemania stuff and not too much recent stuff. I just think it used to feel more special and I think they should focus on those days rather than raw in 2009.
Matches I’d Like to See:
Bob Backlund vs Harley Race:Unification Match
Bruno Sammartino vs Stan Hansen
Dynamite Kid vs Tiger Mask
Andre The Giant vs King Kong Bundy
Bootcamp Match Sgt Slaughter vs Iron Sheik
everything else I’ll be ok with.
The Bruno/Hansen match where Bruno had his neck broken would be very cool to add on here, also on that same show Ric Flair wrestled his 2nd MSG match (against Frankie Williams, I think).
A Bruiser Brody match would be nice as well like vs. Bruno in the Texas Death Match or even the 3 out of 5 Falls 6-Man Tag.
Howard Finkle’s MSG debut in 77 would make a cool extra or Easter egg as well.
Since you mentioned Flair, I wonder if the first Hogan/Flair match from 1991 will make the cut? I’m guessing that Gene Okerlund will be lobbying for it’s exclusion.
I hope this best of msg will not become the best of bruno sammartio
Considering they’re releasing a Best of Sammartino DVD next year, it seems a tad unlikely. Am sure he’ll be used as a talking head and/or appear in at least one of the matches or moments though.
I would expect a lot of repeats.
I am really hoping for the Bootcamp Match (shocker) and the Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid match from ’82.
Would love to see matches one of the Santana-Valentine classics for the IC belt, the cage match between Hogan and Muraco from 6-15-85 10 min bloody classic, Texas death from 83, Backlund defending against IC Champ Muraco.
was looking so forward to this ,,now turned off another wm and royal rumble match cant they just put matches on there that have never been seen on dvd
I’m really looking forward to the MSG release. I expect there to be PPV matches on there, as there should be, but I hope they dig up some classics as well. WWE Classics On Demand has good shows from the 1970’s at MSG playing every month. I certainly hope they have some matches from the 70’s and 80’s on there.
Matches I want to see:
MSG 1984 – Sgt. Slaughter vs. Iron Sheik (Boot Camp Match)
WrestleMania 1 – Hulk Hogan & Mr. T vs. Roddy Piper & Paul Orndorff
SummerSlam 1988 – Ultimate Warrior vs. Honky Tonk Man
SummerSlam 1991 – Ted DiBiase vs. Virgil
Survivor Series 1996 – Shawn Michaels vs. Sid
Royal Rumble 2000 – The Hardy Boyz vs. The Dudley Boyz (Tables Match)
Survivor Series 2002 – First ever Elimination Chamber Match
RAW 2003 – Triple H vs. Kane (Title vs. Mask)
WrestleMania 20 – Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle
SmackDown 2009 – Jeff Hardy vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho vs. Kane (Elimination Match)
RAW 2009 – John Cena & The Undertaker vs. DX vs. Jerishow
Survivor Series 2011 – CM Punk vs. Alberto Del Rio
Add some rare classics featuring Hogan and Savage from the 80’s and I’m happy
Matches I want to see: None of those because they have all been released before
What was the name of that set the Bootcamp Match was on?
stars of the 80s
that was another match they had. The Boot Camp match hasn’t been released to DVD as far as I know
Thank you!
Their was a smackdown show back in 2009 that was taped in madison square garden, the raw from november 2009 that featured DX v Y2J Show v Undertaker Cena but that match has been released on DX one Last stand as Blu-ray Exclusive, Their was a Saturday Night main even taping in MSG back in 2008 that featured Jeff Hardy v Edge which was a good match, Not really any other moments from this era to include tbh,
I hope as a Blu-ray Exclusive Extra we get the Full Royal Rumble 2008 Match, I would love to own that in HD because the DVD version isnt even 16:9 widescreen and it was only released on DVD and was the first ppv broadcasted in HD.
I would happily purchase the Blu-ray version just for the Rumble 2008 match in HD
Fully agreed. Definitely hoping that the Rumble 2008 match is included in this set.
It’s a shame that nothing from the 50’s and 60’s Capitol/WWWF library exists anymore. Bruno’s entire first reign as Champion can’t be seen with the exception of a few matches that exist at the very end of his reign in 1970-71. With that said you gotta expect stuff on this set from the Morales era, Bruno’s second reign, the Backlund era and obviously the Hulkamania era through the attitude era and then today. Although there really isn’t much MSG stuff from today that could be used. They’ve only had 1 Raw taping there in the last 5 years. I actually wouldn’t mind anything from the 2008 Rumble being included since that PPV was never released in HD format.
