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This was a 2002 WWF release and basically takes bios of 10 WWF wrestlers taken from various Confidential Episodes. We start with a montage of all 10 wrestlers we take a look at.
Kurt Angle
-The first guy we see what they did before wrestling is Kurt Angle. Kurt talks about growing up in Pittsburgh and them being the best in athletics then. He said he was relieved after he won the Gold Medal in 1996. Kurt’s brother David describes the fan reaction when Kurt won that gold. Mother Jackie says it was the best moment of her life for him. She starts talking about him being a kid. He was calm and didn’t like to hurt people but his brothers wanted him tougher. Talks about his father roughing him up with a game called Machine. Kurt remembers his first wrestling memory was at 7 and he got pinned in his first tournement. Kurt’s HS wrestling coach talks about him. Kurt says he’s the last regional and state champion his High School had. He then moves on to his father dying and showing us buildings he built. Kurt took it hard but it lit a spark in him to be the best and we see a clip of his college wrestling match. He talks about his 8 hour training which he did for 8 years in preparation for the Olympics. Kurt says the Olympics is what he meant to do but the WWF is his calling. Kurt says going from amatuer to pro has been the time of his life.
Molly
- She grew up in a small town in Minnesota. Says it was a great place to grow up and the people were real friendly. She got started in gymnastics when she was three. She got interested in power lifting because of her father. She also helped her dad restore cars. She starts talking about a 1967 Chevelle which is her dream car. She says she was working in a Subway when someone asked her to get involved in wrestling and she didn’t know women wrestled. She said she didn’t think it would start as a career. She remembers her first match where no one showed up due to it raining that day. She was known as Starla and how she wanted to throw out confetti stars but no one was there! She starts talking about working in the Indies and how it lead to a tryout with WCW and Dean started training here then says Randy Savage asked her to train his girlfriend and Randy asked her to be in his entourage and that’s how she got into WCW. Molly says her parents are very happy for her, especially her mother. She concludes by saying not many people get to enjoy their jobs but she loves hers.
Bradshaw
-Bradshaw grew up in Sweetwater Texas near Dallas and is famous for a snake roundup, which the humane society stopped since they found something wrong with rounding up snakes and killed them. Bradshaw played football too and said he got into a lot of trouble into Aberdine. Bradshaw said he broke his leg but continued playing. He went to the Raiders but stayed only a few months then went to the World Football League. He said he got into wrestling which he always wanted to do but thought he’d play football longer. We go to a clip of a young Bradshaw doing a pretty good Hulk impression. He went to Japan and Europe to make money and said how he’d work injured because he couldn’t afford to take a day off. Says he worked a tryout match with Savio Vega and got hired. His first match was against the Undertaker the night after Wrestlemania 13 on Raw. Says wrestling for the WWF is the greatest thrill in the world.
Spike Dudley
-We start by getting clips of him as a baby while his parents mention how easy he was to raise. His parents talk about him being in the water a lot which caused his parents to put a harness on him. His parents were all older than him so he got picked on a lot but he says he liked it because he got to hang out with the older kids. All three of his brothers played hockey but he didn’t want to because hockey practice took place on Saturday mornings and that’s when wrestling was on so he didn’t want to play hockey. He played football instead and we get clips of him playing football. He started working as a teacher but he never wanted to be a teacher. He started researching wrestling schools. He said his first year was pretty rough because guys were getting pissed at him and worked stiff on him because he was doing things better than the guys he wrestled. He said he kept it a secret from his parents at first until his first match. They showed clips of his first match where his head bounced off the ground. He lost via submission. He says he sent out resumes to WWF and WCW but were rejected but Tazz from ECW called him. Talks about some guy saying he wasn’t going to make it in this business because he didn’t do crazy moves but he did and he wonders where that guy is now.
Stacy Kiebler
-She says she was an only child. She started dancing at the age of three. She started small but started doing dance competitions then led to being a Ravens cheerleader. Said she had a boyfriend in HS for seven years! She talks about her prom. She said she always wanted to be on TV or in movies. She talks about being a Ravens cheeleader for the first two years of the Ravens. She entered a WCW Nitro contest to become a Nitro girl. She ended up winning the contest and $10,000 and signed a contract the next day and danced for a few months until the Miss Hancock idea came up and she went to wrestling school to learn basic moves. She says she was lucky enough to go from WCW to WWF and said it’s a load of difference and says she still has a lot to learn in the WWF.
