[.ca] WWE: Mick Foley Greatest Hits and Misses

What is... and what could be.:
World Wrestling Entertainment continues its trend of releasing strong retrospective titles with a new career encapsulation of Mick Foley. This title should have it all... the matches most fans would choose, insightful commentary by Foley himself, and a complete set or relevant extras. All should be well... yet, inevitably it isn't. Thank the World Wildlife Foundation and their lawyers for holding wrestling history hostage... yes, there is digital alteration of the old WWF logo in a couple matches. The most glaring instance of this butchery is in the (in)famous Hell in the Cell 2 match with the Undertaker. Us fans have been clamoring for years to get this classic on DVD... and now it arrives complete with blurry ovals on the rind apron, turnbuckles, and numerous other places the old "attitude" logo appears. These shadowy blurs really catch the eye as well... I spent more time looking for the digital masking than watching the match! I should go on to tell everyone what an incredible value this DVD set is... and I should. I just can't get over how stupid this whole legal issue is... and how it in turn shortchanges my consumer rights. Perhaps after a time machine is invented, WWE can change the identity of their history - but for now we all must suffer. This can't be a good harbinger for future releases... Oh, and as a special message to the World Wildlife Foundation... I'm through recycling, and my next vacation will be in Alaska - to club baby seals.

Near perfect, but...:
Following the success of the Ric Flair DVD, WWE releases a 2 disc set featuring the career of Mick Foley. This set has just about every great moment from Mick's career that any die hard Foley fan could ask for. You get to see Mick during his WCW, ECW and SMW days as well as his best WWE moments (many being released on DVD for the first time). They even include rare moments such as Mick's first WWE match from Superstars back in 1986 where the Dynamite Kid broke his jaw with a stiff clothesline (Mick wrote about this moment in "Have a Nice Day"). Rare promos and interviews are also shown. Plus, most of the material for this set was handpicked by Mick himself, in fact, Mick provided the edited footage from his infamous bout with Vader from WCW Saturday Night so that we the fans could finally see the match uncensored! If you only know Mick from his WWE Attitude era days (the Monday Night Wars), then you must buy this set in order to experience every facet of this unique career. New fans will be blown away by his stiff and brutal match with Big Van Vader, the unreal hardcore encounters with Sabu (my personal favorite wrestler) and his legendary encounters with good friend Terry Funk! Also, Mick hosts the video himself giving insite before and after each match. It's like viewing a wrestling version of "Masterpiece Theatre"! I hope all future WWE superstar DVDs are done this way. So, with such a glowing review so far, why am I only giving this collection 3 stars? There are some glaring problems I had with this collection. First, I bought this set to see 2 of the bonus matches: Mick vs. Sabu the rematch and Mick vs. Sting from Beach Blast. As an extra feature they added Mick and the Coach on commentary for both of these classic bouts. The commentary is great and adds a lot of inside information to what's going on in the ring, but there is no way to switch over to the matches original audio! So, you have to listen to Mick and the Coach everytime you view these matches. Audio commentaries are great...the first listen, but after that, I want to hear the original audio. Unfortunately, for what ever reason, WWE didn't think we should have that option. Then, there is the problem of all the matches from the Attitude era being heavily edited. Every visual trace and audio comment referring to the "WWF" must be censored from these matches. So, 6 matches get this distracting and irritating editing from start to finish. If you bought the Bloodiest Steel Cage Matches DVD then you know what I'm talking about. Hell in the Cell, Mankinds title win, Dude Love vs Stone Cold, Cactus vs HHH, Mick vs Funk and the classic street fight against HHH for the title at the Royal Rumble are ruined as far as I'm concerned. This may not bother some fans, but I can't stand it. So, buy this to see Mick's classic moments from ECW (the Sabu matches are unreal!!!!) and WCW, but don't get excited about the WWE footage. Since both the Rock and Steve Austin came up during the Attitude era, can you imagine how heavily edited those matches will be once their own career DVDs are released? Uggghhh!!!!!