Do you know for a fact nothing exists for WWWF/Capitol Wrestling library anymore? Do you know what happened to it? Taped over or Tapes deteriorated over time before technology could catch up to transfer/save them or what?
Here is a list of what WWEs Library contains as of 2010. It is a wikipedia page so not sure whats for 100% accurate and even how much they even taped matches back then in regards to 1950s, 60s wrestling. But Capitol wrestling is on the list of footage they have supposedly. Obviously they did a lot of matches in Wash DC though then too not MSG In NY.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWE_Libraries
Most wrestling companies back in the 50’s-70’s(and some even until the early 80’s) didn’t see any monetary future in old video tapes. You have to remember that home video rentals didn’t begin until the late 70’s and didn’t really boom until the mid 80’s. Companies would save money on master tapes by recording over old ones. It’s really a shame when you think about. The WWWF was actually way ahead of the curve when it came to archiving their tapes before any other wrestling companies. The earliest known footage I’ve ever seen WWE produce is from 1970. There may be some rare tapes here and there prior to 1970, but if they do exist there’s not many.
If you search Youtube or Dailymotion or one of those sites you will find that there is one set of tapes from a 1965 WWWF tv taping that do exist. I’m not sure if WWE has that footgae in their own personal library though as I’ve seen that footage on the net going back over a decade and I’m not too sure if the network that aired the shows owns the footage or if WWE themselves own it.
There’s also several home videos of matches taped at MSG during the 70’s(including the match where Ivan Koloff won the WWWF Title from Bruno) that have popped up online over the years, but they’re not professionally recorded. They were recorded by a fan at ringside. I guess those were the early Fan-Cams. I forgot the name of the guy who recorded those tapes, but he has many of them.
It’s really a shame when you think about it all the great matches and footage that are lost forever.
Should be a good set. Hope to see matches from the late 60’s and early 70’s on this set.
I hope this becomes a series where WWE will look at the best of The Philly Spectrum, The Boston Garden, Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, obviously a volume 2 on MSG because of the amount of history there.
I’m looking forward to this minus the Cena rumble win(who cares)!! There is so much history from the garden that too bad it can’t be broken into 2 parts. One part being from late 70’s to the 80’s. The other part be from the 90’s to today minus anything with Cena. I’m shocked that there ain’t no small documentary at least.
Sounds so amazing!!! When I heard Bruno’s hall of fame speech i got goosebumps i’m so glad there’s more of him in this one
Been looking forward to this release for years and years (had been hoping for an MSG set long before it was announced, so very happy that it’s confirmed). Am hoping that one of the moments is the Shawn Michaels / Hulk Hogan tandem coming together at the 04/18/05 episode of Raw. Michaels was being beaten down by Hassan & Daivari, and Hogan made the save to a huge pop. The two then posed for a long time, and it was very cool (especially as it was the first time it happened).
Also, is Michaels vs. Christian from Raw in October 2004 a possibility? Hardly a classic MSG moment, but a very good TV match that happened to take place at MSG (and worthy of a DVD release at some point, for sure).
This is going to be more than good! First day release buy for me for sure.
I’m expecting Kingston vs. Orton or Cena/Undertaker vs. DX vs. Jerishow to be the “new era” matches on the set, can’t think of anything else “never before seen”
Best of MSG it was about time 50 years of great memories and matches of wwe history!Can´t wait!
As long as it has Hogan/Sheik and plenty of Gorilla Monsoon commentary I’ll be happy.
Ugh already. When I think of MSG I think 60’s through 80’s. When it was still special.
Never before released probably means not on DVD but has been shown on 24/7. Which if you’re like me you already have on DVD.
I guess I will wait and see for the match listing but I bet I’m right.
You pay for 24/7? You’re the coolest.
Uh no. Its called trading buddy.
Even cooler!
Bret vs Dibiase December 1991 Intercontinental championship match must be there as it’s 20 minutes of pure wrestling at its finest.
Indeed!
Bret Hart vs Ted Dibiase matches are wrestling gold
Enough with ramon vs hbk match! I own it a million times my self! No one can say that it is not good but let’s stop filling the dvds with same stuff -_-
Yeah, I’m usually forgiving when it comes to repeats, but when a match starts popping up all over the place, I get a little irritated. They can’t find ONE MORE MATCH to put in its place?!