As anyone who has read my Smackdown reviews on this site will know, I’m a huge fan of Edge. So when the WWE announced they were releasing a three-disc set of his best matches, I couldn’t wait to watch it.

They forego the documentary format here to instead have Edge talking a little (sometimes in character and sometimes not which is a little grating) on each match before the match itself is shown. As big a fan as I am of their great documentaries, I am actually OK with this decision, as Edge still has several years left in him as a top level guy, and really should get the documentary treatment at the end of his career. Plus, some things he may still not want to talk about which would make the documentary seem flat and missing something, although that’s pure speculation on my part.

The DVD starts with Edge saying he doesn’t need to introduce himself, as that’d be like Al Pacino introducing himself at the start of Scarface! Then we get a RATED D FOR DECADE OF DECADENCE~! movie trailer type promo about Edge’s journey into WWE and having to face Owen Hart in his first WWE PPV singles match.

Edge v. Owen Hart – WWF In Your House: Breakdown 1998. This was a really good singles match, I believe the opener of the PPV, and it went about 10 minutes, with Owen putting on a really great performance, making Edge as the new guy look fantastic, and reminding me how good Owen was. This match, although it took place more than a decade ago, would not look out of place in any wrestling company today. ROH fans would love it in particular. It’s always good to see Owen’s good matches included on WWE DVDs, and this is no exception. I’d almost forgotten how good he was, how smooth in the ring, and the quickness of his belly-to-back suplex in particular is something unmatched by anyone before or since.

Edge and Christian v. The New Brood – WWF No Mercy 1999. The New Brood are of course Matt and Jeff Hardy, and luckily Gangrel is banned from ringside early on so these four guys could go out and make themselves stars. It was amazing to see early moves get no reaction and then as soon as the ladders were introduced they got the crowd more and more into things, to the point where the people were going crazy at the end, and all four guys got a five-minute standing ovation the next night on RAW. It was also funny looking back to see Jerry Lawler marking the hell out for the crane cam shots, as this was the first time that camera angle had been used.

If you count TNA and ECW, this is the match that made the careers of four future World Champions, making it one of the most historically important matches in years.

The next movie trailer talks about the WrestleMania 2000 triangle ladder match, and how 8lbs of gold will be worth sacrificing everything for!

Edge and Christian v. Matt and Jeff Hardy v. Bubba and D-Von Dudley – WWF WrestleMania 2000. Adding The Dudleyz to the tag team ladder feud made them and also ensured they could be more creative and do more things in the match, with the addition of power guys, and also the use of tables. The thing that hit me watching this match is that I’ve obviously seen it before, and you’d expect the match to lose impact, but a 22 minute match flew by in what felt like around half that time, and usually when I’m re-watching matches I’ve seen before that doesn’t happen, because I’m not watching for results purposes.

This was Edge and Christian’s first WWE Tag Title victory, and another great match. Jeff’s Swanton off the super-size ladder, another addition that meant you weren’t just repeating No Mercy, was definitely the highlight.

Edge v. Lance Storm – WWF SummerSlam 2001. Yet another huge time jump, as Edge and Christian by this point were teasing the breakup that would occur in the next couple of weeks, and Edge won his first major singles title, taking the InterContinental Championship from Storm here. For all the talk of him having so little personality, to the point where it became his character, Storm does some great little things here, such as slapping away at Edge and putting him down, besides his normal “work a body part mercilessly” match, this time working away at Edge’s ribs to set up a great near fall when Christian would run in and accidentally spear him. Yet another really good match.

Edge v. Test – WWF Survivor Series 2001. This is the first puzzling choice of match on the set, as although it’s a title win with US Champion Edge unifying that title with Test’s IC championship; it’s really not that good and drags a lot for the time it’s given. This is the final appearance of the old design of the WCW US Title, which was definitely one of the nicest looking wrestling belts in a long time and a damn site better than the atrocity they use now.

Then we got comments from current-day Edge talking about how that was the early phase of his career, calling it his “best supporting actor phase” keeping up the movie analogy. He talked about moving on to team with Hulk Hogan, and face legends like Mr Perfect, Eddie Guerrero and Kurt Angle. Then a movie trailer airs going over this, complete with made up quotes like Test saying “I’m happy he just took my title and not my fiancée” Eddie saying “Viva La Edge!” and Hogan saying “I’m just glad I teamed with him rather than facing him…Brother!”

Edge v. Mr Perfect – WWF Sunday Night Heat, March 3rd 2002. I don’t really know why this is on here and can only assume it was a personal choice by Edge for reasons other than match quality. The match is around 5 minutes and only really notable for the worst announce team of all time, Tazz and Jonathan Coachman, and it’s pretty clear neither of them wants to commentate with the other and their unprofessionalism really brings things down. Nothing to the match but it was cool to see Perfect do his old spots like the neck snap and the bump where he’s thrown by his hair across the ring and somehow uses that to take a bump where he slides into the corner and crotches himself on the ring post.

