WWE: Greatest Stars of the '90s (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)If you purchased WWE Greatest Wrestling Stars of the 80s and were disappointed with the profiles and match selections on that disc, WWE redeems themselves with the sequel that focuses on the best of the '90s.
First, the main thing that surprised me about this set was how strong they put over Sting. Sting is currently the world champion of their competition, the dreadful TNA promotion, yet they gave him his due on this release. When you open the 3-disc set up your eyes are drawn to a giant image of Sting on one of the DVD art panels. WWE talent and announcers really talk positively about Sting also and do nothing to make the champion of their rival look bad, very surprising indeed.
OK, on with the rest. Disc one is a 3 hour documentary that focuses on who the WWE considers to be the biggest wrestling stars of the '90s, which is without question the greatest decade in the history of the sport. The recently departed Tazz hosts the documentary and introduces each segment that chronicles each wrestler's career from it's beginning thru 1999. All the major players are covered: The Rock, Mick Foley, Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, Hulk Hogan, Sting, Ric Flair, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Yokozuna, Triple H, Bret Hart, Lex Luger, Owen Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin.
The WWE saves Austin for last and Vince himself puts Austin over, and rightfully so, as the greatest star ever in the company. Some may think Bret, Shawn or the Rock are the greatest from '90s, and they're entitled to their opinion, but it's hard to argue with record setting PPV buys, ticket sales and merchandise sales that Austin achieved in the '90s. He's the best, and it's nice to see the company acknowledge it.
If I had to guess, I would say about 40% of the interviews in the documentary are from previous releases, but we do get some new comments from a few guys, most notably from CM Punk (see his comments concerning Lex Luger, he nailed him!). Each wrestler is covered nicely with what they accomplished in the '90s taking center stage.
WWE is famous for taking shots at people in their documentaries, but they really didn't bury anyone here. There are some subtle shots of note though. The most obvious one to me is how during Mick Foley's segment, they showed footage from his "This is Your Life" segment with the Rock from Raw, but failed to say how it was the highest rated segment in the history of Raw, an achievement they've always acknowledged in the past. That was interesting. Also, they take a few digs at Luger, they're fair digs though in my opinion, about how he may have been the total package, but never reached his full potential.
My only complaint with the documentary is that they included Owen Hart and left out a talent like Big Van Vader. I'm sorry, but as nice a guy as Owen was, he was not a main eventer or big draw during his career. Was he good and talented in the ring? Absolutely. Should he be called one of the greatest of the '90s, I don't think so. I would've replaced Owen with Vader. Vader dominated the '90s as a monster heel champion in WCW that helped WCW during a very dismal time in their history. His matches with Cactus Jack, Sting, Ron Simmons and Ric Flair are classics and it would've been nice to see his career highlighted here. That's my only complaint, otherwise it's a very entertaining trip down memory lane. They show a lot of clips and parts of promos during each wrestler's segment that I had forgot about, so there's some great stuff here.
Now, for the match selection. There are some great matches on this set. First, WWE has finally released Flair vs. Hogan from '91 at Madison Square Garden. This feud was going to headline WrestleMania VIII, but Vince scrapped the match after he wasn't impressed with the in-ring work, or the box office results (which I think was unfair because those matches took place during the first steroid scandal and a lot of fans were turning away at this point) from their series of bouts. I have to disagree, this match between Flair and Hogan is great! I never thought Hogan and Flair had good matches in WCW, but they have a pretty good bout here in WWF. It's well worth a look.
Vader is well represented in the match department with a forgotten classic against Sting at Slamboree '94 for the International World Title. For me, this match was worth the price of the set alone.
Other matches of note include: Diesel vs. Razor Ramon for the Intercontinental Title from WWF Superstars (you always knew there was going to be a title change when the belt was defended on Superstars!), Diesel and Shawn vs Yokozuna and Bulldog with all titles on the line from In Your House '95 (great tag match), Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels from Survivor Series '92, Austin vs Undertaker from SummerSlam '98, Sting vs Bret Hart from Halloween Havoc '98 and Triple H vs The Rock in a strap match from Fully Loaded '98.
WWE continues to release one great compilation set after another, and this one's no exception. Well worth a look.
Future sets I would love to see them make: The history of the World Title (and please go all the way back to when it was the NWA title), history of the ECW world title, a rise and fall of WCW set, a greatest gimmick matches set and 3-disc sets for the following wrestlers - Jerry Lawler, Big Show, Terry Funk, Chris Jericho and Ricky Steamboat.

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The 1990s may have been the most turbulent decade in the history of sports entertainment. The biggest fight of the era was not in the squared circle, but rather between rival companies WWE and WCW, and survival was at stake. Like any good match, it saw its twists and turns, particularly when WCW brought WWE to its knees, winning the Monday-night ratings battle for more than 80 consecutive weeks. While WWE eventually prevailed, the real winners of the war were fans who got to see birth and rebirth of some of the biggest stars and factions in the history of sports entertainment. The Greatest Stars of the 90s profiles 15 of them. Hosted by SmackDown announcer and former ECW champion Tazz, the 3-disc set is packed with matches, interviews, comedy, and more.

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