Product Details

• Actors: Andr the Giant, Kurt Angle, Steve Austin, Bob Backlund, Chris Benoit
• Directors: Kevin Dunn
• Format: Box set, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 3
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: World Wrestling
• DVD Release Date: December 15, 2009
• Run Time: 540 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002NXSRNY
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #13,892 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "WWE: The History of the World Heavyweight Championship" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

It’s one of the most distinctive and storied championships in the world of sports entertainment and its titleholders are industry standard bearers. Now, for the first time ever, fans can own the definitive DVD set devoted entirely and exclusively to the World Heavyweight Championship.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Match Listing for "History of the World Heavyweight Championship" DVD, October 30, 2009

By 

Steve "The Minister" (Upstate NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: WWE: The History of the World Heavyweight Championship (DVD)

This is the match listings for the upcoming WWE "History of the World Heavyweight Championship" DVD:

Disc 1: Documentary & NWA Matches

Chapters:
*Origins of Wrestling
*"An American Hero" Frank Gotch
*Ed "Strangler" Lewis
*National Wrestling Alliance
*Lou Thesz
*Buddy Rogers
*New Breed of Champions
*1970s World Champions
*A Flair for the Gold
*Crockett's World Champion
*NWA to WCW
*WCW Withdraws From NWA
*Revolving WCW Champions
*The Undisputed Championship*World Championship Returns
*Legacy Lives

Matches
*Chicago 1961 - 2 out of 3 Falls: Pat O'Connor vs. Buddy Rogers
*Florida 2/11/69 - Gene Kiniski vs. Dory Funk Jr.
*Florida 12/10/75 - Jack Brisco vs. Terry Funk
*Florida 8/21/79 - Harley Race vs. Dusty Rhodes
*AWA SuperClash - Ric Flair vs. Magnum TA
*Great American Bash '90 - Ric Flair vs. Sting

Disc 2 - WCW

*Clash of Champions XIV - Ric Flair vs. Scott Steiner
*Great American Bash '91 - Lex Luger vs. Barry Windham
*Baltimore 8/2/92 - Vader vs. Ron Simmons
*WCW SaturdayNight 10/16/93 - Vader vs. Ricky Steamboat
*Halloween Havoc '94 - Career vs. Career Steel Cage Match: Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair
*SuperBrawl VIII - Sting vs. Hollywood Hogan
*Nitro 7/6/98 - Hollywood Hogan vs. Goldberg
*Bash at the Beach '00 - Jeff Jarrett vs. Booker T
*No Mercy '01 - The Rock vs. Chris Jericho

Disc 3 - WWE
*Unforgiven '02 - Triple H vs. Rob Van Dam
*Taboo Tuesday '04 - Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels
*No Way Out '06 - Kurt Angle vs. The Undertaker
*SmackDown 4/7/06 - Rey Mysterio vs. Randy Orton
*Armageddon '07 - Batista vs. Undertaker vs. Edge
*Survivor Series '08 - John Cena vs. Chris Jericho
*Extreme Rules '09 - Ladder Match: Jeff Hardy vs. Edge

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Over 100 Years Of History Behind One Championship, January 2, 2010

By 

D.P. (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: WWE: The History of the World Heavyweight Championship (DVD)

You can call it the NWA Championship, the WCW Championship, and depending on what show it's on...you can call it the RAW/SmackDown Championship but either way, this belt was always the World Heavyweight Championship. This presentation is different than any other "History Of..." DVD set regarding a championship in that you get a documentry highlighting the history of the championship complete with rare archival footage & facts along with three disc of matches highlighting the championships history through it's top three promotions in NWA, WCW, and WWE. Throughout the documentry, you'll hear from current WWE talent/employees such as John Cena, Batista, Edge, C.M. Punk, Rey Mysterio, Randy Orton, Triple H, Big Show, Chris Jericho, Ricky Steamboat, Dusty Rhodes, and Jim Ross. The special treat is that you'll also hear from people that you normally don't hear from (including some archival interviews) like the former NWA President Bob Sigel, Bill Watts, Mae Young, Larry Hennig, Jim Crockett, Lou Thesz, Jack Brisco, Mike Chapman who is the head of the International Wrestling Institute & Museum, Verne Gagne, Fabulous Moolah, Bobby Heenan, Gene Kiniski, Cheif Jay Strongbow, Dory & Terry Funk, Mike Graham, Goldberg, Jim Cornette, Eric Bischoff, Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page, Ron Simmons, and of course Ric Flair.

