Review for The Monday Night War Volume 1: Shots Fired

In the wrestling business the Monday Night Wars was possibly one of the most significant times. There had always been rivalry between WWE and WCW or the NWA as they were before Ted Turner took over, but it was the introduction of WCW's Nitro against WWE's Raw on a Monday Night that really escalated it into a 'war'.

During 1993 to 2001, both companies fought tooth and nail to put the other out of business. This first set of the Monday Night War series details the first ten episodes of the series and covers most of the main players and points of the war over four disks.

These episodes are: The War Begins, Rise of the nWo, Embracing Attitude, A New D-Generation-X, Have a Nice Day, The Hart of War, Foundations of War, The Austin Era, Who's Next? and Flight of the Cruiserweights. Each episodes covers a specific aspect of the war and is certainly an improvement over any other documentary that WWE have done previously about this period.

By having this focus you can really see how things like the nWo, the birth of Stone Cold Steve Austin, DX, Goldberg and other factors really had an affect on the war. Each episode is filled with archive footage and comments from everyone involved and I enjoyed the thoroughness this gave and for anyone who thinks this was overkill for a 'fake sport' the drama that went along with such events as the Montreal Screwjob, the Hogan heel turn and of the sheer impact of 'Austin 3:16 says I just whooped your ass!' had on the whole wrestling business.

Each episode is around an hour with a seven minute after episode analysis between Renee Young, Triple H and Sting. This is a nice coda to each episode, however when you consider this equates to a little over an hour, it would have been better as one full extra at the end of the set. It is also a shame that there were no other extras to this set as I expected some matches or something to accompany it. I wanted to have seen in full the Austin 3:16 speech, the Scott Hall debut and Hogan heel turn and some of the amazing matches from this period.

That being said, the four disks are fantastic viewing for wrestling fans or even for those who enjoy documentaries. I am waiting eagerly for the second or third set to complete the amazing journey as this is truly one of the best times in the wrestling business and this documentary series shows this.