Review of WWE: New Year`s Revolution 2007

Introduction

After what was a rather good December show in WWE Armageddon, the company returned in the New Year with New Year`s Revolution, an event designed to start 2007 off with a bang, and begin the road to April`s Wrestlemania, the biggest pay-per-view event in the calendar.

The main event of New Year`s Revolution pitted WWE Champion John Cena against the undefeated Umaga. Also on the show, DX sought revenge on Edge & Randy Orton, and Jeff Hardy defended his Intercontinental title against Johnny Nitro, within the confines of a steel cage.

New Year`s Revolution took place on 7th January 2007, from the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri.

Video

Video is presented in 4:3 fullscreen PAL, and is very good indeed for a DVD of this genre. The transfer is excellent considering that this is a live-to-tape recording, and all of the usual WWE production values are available here as well.

Audio

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, and is also very good for a DVD of this genre. There is often so much going on in a WWE audio mix - from entrance music, to commentators, to in-ring action - that I wonder how they consistently produce tracks where everything has its own space, but this release once again meets that standard.

Commentary is provided by Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler, with Ross very much the straight-man to Lawler`s joker. The two work well as a team, even if Lawler can be somewhat agitating.

There are also 2.0 tracks available in Spanish, Italian, French, and German. Subtitles are also provided for Dutch and Portuguese viewers.

Features

There are just a couple of extras available here, but interesting ones nonetheless. Both feature a semblance of celebrity participation, with Kevin Federline up first, playing a heel role in a match with John Cena.

Yes, Federline wrestled.

Actually, the "match" is more of an angle to build Umaga`s feud with Cena, but nonetheless, K-Fed did step into the squared circle and engaged with the champion. Traditionalist fans will groan, but the angle seemed to go down well with the live audience.

The polar opposite was the case, however, in another so-called match between "Donald Trump" and "Rosie O`Donnell", the inverted commas required because quasi-lookalikes replaced the celebrities themselves.

This was an angle to build up Trump`s participation in Wrestlemania XXIII, where he would manage Bobby Lashley against Vince McMahon`s charge Umaga, with the losing manager to have their head shaved by their rival.

This angle, however, failed dreadfully, and it is actually a nice extra here, since the crowd`s vehement booing and chants of "We want wrestling!" don`t appear to be edited. Likewise, it is fabulous to have documented footage here of Vince McMahon`s face, as he realises that his attempt at humour - the angle was his idea - was absolutely not funny, and in fact was completely out of touch with his audience.

Conclusion

Back in the old days, it used to be that the steel cage match was the ultimate feud-ender, the most brutal way to solve a dispute between two competitors. The match was designed to stop outside interference from spoiling the contest, as when the door was locked, no-one could get inside the cage, and no-one could get out.

Nowadays, outside interference in cage matches is a regular occurrence, the regular cage is routinely replaced with the Hell in a Cell or Elimination Chamber, and with the roof now removed from that same standard cage, the premise of the match is to climb over the top of the structure, and reach the floor before your opponent.

In any case, the abuse of the cage match concept isn`t the fault of its two participants here, Jeff Hardy and Johnny Nitro, who produced a very good match here. There is little room left for innovation in latter-day cage matches, but these two managed to accomplish that.

After such a promising beginning, things took a major downturn in the next bout, as five teams (Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas, Cryme Tyme, The Highlanders, Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch, and "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan & Super Crazy) fought a Gauntlet match to become the No.1 contender to the Tag Team titles. Gauntlet rules mean that only two teams compete and once, and when fall is captured, another team enters the fray. For a match of this type, the bout needs to be long to have any credibility, and yet this one was wrapped up within eighteen minutes. The bout came off as filler, which is exactly what it was.

Kenny Dykstra then performed his best Ric Flair impersonation, as he faced the very same "Nature Boy" in the next contest. The match was distinctly average however, and was marred by a groan-inducing finish.

Mickie James then defended her WWE Women`s Title against Victoria, in a match that was much better than I expected, before D-Generation X faced Randy Orton and Edge, for the latter`s World Tag Team Championship. This started off very well indeed, but the match was heavily curtailed by a legitimate injury to Triple-H - look for the referee giving the "X" sign to denote a serious injury.

After another card-filling bout in Chris Masters vs. Carlito, it was time for the main event of Cena vs. Umaga. This was an interesting match, in that it didn`t follow the usual style of a main event. The psychology of the match was different to what many people will expect. However, the change of pace made for a good match-up, and thus a satisfying climax to the event.

Overall, however, New Year`s Revolution was sadly a step down from the previous Armageddon show, and was really not the way to begin 2007. The opening and final matches were the two best on the card, although the DX vs Orton/Edge match looked to be going in the right direction, until Triple-H`s unfortunate injury.

With another poor card under their belts, Vince McMahon was at least pro-active, unofficially announcing after this show that he was unhappy with the quality of pay-per-view events, and that therefore wrestlers from RAW would begin competing on Smackdown, and vice-versa. That way, the talent pool would not be spread so thinly, and events should improve.

In light of this, New Year`s Revolution is a DVD release to put on the back-burner, with the thought that the next pay-per-view, the Royal Rumble, should be much more worthy of your money. This release is one to go back to at the end of the year, if you have cash to burn.