Edge v. Kurt Angle – WWE Judgement Day 2002. Now you’re talking! This is the hair v. hair match that resulted in Kurt’s bald look he’s kept ever since. And it was great. An incredibly dramatic match, with commentary that added to the atmosphere fantastically from Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler, and Edge hanging in there with a guy who was at the time a far bigger star in the WWE. This was Edge’s first really big singles push, and Kurt was probably the best guy style-wise for him to face.

It’s astounding how much bigger Kurt is here than the physical wreck you see on TNA IMPACT (if you’re dumb enough to actually watch that show) now. An excellent match, where Kurt’s style of throwing out big moves throughout rather than building to big spots actually worked because the crowd was with them and you felt the match could finish at any time.

Edge v. Kurt Angle – WWE Smackdown, May 30th 2002. This was a steel cage match, where a bloody Edge pulled out a babyface victory with the help of Hulk Hogan, who threw Angle back in the ring after he’d escaped with the referee down. I’d totally forgotten that Kurt wore a ridiculous wig after first going bald, held in place by some amateur wrestling style headgear. Edge was beaten bloody here, and sold great for his role as fiery young babyface. The ending was superb, as Edge was perched on the top rope, and Kurt saw him from across the ring and charged at him, but before he could leap to the top rope to suplex Edge off, Edge leapt off the top rope and met him charging in with a spear for the win.

Edge & Hulk Hogan v. Billy & Chuck – WWE Smackdown, July 4th 2002. It’s your standard tag team match building to a hot tag and the babyfaces win the tag titles at the end for the happy ending. But – that hot tag babyface is HULK HOGAN, and in the first WWE nostalgia run of 2002 it was undeniably something special to watch, and for Edge, who has talked a lot of being a childhood Hulkamaniac, I imagine it was the stuff dreams are made of. And you know what? As bad as Hogan is in the ring, and as embarrassing as it was hearing Michael Cole refer to Billy Gunn as “the greatest tag team wrestler of all time” – I enjoyed watching this again. Seeing Edge as the American hero babyface on July 4th was a little weird, what with him being Canadian and all, but whatever.

Edge v. Eddie Guerrero – WWE Unforgiven 2002. OK this was fucking fantastic, and as much of a fan as I am of Edge, it was fucking fantastic because of Eddie Guerrero. They did a “heel works the body part” match, but instead of working an arm or a leg for fairly dull rest holds like Bret Hart would, Eddie worked over the skull. Yes, the skull. And when he worked the head with vicious kicks, with standing on it in the corner and taunting the crowd, he wasn’t playing for cheers like Triple H would.

When it came time to sell, he wasn’t trying to take crazy bumps to put the focus on himself like Shawn Michaels would, he made Edge’s offensive flurries look good, not popping right back up and no-selling like Kenta Kobashi would. He didn’t revert to running through trademark spots for pops like Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit did, instead doing spots and even move sequences that I’d never seen from him before, particularly one standing face lock move where he essentially dug his knuckles across Edge’s face while holding him in a headlock. He wasn’t even plugging Edge into his formula knowing he’s great enough to have a great match with anybody like Ric Flair and Bryan Danielson did/do. And, knowing that he’s the heel, he protected Edge on the finish, cheating like a complete bastard, exposing the turnbuckle, getting a payback spot as Edge speared him back into it, then when Edge went for a superplex, Eddie smashed him headfirst into the turnbuckle, then gave him a top rope sunset flip powerbomb, and still felt the need to be enough of a cheating bastard to hold the tights for the pin!

The main question I had after watching this match was “is Eddie Guerrero the greatest wrestler of all time?” and you know what? I think he just might be. Tremendous.

Disc 1 ends with an extra feature THE TOTALLY AWESOME BEST OF EDGE AND CHRISTIAN~! This was so great, a five minute highlight package of some of their funniest moments. And for me it was essentially five straight minutes of non-stop marking out. LONG LIVE THE STREAM~! AND LONG LIVE THE ZOO~! We got HHH’s, Edge’s and Angle’s themes played on kazoo. We got them asking some kid if he was a midget, a dwarf, a gnome or an ewok. We got Edge telling Billy Gunn he’s a human vacuum cleaner.

We got Mick Foley saying Lita looks hot and Edge responding disdainfully with “yeah, from a distance.” Ahh, insider. CAKE ROCKS THE BODY THAT ROCKS THE PARTY~! We got Angle being great as the straight man – “cripes all Friday!” – We got Edge and Christian coming up with fake illnesses to get out of matches – FOOD POISONING RULES~! FEAR NOT, OUR NUTS ARE SAFE FOR CONSUMPTION~! Edge winning the Oscar for “Actor Reeking of the Most Awesomeness.” And of course, we get hometown cheap heat and FIVE SECOND POSES~! FAT ELVIS~! GIANT COMEDY COWBOY HATS~! BASEBALL AND AMERICAN FOOTBALL CHOKEJOBS~! KENTUCKY JUG BAND~! I could watch this forever.

Well, that’s a completely awesome end to the first disc of this set, and to be perfectly honest the end of a great first disc. I’ll be back at some point soon with discs 2 and 3.

Mark Bright
mark@ifight365.com