Customer Reviews

WWE - Wrestlemania III (Championship Edition)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Wrestlemania III is the most famous Wrestlemania to date, but does it deserve the recognition?

Cowboy Bob Orton and Don Muraco versus Rick Martel and Tom Zenk
Although a short match, this one was pretty entertaining and a good way to open the show. Martel was, at the time, one of the best wrestlers in the business, and both Don Muraco and Bob Orton were great heels. The lost man here, Tom Zenk, was a decent wrestler.

Billy Jack Haynes versus Hercules
At 7 minutes, this was one of the longest matches on the card, and really did not warrant the time. Hercules was a pretty good wrestler for his size, as was Haynes, but this was not a wrestling match. It was just a brawl that took way too long to reach its predictable ending.

Hillbilly Jim, the Haiti Kid and Little Beaver versus King Kong Bundy, Little Tokyo and Lord Littlebrook
If you are amused by midgets wrestling, you may like this, otherwise its a worthless match. Fortunately, it was only 3 minutes long.

The Junkyard Dog versus Harley Race
Despite only being 4 minutes long, this was actually pretty good. It's always fun to see Harley Race in his final years in the business, and the Junkyard Dog was up to his usual antics. Not bad, really.

The Fabulous Rougeaus' versus Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake
Although this match was somewhat entertaining, it was, like most of the other matches on this card, way too short to get much out of it. It seemed more like a buildup match to further a feud than a serious match.

Adrian Adonis versus Roddy Piper (Hair versus Hair Match)
This was a decent match given the time constraints. Although Adrian Adonis is little known to the most current wrestling fans, he was a decent wrestler and Piper always put on a really good show.

Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart and Danny Davis versus The British Bulldog, the Dynamite Kid and Tito Santana
This should have been an excellent match with two great tag teams and Tito Santana thrown in there. In the nine minutes the match was given, the two teams put on a good show and the match still turned out pretty well.

Butch Reed versus Koko B. Ware
Another short, meaningless match. Nice for nostalgia, but not much to watch.

Intercontinental Champion Randy Savage versus Ricky Steamboat
Without a doubt, this is the greatest match ever put on at a Wrestlemania. It featured the best in-ring story telling you will ever see, not to mention outstanding wrestling. Both Savage and Steamboat put on a great show and flowed perfectly together. It's possible that this match alone is worth the cost of the DVD. Every true wrestling fan needs to see this match. It is the epitome of professional wrestling.

The Honky Tonk Man versus Jake Roberts
This match is most well known for featuring musician Alice Cooper in Roberts' corner. It was a decent match and worked fairly well, but was nothing fantastic.

The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff versus the Killer Bees
Although this match should not have taken place so late on the card, it was still a decent match. The Killer Bees are a tag team from the 1980s that are pretty much unheard of today. But they are one of the most talented tag teams of their time. The off-stage bad blood between B. Brian Blair of the Killer Bees and the Iron Sheik is really evident in the course of this rather short match.

WWF Champion Hulk Hogan versus Andre the Giant
This is perhaps the most famous wrestling match of all time, featuring the legendary moment where Hogan bodyslammed Andre. Despite the fame of the match, it was not a particularly good match. Neither Hogan nor Andre were particularly good wrestlers and they basically did their routine moves over the course of the match. It was a great moment in wrestling, but not a great match.

The problem with Wrestlemania III is not the card, which is stellar, but the time allotted to each match. Of the twelve matches, only two exceeded 10 minutes, with the rest coming in at five minutes, on average. You get glimpses of the glory days of the WWE but little that is solid. The Savage/Steamboat match is probably the best match in WWE history and the Hogan/Andre match features the most memorable moment in WWE history. Is that one great match and one great moment worth the money? A true wrestling fan will want this DVD. But a casual fan would be better off renting.

As a side note, the extra features include some interviews, as well as a second version of the pay per view which features little pop-up trivia facts during the matches. Interesting, but not worth the ten dollars or so it adds to the cost of the DVD.