Billy Gunn
-Billy says he grew up in Ovena Florida. He says his parents were incredible and supportive of him. He says his mom is his best friend and says he lost his dad this past year which was a huge blow to him. He has a younger sister but they didn’t get along too well but now they live together. He was always interested in playing sports. He talks about being in a pro rodeo and says he had to ride in the car to every location. They show photos of Billy in his riding days. He said it was getting old so he left to go back to Florida and started working out in his friends gym and met someone who had a wrestling ring and he went down and loved it. He started doing local shows and he got a WWF tryout and got hired right on the spot and became one half of the Smoking Gunns. He said his rodeo background had a big part in the Smoking Gunns background.
William Regal
-Pleasure Beach is one of the top ten amusement parks in the world. It’s the second most visited place in Europe. This introduction leads us to William Regal. He got interested in wrestling being in the amusement park and shooters challenging fans to wrestling matches. He tried to fight them but got his ass handed to him but he kept coming back and eventually the shooters let him hang around and started teaching him some stuff. He later became one of the shooters a year later. He talks about all the good ol times as a shooter in the amusement park. They go on a brief tour of Blackpool and Regal shows us some places of historical significance. Regal says he’s honored to do what he does. He says he can’t believe he’s part of the biggest show in the world.
The Hardy Boyz
-The next superstars we take a look at are the Hardy Boyz. Matt shows us around the room he grew up in. Matt and Jeff wanted to play pro-baseball. They talked about their mom having cancer and Matt talks about being there the moment she died. Jeff says his dad is his hero. Lita says it helped them become disciplined and focused. Matt anf Jedd started watching wrestling around the same time and started watching around WMIV and since then it became a dream. They used to work their own wrestling matches and creating their own characters and they show some home made videos of their promos. They started working indies not for money but for exposure. Matt says their father wanted them to quit wrestling so they could make money. Bruce Prichard said the Boyz had heart and would do anything to get into the ring and learn and get better. They show some clips of them working as jobbers against WWF Superstars from the mid 90’s while they weren’t under contract. They finally got signed full time to the WWF and they were both elated to say the very least.
Lita
-Lita is the next superstar covered and she starts off by saying she grew up in Florida and she hung out around the beach a lot as a kid. Her parents played a lot of tennis. She said she never had a set occupation she wanted to be. She was always athletic but started out on the swim team. She said she always thought Mexican wrestling was very interesting so she went down there to learn and experience some of the matches. She said when she first got there she bought a lot of masks from Mexico. She talks about being on the Indies and having a good core group of friends (i.e. The Hardy’s). They show some clips from Omega. After that she went to ECW and introduced herself to Tommy Dreamer. She said she started working out with Tajiri and ended up working on the show that night. She was called Miss Congenialty there. She then goes on talking about how she loved animals and talks about getting a job working in a kennel but got attacked by a dog so she quit. She says she gets lots of letters from girls who call Lita their hero. She says to stay focused if that’s what you want to do.
Edge & Christian
-E/C go to the place where they first met; their school. Christian said he always wanted to be the center of attention. Edge said he loved comic books as a kid and started drawing when he was two. He always did well in school despite never studying. Christian said he started playing hockey when he was four. He didn’t know his right from his left so he had it written on his gloves (R or L) so he’d know the difference. Christian mentions he won the goalie award in 88-89 which was named after Edge’s late uncle. Christian says he broke his shoulder in 4th grade and one day saw a wrestling show on TV and he got hooked on it. Edge first got hooked on wrestling when he saw Hulk Hogan for the first time. They walk through their old high school lockers and they said they hung out in gangs and theirs were the get-along gang because they got along with every gang. They talk about working “matches” in their high school lobby area. Edge talks about winning an essay contest to get free wrestling training. Christian says he got a student loan from college but skipped his last semester to get wrestling training. They talk about driving in Canada in the middle of nowhere to work matches. They talk about having the passion and such to want to become a wrestler.
That ends that portion of the DVD.
There are quite a bit of extras here, mostly first matches of some of the people mentioned and some other stories that didn’t make the program.
