On somewhat of a whim, I put this DVD on my Amazon wish list. When my birthday came along, my mother-in-law purchased it for me (Thanks, Dorothy!).
If you were a WWF fan in the early 1990s, this is is a pretty good DVD. This was the first "shoot" DVD I've ever purchased from the WWE, and I thought it was pretty cool. However, I should definitely note, if you were not a WWE fan in the Ultimate Warrior's heyday, this DVD is probably not particularly worthwhile. It's history that goes back over 15 years, and it won't be particularly interesting to you if you didn't live through it.
The bulk of the DVD is interviews with those who had worked with or around the Warrior during his stints in the WWF/WWE. A lot of airtime was given to Vince McMahon, Bobby Heenan, Gene Okerlund, Steve Lombardi, Jerry Lawler (Memphis and WWF), Ted DiBiase (UWF and WWF), Hulk Hogan (WWF and WCW) and Eric Bischoff (WCW). All of them had fascinating stories to tell. Heenan was definitely the guy with the most sheer animosity towards the Warrior. The others all were all up and down with some compliments, and some digs.
There were some people out of place on the DVD. There were several clips of Chris Jericho, Chistian, and Edge talking about Warrior. While they had the crediblity of being successful professional wrestlers, their lack of personal experience with the Warrior made them seem out of place. Ric Flair was also there, and he seemed to be the only person as personally bitter about Warrior as Heenan was. I don't think they did a good job of making Flair's anger seem legitimate. In Heenan's case, you heard the stories of why he hated Warrior so much. Flair just seemed angry because the Warrior sucked. Putting the pieces of the rumor mill together, I would guess that Flair is bitter at the ear injury he supposedly suffered at the hands of the Warrior in 1992 that cut his second WWF title reign short. However, for whatever reason, that was not brought up in the interview segments.
Highlights to watch for:
It's worth noting that the slant of this DVD is pretty one-sided. Supposedly, Warrior was given the opportunity to take part in this DVD and give whatever rebuttal he wanted to give, but he turned the opportunity down. I have no idea whether or not that story is true, but that is what I've read.
If you come out of watching the main feature feeling as if it was a complete hatchet job, I will give you a suggestion. Watch a few of the Warrior's matches in the special features. After watching those, you won't think it was a hatchet job at all.
As of October 2006, this DVD can be purchased new for $26.99 on Amazon.
This DVD was good enough that I put The Life And Death Of The Road Warriors on my Amazon wish list. Once I get and watch that, I will review that as well.