The documentry starts off talking about how far back wrestling goes to the point where it's mentioned in the Bible to former U.S. President Abe Lincoln was once a wrestler to the first World Champion in Frank Hackenschmidt. "The American Hero" Frank Gotch was talked about next including stories about how he would wrestle for over 2 hours & was the man who inspired wrestling to be taught in high schools & YMCA's. The championship reign of Ed "The Strangler" Lewis was highlighted by stories of how he was a celebrity in the 1920's and even once wrestled a match that went over 5 hours long (yes, 5 hours...300+ minutes!) that resulted in referees passing out, no audience by the time the match was over, him in the hospitial for two days, and how that started to change the perspective of wrestling at that time into what we would know today as "sports entertainment". The story behind the formation of the National Wrestling Alliance was discussed before going into the great Lou Thesz' record long NWA Championship reign, how he carried himself as a champion, and just how much of a celebrity he was. Buddy Rogers, the original "Nature Boy", and how he set a record for his title victory & what he brought to wrestling that changed the image of what a World Champion was is talked about before discussing the next series of champions & stories about their championship reigns like Gene Kiniski with a funny story of how he lost the championship, the tough Harley Race, Jack Brisco becoming the first Native American NWA Champion & the heavy toll being the champion took on him, and the only brothers to hold the championship in Dory Jr. & Terry Funk. How Starrcade '83 marked a new era in the history of the NWA with Ric Flair becoming champion was discussed next talking about how Flair was in high demand everywhere & his feuds with Dusty Rhodes & Ricky Steamboat before going into the story behind how Jim Crockett Promotions going bankrupt led to Ric Flair showing up on WWE TV with the championship. From there, the talk goes into the various champions during WCW's history such as Ron Simmons being the first African American champion, the big & agile Vader (listen to Jericho's comments about Vader), and WCW's posterboy in Sting. How the Monday Night War with WWE caused the WCW Championship to have more requent changes with some being more dubious than others (Vince Russo, David Arquette, Sid Vicious, Jeff Jarrett) before discussing various WCW Champions during that time like Hollywood Hulk Hogan, Giant winning the title in his first match, how Diamond Dallas Page felt like he was winning the Oscar, Goldberg, and Booker T closing out the company as champion. The story behind the WCW Championship coming to WWE and later being unified into the Undisputed WWE Championship is discussed before closing out the documentry talking about Eric Bischoff bringing the World Heavyweight Championship back and highlighting the various champions in the WWE era such as Randy Orton being the youngest champion, Mysterio being the smallest, C.M. Punk, Edge, Batista, Undertaker, and John Cena.

Matches Include:
NWA Champion Ric Flair vs. Magnum T.A. - This was a very competitive match that went back & forth between both men with Magnum overpowering & outwrestilng Flair early before Flair regained the advantage & heavily worked over his arm. Flair ended up bleeding at one point before just squeeking past Magnum.
AWA SuperClash '85

NWA Champion Ric Flair vs. Sting - This was the big return of Sting after his leg injury early in the year looking for revenge against the man who kicked him out of the Horsemen & had him get injured later that night. To insure a fair fight, Sting's group of friends called "Dudes With Attitudes" surrounded the ring to ensure the Horsemen wouldn't interfere while Ole Anderson was handcuffed on the rampway to El Gigante. Sting took the fight right to Flair & dominated him in the early going showing no signs of ringrust. Eventhough Flair heavily targeted his knee, Sting kept coming back & fighting off Flair's attack before Sting won his first ever World Championship.
NWA Great American Bash '91
(Bonus match on "WWE Great American Bash '06")

NWA Champion Ric Flair vs. Scott Steiner - Over seven years before he became a full time singles wrestler under the name "Big Poppa Pump", Scott Steiner got a one on one match here against the Nature Boy & seriously didn't look out of place one time eventhough he was a full time tag team wrestler with Rick, who was at ringside, at this time. Steiner kept using his superior power against Flair and went the distance here against the champion in this heavily impressive performance.
"WCW Clash Of The Champions" Jan. '91

