Review for The Best of WWE at Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden is where the heart of WWE is. Anytime you hear anyone talk about the Garden you know they are talking about special moments and when it comes to the WWE it is where special moments are created. From the birth of Hulkamania to the original Wrestlemania and beyond it has been the Mecca of Sports Entertainment. It is to wrestling what Wembley is to Football or Wimbledon is to Tennis. This three disk set highlights some of the best matches from the arena from 1971 up to the present with many Superstars past and present commenting on what certain people, certain moments and certain matches meant to them.

Unlike a lot of these sets, this is not one that I would say is 50% skippable and the matches included twenty three matches or moments that are all wonderful to watch. These include Hogan’s first title win against The Iron Sheik, the original Wrestlemania Main Event of Hogan and Mr T vs. Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff, the infamous Ultimate Warrior vs Honky Tonk Man match from the first Summerslam and the Ladder Match between Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon.

The set itself reads like the Who’s Who of the Wrestling business and you could almost name at least one Hall of Famer or Future Hall of Famer in every match or someone who has won a World Championship at some point in their career. One of the most interesting matches was an Undisputed Championship match between WWE Champion Bob Backlund and NWA Champion Harley Race. I can’t think of anyone who was anybody who isn’t included (apart from Ric Flair and The Roadwarriors, which is a little disappointing).

The matches themselves are great and despite my feeling that I do wish they would offer alternate commentaries when they do these sets so that those involved, or those commenting could give more of an opinion on why it is included. I can understand if the WWE want these matches to stand on their own, but it would be nice to hear a little more on why certain matches were so important apart from the two or three minutes of talking heads that precedes each match.

That being said, if you are a fan of WWE and wrestling then this is an amazing set and certainly oen that I would recommend to all. It doesn’t just pander to the old skool fans and doesn’t do this to the newer fans either. Though I do think that the lack of any matches between 1998-1999 when WWE was at its apex is a little strange unless they didn’t run any events there, which I can’t imagine ever happening. The Best of WWE at Madison Square Garden is one of the best WWE retrospective sets to have been produced. A few little tweaks and it would have been perfect, but it is as close to perfection as you can get.