Mick Foley what a guy Bang Bang.:
I first heard of this dvd from a friend so i decided to pick it up and it's good just not great. Here's What's on the 2 DVD set. Disc 1 Cactus Jack vs. Big Van Vader WCW Saturday Night 4.17.93 Cactus Jack & Maxx Payne vs. The Nasty Boys Chicago Street Fight WCW Spring Stampede 4.17.94 Catus Jack vs. Sabu ECW Hostile City Showdown 6.24.94 Cactus Jack vs. Chris Candido Smokey Mountain Wrestling 11.18.94 Cactus Jack vs. The Sandman Texas Death Match ECW 2.4.95 Cactus Jack & Raven vs. Terry Funk & Tommy Dreamer ECW November 2 Remember 11.18.95 Cactus Jack vs. Mikey Whipwreck ECW Big Ass Extreme Bash 3.9.96 DVD Extras Post Vader Match Interview WCW Saturday Night 4.24.93 Cactus Jack vs. Sting WCW Beach Blast 6.20.92 Cactus Spits On The WCW Belt ECW Hostile City Showdown 6.24.94 "Cane" Dewy Promo Mick's All Time Favorite Wrestling Promo "Anti-Hardcore" Promo Cactus Jack Denounces The ECW Fans Cactus Jack vs. Sabu Rematch Hamburg, PA 9.30.94 ECW Farewell Speech Following the match with Mikey Whipwreck 3.9.96 "Jack" Foley & Les Thorton Vs. The British Bulldogs 9.13.86 WWE Confidential Feature Mick's long absence is explained Disc 2 Intorducing... Mankind! Mankind vs. Shawn Michaels WWE Mind Games 9.22.96 Cactus Jack vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley Falls Count Anywhere WWE Raw is War 9.22.97 Mick Foley vs. Terry Funk WWE Raw is War 5.4.98 Dude Love vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin WWE Over the Edge 5.31.98 Mankind vs. The Undertaker Hell in a Cell WWE King of the Ring 6.28.98 Mankind vs. The Rock WWE Raw is War 5.4.98 Cactus Jack vs. Triple H Street Fight WWE Royal Rumble 1.23.00 DVD Extras Mankind Teasers - WWE fans get their first look at a disturbing newcomer Music To My Ear - Mankind talks about his symphony of destruction Mind Games - J.R., Mankind and Paul Bearer prior to the Shawn Michaels match Jim Ross Interviews Mankind - Originally aired on Raw 6.9.97 The Birth Of Mr. Socko - Mankind visits Mr. McMahon in the hospital 10.5.98 Mick & Al Snow In Vegas - An obnoxious fan stalks the boys More Mick & Al Snow In Vegas - Mick and Al ride the rides, join a lounge band and visit a gentlemen's club Commissioner Foley & Kurt Angle - The Commish books a Match The reason i only give it 4 stars is because the extras should have had some of stories that led up to the matches other than that it is a must have for any wrestling fan.

Great DVD, but left out many things in Foley's latter career:
I particularily loved this DVD. However, I think that it should have been structured a little differently, preferrably how Ric Flair's DVD is structured. I wish that it was a 3 DVD set, maybe Mick's best matches from WCW on disc 1, ECW on disc 2, and finally WWE (WWF) on disc 3. It does leave out the match with he and Vader at Halloween Havoc (Famous 'Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal' match) that was definately one of my favorites, Mick's battle w/ the Rock at RR '99 in which was my favorite of Mick Foley, they leave out the HIAC match at No Way Out against Triple H, and the Summerslam '97 match in a cage against Triple H. I wish it could have been more of a chronicle type DVD, like Flair's, because we would have got to have seen (or had clips of) the famouse King of the Death Match Tournament. All in all this is a good DVD. They did pick some great matches. I wish that WWE would have included Mick Foley's greatest feuds on there which were Vader, The Rock, Triple H, and of course Undertaker. Eventhough there is at least one match from each of those feuds, they are not matches that really said a lot about those feuds. Mick Foley has had a wonderful career, and will be remembered for decades to come for his contribution to the business. I say for newer wrestling fans, particularily from '96-present...you will think this is a 5 star DVD, but for wrestling fans who have followed Foley's career for the past 15 years, you might be slightly dissapointed, because most of the matches that really defined him are not included. There are some great extras that I think everyone will enjoy. It would have been better for most of the extras be those that led up to particular matches. But, we can't have it all. WWE and Mick Foley, u all did a great job, and I hope there will be a volume 2! lol

Good DVD, Except for one Thing:
This a good dvd that covers his WCW, ECW, SMW, and WWE days. The only problem that I see with the DVD is the Mick Foley matches from 1998-2000. Which is part of the WWF Attitude era. The WWF logo is smugged out on everything you can think of: Turnbuckles, banners, ring apprains, t-shirts etc... This is pretty annoying and I don't care how diehard of a fan you are because it is an eye sore. I have to tell like it is just like Jesse Ventura. If I was Vince, I would resolve the problem right away with the World Wildlife Foundation because if not fans are just going to buy WWE bootleg dvd's. Which will hurt the company's bottomline. I just don't see people paying $20 to $30 for this shotty production everytime. "Monday Night Wars" and Kurt Angle are the next future WWE DVD releases. I tell you people something, I'm sorry to say this but I'm not that excited it about it. I hope my review helps.