Molly’s first match 10/11/98
She wrestled as Starla Saxton and fought Jacqueline, who was in the midst of a fued with Sable. This is actually Jacky’s first Women’s Title defense and it took place on Sunday Night Heat. Cornette and Shane McMahon are doing the commentary and that’s a pretty interesting duo to say the least. Starla here doesn’t have the best fashion sense with the ugliest blue and green tights on. Jacky starts with a headlock but Starla tosses her to the ropes only to get shoulder blocked down. Jacky comes off the ropes and Starla hiptosses her down. They do some pretty neat reversals which leads to Starla coming off the ropes, ducking a clothesline and getting nailed with a Jacky spinning hee; kick. Jacky follows up with a double underhook suplex for two. Jacky tosses Starla by her hair and sends Starla to the ropes but Starla reverses. Jacky goes to the ropes but stops short to avoid hitting Mero, who is now on the apron. This allows Starla to come behind with a schoolboy for two. This infuriates Jacky who nails her with a clothesline. Starla fights back with some fists and forearms and send Jacky’s head into the turnbuckles a few times. Starla hits a nice overhead suplex into a pin and gets two. She sends Jacky to the ropes but Jacky ducks a clothesline then turns a Starla back body drop attempt into a float-over DDT for the pin and the win at about 3 minutes or so. Not a bad women’s match. *.
Lita’s WWF Debut 02/13/00
Her debut came in a match featuring Gillberg defending his Light Heavyweight Title against Essa Rios. Essa comes right in and Gillberg hits a spear. Essa flips around, hits a hurricanrana and finishes with a moonsault that BARELY hits but is good enough for the win. Lita outdoes him with her own moonsault and that’s that. Well, it was Lita’s debut and the end of Gillberg so it wasn’t ALL bad. ¼*.
Bradshaw’s WWF Debut 04/01/96
Bradshaw had the unfortunate luck to wrestle the Undertaker the night after Wrestlemania XII on Monday Night Raw. Guess who won. No really, guess. Bradshaw attacks from behind and I think this will be his only offense of the night. He actually hits a powerslam on Taker who promptly no sells. It’s funny, 8 years later and these two will be in the top two matches at the next Smackdown PPV. Bradshaw hits a flying shoulderblock from the top and goes to the top again trying for a cross body. Taker catches him and poweslams him though. Taker sends Bradshaw to the turnbuckle but he just bounces right back hitting a lariat (now known as the clothesline from hell) and follows with a big boot. He goes for the lariat again but Taker ducks and follows with a flying clothesline. One chokeslam and tombstone later and Bradshaw is done. Mankind comes in before Taker can pin Bradshaw and attacks Taker giving Undertaker the DQ win. Not a bad match. If Bradshaw wrestled like this now, his match with Guerrero won’t be SOOO bad. It’ll be bad, but not THAT bad. ½*.
Jeff Hardy vs. Rob Van Dam 05/12/97
This was during the ECW/WWF fued that mainly featured Lawler and Heyman arguing about which federation and one week Lawler brought RVD to Raw saying how great he was and dubbed him Mr. Monday Night. He wrestled against a jobber known as Jeff Hardy. 4 years later in the invasion angle, this was one of the dream matches people couldn’t wait to see. Usual flippity-flop RVD match. Both RVD hits a jumping spin kick that sends Jeff outside then follows with a somersault plancha onto Jeff. They go inside and RVD bodyslams Jeff and follows with the ***** frog splash then hits the split leg moonsault for the pin. Total squash. ½* for the spots.
Sing-A-Long 12/22/00
This was featured on the Christmas edition of Raw in 2000 when Edge and Christian were tag champs and Angle was the WWF Champ. Basically Angle brings his family in and they sing Christmas carols only to get interrupted by Chris Jericho. He insults everyone so Stephanie makes the next match. This whole thing took about 12 minutes by the way.