What I can I say about this event that hasn't already been said for the past two decades? This was without a doubt in some people's minds the greatest WrestleMania of all time...and if not the greatest, then it ranks right up there in towards the top. This event held over 93,000 people in a record that still stands today since no other sport or entertainment event has been able to break that. On this DVD set, you can relive that WrestleMania in either it's original (but not authentic) format or a special enhanced version that gives you a more "behind the scenes" look. I won't do a match by match review like normal since there's really nothing I can say about any of these matches that hasn't been said for 20 years & everyone's had a chance to see WrestleMania III and make up their own opinion.

Disc one is the WrestleMania III version that you would see on WWE 24/7 or the WrestleMania Anthology DVD set that was released a while ago. As usual, they're are some changes as some music themes have been changed due to the music rights expiring. From what I can remember, I think the only two changed were Butch Reed/Slick's & Hillbilly Jim's...and the original Aretha Franklin song that ended the show (can't remember the name) was replaced with her signing the National Anthem that she did earlier in the night. Also, all references to the initials "WWF" were edited out but you don't have to worry about the WWF logo being blurred out since this was way before they came up with the "scratch" logo you saw in the Attitude era. The DVD extras in this disc are completely dedicated to the Savage/Steamboat match as the Saturday Night's Main Event match between Savage & George "The Animal" Steele which featured Ricky Steamboat along with promos & interviews leading up to the event.

Disc two is the same WrestleMania but this version is similar to the VH-1 show "Pop-Up Video" (whatever happened to that show anyways?) which should appeal to those who already have a copy of this WrestleMania. Facts & figures pop up on the screen at various times along with side comments from various people involved from time to time. This really helped you get a "behind the scenes" look at the event at some point as you'll hear from some of the wrestlers at the event. Vince, Hogan, Heenan, Piper, Jake Roberts, Steamboat, George Steele, Raymond Rouqeau, and others as they talk about how they were feeling backstage & what they were thinking in the ring. You also can get comments from WWE superstars & legends such as how Edge "listened" to WrestleMania, how the Steamboat/Savage match impacted Chris Jericho, and Ron Simmons explaining the importance of the Koko B. Ware vs. Butch Reed was to african americans. The DVD extras on this disc are dedicated to the Hogan/Andre match as you get a joint interview by Hogan & Steamboat, the Saturday Night's Main Event battle royal involving Hogan & Andre, an Andre The Giant & Bobby Heenan interview, and the contract signing between Hogan & Andre. The only thing missing here is the Piper's Pit that started it all but that's available on Piper's DVD set.

The only disappointment I have is that they didn't have any of the Piper's Pit/Flower Shop segments in the extras since that was the third "main event" level match on the card & all these segments were left out of Piper's DVD set. That aside, it doesn't take away from this DVD set. Honestly with so many WrestleMania moments from the birth of "The Barber", Piper's farewell, Bundy squashing the midget, the Savage/Steamboat wrestling clinic, and Hogan slamming Andre & ending the 15 year undefeated streak that you won't be disappointed. I can't help but recommend just based on the quality of the matches & entertainment along with the historic value.

Disc 1 is the entire Wrestlemania 3 which also include tons of interviews from Randy Savage and Ricky Steamboat from various shows like Superstars of Wrestling leading up to Wrestlemania also a match from Saturay Night's Main Event featuring Randy Savage vs. George "The Animal" Steele for the I/C title.

Disc 2 is the entire Wrestlemania 3 with pop ups that tell you stupid little facts about each match. The extras are tons of interviews from various shows like Superstars of Wrestling featuring Ricky Steamboat and Hulk Hogan. It has the full contract signing between Hulk Hogan & Andre the Giant and an awesome 20 man battle Royal Match from Saturday Night's Main Event featuring Hulk & Andre! A great DVD!!!

For anyone who grew up during the 80's and 90's like i did, this DVD of Wrestlemania III brings back a lot of fond memories of watching wrestling on TV. My favorite (as good as the Hogan and Andre match was)was actually the intercontinental title match between Randy "macho man" Savage and Ricky "the dragon" Steamboat. This DVD is not only very entertaining but it serves as a reminder of how good and exciting wrestling was back in that era as opposed to the lame storylines and match-ups of today. I highly recommend it to any wrestling fan. HULKAMANIA FOREVER!!!

