Review for WCW's Greatest PPV Matches Vol 1.

WCW's Greatest PPV Matches Volume 1 is a set featuring 21 of the greatest PPV matches they ever presented. Presented by Five Time WCW Champion Booker T he is the right person to do this and his segues every few matches are quick and relevant and not just bad attempts at comedy.

With it being WCW you should know who to expect to see and all the usual faces are here. Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Sting, Road Warriors, Goldberg, nWo and many more. The matches are all featured in full and it is great to hear Jim Ross calling these early matches and though many are featured on other sets it is great to have them all in one place to enjoy.

Of the 21 matches I would say the majority are entertaining, there are very few where I scratched my head about why they were there though with the 'Volume 1' moniker I do wish they had focused on maybe the first few years as that would make for a better set. That being said, there is certainly plenty of gold here.

Including four Ric Flair matches is a good start. His matches against Ricky Steamboat at the Chi-Town Rumble is perfection, just utter perfection. Two of the greatest to ever set foot in a ring showing us all why people think this. It's because it's true. An amazing match and one that simply gets better every time I watch it. His match against Sting at Great American Bash is also a great example of how great Flair was at making someone. His other two matches against Ronnie Garvin and Hulk Hogan are good, but not great, though I understand why they are included.

Other highlights include Road Warriors against Sting and Dusty Rhodes which is all I needed to hear to get behind this DVD. This is a great match and rather than just being the one-sided brawl that the Road Warriors usually had, this was a nice mix and Rhodes and Sting work great together. Brian Pillman is featured in two matches a good match against Lex Luger and then a phenomenal match against Jushin 'Thunder' Liger which is as great as any Cruiserweight/X-Division match I have ever seen. Also included is the 1992 War Games match between Sting's Squadron and the Dangerous Alliance. This is a nice taster and if you enjoy it you should pick up the recent War Games DVD.

Obviously, they include the nWo formation match at Bash at the Beach which is always good and including the full 'new world order' promo is great. I am glad that they don't focus too much on the nWo and at least acknowledge that the 'best' matches were generally the undercard with a great match between Rey Myserio and Eddie Guerrero and one with Chris Jericho against Juventud Guerrera.

Other interesting matches include a Texas Death Match between Vader and Cactus Jack which is probably as close to hardcore as you could get in 1993. Stone Cold Steve Austin also features in his 'Stunning' persona against Ricky Steamboat which is just great as are two matches featuring Macho Man Randy Savage against Diamond Dallas Page and against Bret Hart. Both are great matches.

Only including one Booker T match is a little odd and not including any from his time in Harlem Heat is even odder as that is where I feel Booker was at his best. It is nice that he does go through the whole 'Bash at the Beach' controversy with Vince Russo though. If you are a fan of Diamond Dallas Page he gets three matches including one of the few technically great matches against Goldberg and of course his match against Scott Steiner which is significant being that it is the last PPV main event before they went out of business.

As I said before, there is nothing here that is unwatchable, in fact most of the matches are great. My only issue is that if they are intending releasing a Volume 2 (which they should) that maybe they should have gone chronologically so that it didn't feel like we were skipping over so much time. It is surprising that no matches are featured from 1995 and 1999 particularly when 1999 was really the last year when WCW were still going back and forth with WWE in terms of ratings and quality. Instead it does feel at times like someone has just randomly selected these matches without really thinking about whether they truly are 'the greatest'.

WCW's Greatest PPV Matches Volume 1 is a great old skool DVD and maybe alongside some of the other WCW-themed DVDs (Rise and Fall, Starrcade and Wargames) it is a nice accompaniment of amazing matches that showed why the company was so great. Bring on Volume 2!