WCW Championship Match: Lex Luger vs. Barry Windham - This was one of the most famous matches in the history of the World Heavyweight Championship...for all the wrong reasons. This match was to determine the new WCW Champion after Ric Flair left the company a short time earlier and the crowd didn't approve of this as they kept chanting throughout this match "We Want Flair!" There was tons of stalling between both men during the first half of the match and never left first gear until the end with Luger doing unfamilar moves like the DDT & a sleeper while both men tried to come off the top rope at one point. In the end, Luger left with not only the World Championship but also a new unexpected manager & bodyguard.
WCW Great American Bash '91

WCW Champion Vader vs. Ron Simmons - The story behind this match was that this was originally suppost to be Sting's rematch against Vader from the "Great American Bash" but after Sting was attacked by Jake Roberts earlier in the evening, Ron Simmons got the title shot. Simmons in this match was defined perfectly by Jim Ross, "going off power & determination." He went power for power against Vader resulting in the first ever african-american World Heavyweight Champion.
Aug. '92

Human Cage Match: WCW Champion Vader vs. Ricky Steamboat - Eventhough this match was given a fancy name, it's really just a lumberjack match. Steamboat & Vader's different styles clashed her as Vader used his power & weight while Steamboat heavily relied on his martial arts chops & kicks along with various splashes onto Vader's ribs. This was a really average match that wasn't bad but nothing I would honestly concider DVD worthy when showcasing the history of this championship.
"WCW Saturday Night" Oct. '93

Steel Cage Match: WCW Champion Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair - This was the third match in their series as Hogan won at Bash At The Beach while Flair won the rematch at "Clash Of The Champions" by countout so to ensure this was the final match, this was also a career ending match for the loser. Mr. T was the referee while celebrities like Muhammed Ali & Tommy "Hitman" Herns were at ringside along with Sting. Flair worked over Hogan's bad leg while Hogan came off very aggressive to the point where T had to keep acknowledging Hogan to back off which kept causing conflict between those two men. This got real wild in the end with Sherri, Sting, Jimmy Hart, a masked man, and handcuffs all got involved in the match before Hogan overcame the odds to retain the championship. As a side note, the part where the masked man was revealed to be Brutus Beefcake is not shown here.
WCW Halloween Havoc '94

WCW Championship Match: Sting vs. Hollywood Hogan - After the controversal ending of the more famous Starrcade match between these two and the rematch they had the next night on Nitro, this was the match to determine the vacant WCW Champion with the rules heavily relaxed as this was set to be one fall to a finish. This was a very aggressive fight as Hogan was cheating (including using his weightbelt as a weapon) & kept bad mouthing Sting before Sting came back & got his reciepts with the weightbelt. As expected, the nWo members did make an appearence but it was one specific member who would be the difference maker in this match helping WCW gain their championship back & had their own spray painted celebration.
WCW SuperBrawl VII

WCW Champion Hollywood Hogan vs. Goldberg - This was more about putting Goldberg over as WCW's "superhero" & top star more than anything else as Hogan threw everything he could at Goldberg by either wrestling him & resorting to cheating only for Goldberg to not be effected by it & keep coming back dominating his way to the WCW Championship. With cameos from... Read more ›

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A review, July 29, 2010

By 

LeeAnn Hawkins - See all my reviews

This review is from: WWE: The History of the World Heavyweight Championship (DVD)

This was a pretty good set that traced the linage of the NWA and WCW world heavyweight title. Let's get the review:

Pat O'Connor vs. Buddy Rogers (6/1961): This was actually a good match from start to finish. It was an older match so u got the 2 out of 3 falls regulations but really a good match. I give this match 2 stars !

Gene Kiniski vs. Dory Funk Jr (2/11/1969): Pretty much just clips, nothing to really comment on. I give this match 1 star!

Jack Brisco vs. Terry Funk (12/10/1975): I really hoped this match would be complete but no just clips again so again i give this match 1 star!