Here's the thing. As usual the WWE either didn't want to pay for rights to use certain theme songs that were originally used by wrestlers back then, or just couldn't get the rights. Ricky Steamboat's original theme is not used on this DVD and is simply replaced by a generic theme that is kind of annoying IE it's kind of loud and drowns out commentary briefly. Hillbilly Jim's theme has been replaced as well which is strange because I was under the impression that his original WWF theme was WWF produced. Also, at the end of the event during the recap Aretha Franklin's "Who's Zoomin' Who?" was originally played during the recap, but instead her rendidtion of America The Beautiful is played over the recap instead. These are just a few minor detractors.. Well.. Ricky Steamboats original theme would have been nice to hear. But otherwise having the event "digitally remastered" is nice.

However, with the exception of 2 matches from 2 seperate Saturday Night's Main Event from 1987 that lead up to Wrestlemania 3, the bonus features are really, really skimpy. What might look like "tons of interviews" really are nothing more than 1 minute interviews from old WWF Superstars and Wrestling Challenge episodes prior to Wrestlemania 3. They really are no longer than 1 to 2 minutes. That's about it. Also the pop up video version of Wrestlemania 3 really offers nothing new at all. You get brief clips of wrestlers that wrestled that day wax nostalgia and get attendance figures wrong. But most of the information shared is information that is commonly known already.

The WWE really missed the boat with this re-release. With so many hours of video footage in their library there could have been so much more added to this DVD release. Wasn't there a promotion blitz surrounding this event? Weren't there tons of promos, legendary Piper's Pits, even Piper's farewell speech from a SNME? Maybe a little documentary on the planning of Wrestlemania 3.. More angles that lead up to the big matches at Wrestlemania 3, just things like that would have made this much more of a special release.

In summary the production values that were put into orecviously released DVDs on Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper as well as many other WWE stars should have been put into the release of this DVD, at least enough to warrant the purchase of this since it is available in other formats. But if you don't already own an old copy of the Coliseum Video release, or the release that came out on the original VHS Anthology from 1997 (which btw has unedited themes) or if you don't own any of the recent Wrestlemania anthology release, then by all means purchase this DVD.

This dvd is worth the price of admission just for the fact that i can watch one of the very best, if not the best, wrestling matches of all time, over and over again. Of course, I am referring to the wrestling clinic that is the Intercontinental Championship Title match between champion "Macho Man" Randy Savage & challenger Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat. All the facets of what constitutes a great match are here- 2 superstars at the top of their game, an intense rivalry, injury history, a beautiful classy lady in one corner & a loyal watchful friend in the other corner who have a history of their own. Indeed the back story of this match from the previous 14 months of Savage's title reign is one of the best the WWF has ever done. All wrestlers in the WWE's current sub-par state should be forced to watch this and take notes. The commentary where Steamboat remarks on how he and Savage knew the advanced attendance figures and planned to make this one for the ages is perfect. Savage would lose his title but go on to greater heights as WWF Champion and Steamboat would go on to become WCW Champion after leaving the WWF but this was a high water mark for both participants and professional wrestling itself. I hope the WWE will release a 3 disc set of the "Macho Man" Randy Savage soon, as his career is loaded with the top matches of the last 25 years and his star power and abilities were second to none. OH YEAHHHHHH!

This is a great dvd because it shows all of the matches , not just highlights.

The most classic Wrestlemania ever! It has alot of great matches like Ricky Steamboat vs. Randy "Machoman" Savage, Junkyard Dog vs. the King Harley Race, and of course Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant. Now I know what the bad reviews are saying about how short these matches are and whatever but it doesn't matter, it's still 3 hours long and before each match, if you can remember, flashbacks are shown that explain how each superstar came into conflict and what led up to their classic battles. I love wrestling and this particular Wrestlemania was a birthday present bought for me by my parents to enjoy on pay per view. Loved it!!!

Full of action! I thought all the matches were great, especially Steamboat defeating Macho Man; but, the saddest was the last one, in which Andrea The Giant was defeated the the Hulkster. The was the beginning of the big guy's demise.

I actually purchased all of the anthology and it was outstanding! just relive those historic moments meant soo much to me a must buy for all true wrestling fans!