Harley Race vs. Dusty Rhodes (8/21/1979): Another match that was ok and i believed was clipped again. I give this match star!

Ric Flair vs. Magnum TA (9/28/1985): This was a good match with Flair carrying Magnum through the match. Still a good match. I give this match 2 stars!

Ric Flair vs. Sting (7/7/1990): Great match! This was Sting's first world title win and who better to beat for ur first then Ric Flair himself, the greatest of all time! Really great match and good storyline too. I give this match 4 stars!

Ric Flair vs. Scott Steiner (7/30/1991): Kind of a strange match to include in this set but it was a good match. Once again Flair had to carry another up and comer but the match is still worth watching and ends in a tv time limit draw. I give this match 3 stars!

Lex Luger vs. Barry Windham (7/14/1991): I am a huge fan of both these guys so i was primed to see this match. It was good but not great. It was a relatively short match, only around 12:00 or so but still good enough to view. I give this match 2 stars!

Vader vs. Ron Simmons (8/2/1992): Ron makes history as he becomes the first African American to win the world title from the monster they call Vader. Again a good match but not great. I give this match 2 stars!

Vader vs. Ricky Steamboat (10/23/1993): Anything with Ricky is good and this was no exception. The "Human Cage" element of the match was nothing more then a lumberjack match which should have been thrown out because it added nothing to match itself. Still a good match. I give this match 3 stars!

Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair (10/23/1994): I remember at the time this was the biggest match in wrestling. This was a cage match for the world title with Mr. T referring and both careers on the line! Wow! This match was good not as good as their Bash at the Beach match but still good with a wild ending. I give this match 3 stars!

Sting vs. Hulk Hogan (2/22/1998): This was a good match and better then their Starrcade match. A lot of back and forth action and a really satisifying ending. I give this match 3 stars!

Hulk Hogan vs. Goldberg (7/6/1998): The match that really started the Goldberg machine. This match was awesome if not rather short. Still a great match. I give this match 4 stars!

Jeff Jarrett vs. Booker T (7/9/2000): Don't know why this match is on this set. It's boring and not worth seeing. I give this match 1 star!

Rock vs. Chris Jericho (10/21/2001): I love this match! I still say this was their match of their series together. This is the match that made Jericho in my opinion and proved that he was worthy of that belt. I give this match 4 stars!

Triple H vs. RVD (9/22/2002): Great match from start to finish. I was really hoping RVD would win but i guess Triple H has to make sure that didn't happen. Interference by Flair at the end ruined the match for me. Still good to view. I give this match 3 stars!

Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels (10/19/2004): Of all their great matches to show they picked this piece of crap. Normally i would not call one of their matches that but with Michaels barely moving on one leg and Triple H doing a half u know what job with the match, it sucked! I give this match 1 star!

Kurt Angle vs. Undertaker (2/19/2006): Awesome match! This is my all time favorite UT match. It went around a half hour and had everything from wrestling to brawling to almost MMA style fighting. I loved it. Have to see it to really appreciate it. I give this match 4 stars!

Rey Mysterio vs. Randy Orton (4/7/2006): Good match but would have been better on PPV. I give this match 2 stars!

Batista vs. Edge vs. Undertaker (12/16/2007): Another pretty good match. This was just ok not great. I give this match 2 stars!

John Cena vs. Chris Jericho (11/23/2008): Actually, this match is a very good contest between the two. I hate Cena but i will give him props when he does a good job and this was one of those times when he did just that. I give this match 3 stars!

Jeff Hardy vs. Edge (6/7/2009): You really get 2 matches on this one. The ladder match with Edge was a good contest not great cause all the spots used we've seen again and again in these type of matches, but still worth seeing. Once Hardy had won then CM Punk came out to cash in his Money in the Bank shot and beat Hardy fairly quickly to become champion again.

All in all this was a good set but could have been a lot better. There should have been better Flair matches maybe against Steamboat from earlier years not 1989 and also maybe against Luger. I would liked to have seen some more Sting matches, like his title win against Luger at Superbrawl. Otherwise, all in all, this series was really good and I'm hoping to see maybe a history of the WCW US title or even WWE Tag title history coming soon. Hopefully.