Kurt Angle/Edge/Christian vs. Chris Jericho/The Dudley Boyz 12/22/00
It’s funny, the segment to set up this match was 5 minutes LONGER than the actual match. Angle’s family has front row seats it should be noted. Christian and Jericho start off when Christian jumps Y2J from behind. Jericho ducks a clothesline attempt and hits a flying forearm. Jericho sends Christian to the ropes but Christian sunset flips over Jericho. Y2J reverses that into a Walls of Jericho attempt but Christian won’t stay still. Jericho launches him into the turnbuckle and rolls him up for two. Jericho tags in Dvon but Christian rakes the eyes and tags in Edge. Edge comes in only to get hiptossed by Dvon. Dvon shoulderblocks Edge for two then tags in Bubba Ray. Bubba punches away at Edge then stunguns him onto the top rope. He slams Edge causing Angle to try to come in. Of course, this allows Dvon to drop his head onto Edge’s crotch and it’s table time. Christian makes sure they don’t get the tables as Edge spears Bubba inside the ring. Edge tags in Christian who works over Bubba until Bubba hits a back body drop. Christian tags in Angle while Bubba makes the hot tag to Jeircho. Jericho completely takes control of Angle hitting a backbreaker then a Cactus clothesline. Jericho ends up brawling with the Angle family at ringside as Angle attacks Jericho. The Duds send Eric Angle through a table while Jericho sends Angle to the ringpost. The Duds and E/C brawl to the back as Jericho hits a missile dropkick then tries for a lionsault only to hit Angle’s knees. Angle connects with an Olympic slam for the victory. The Angle family beats up on Jericho in the ring only to have the Dudley’s chase them off.
The Smoking Gunns vs. 1-2-3 Kid/Bob Holly 01/23/95
This is from what seems like a lifetime ago. Bob and Kid were the current tag team champs winning the titles in a tag team tournement the night before which the Gunns couldn’t make because of a Rodeo Accident (Vince said it not me). So the Gunns got first dibs on the champs. Billy and Holly start off and Holly basically controls the action until the two standoff. I have to say. I’ve never heard a crowd this quiet. Billy starts working on Holly’s arm and tags in Bart. Holly starts working over Bart’s arm and tags in the Kid. The Kid gets a side headlock but Bart breaks by sending Kid to the ropes and ends up powerslamming him for two. Bart misses a dropkick though and Kid takes over tagging in Holly. Holly bodyslams Bart but misses an elbowdrop, so Bart drops an elbow, which also misses. The action is two exciting for me to write. Billy is tagged in while Holly is sending Bart to the ropes so he’s waiting for Bart to come off the ropes so Billy comes in and bulldogs him. The Gunns do some standard double team moves but Holly manages to take over when he pushes Bart to the ropes crotching Billy, who was on the top, allowing Holly and the Kid to hit a double suplex off the top for a two count. Kid is tagged in and he takes on future DX member Billy. He hits a spinning heel kick for a two and tags in Holly. They hit a double drop kick which also gets a two count. The two exchange punches as Holly takes over in the cotner. He sends Billy to the corner but a blind charge hits Billy’s boot. Holly makes the hot tag to the Kid. Kid goes for a bodyslam but Billy blocks it and slams the Kid. This powerful maneuver knocks both men out and both try to make the tag. The Kid is up first and dropkicks Bart off the apron. Billy recovers and hits the fame-asser on the Kid again leading to a double KO. Billy makes the hot tag to Bart who pummels the Kid culminating in a backbody drop for two. Bart slams the Kid then drops a leg but the cover is broken up by Holly. The Gunns hit a pretty nice double team move (Bart hold him up ready to do a backbreaker of sorts and Billy does a legdrop driving him down) but again Holly breaks the count. We take a quick cut (b/c of the Raw commercial) and Billy drops a nice looking legdrop. The Gunns continue beating on the Kid leading to a Bart holding Kid up in a suplex as Billy dropkicks him down. This only gets a two though. Bart comes back in and nothing happens. Billy comes back in again but Kid starts fighting back. Billy bodyslams him though taggiing in Bart. The Gunns try to double team and Billy stupidly bounces off the ropes right near Holly so Holly knees him in the back allowing the Kid to fight back and tag in Holly. The comeback is shortlived, however, when Holly goes to the top and drops onto the prone Bart Gunn only to eat boot. Bart lifts him up in a reverse shoulderbreaker hold allowing Billy to drive him down to the mat for the pin and the tag titles. The match was like 15 minutes long but the Kid and Holly didn’t get much offense at all past the 10 minute mark. The crowd wasn’t into it but it was a decent little match. **.
Mr. Manners 09/18/00
I believe this was Stephen Regal’s debut in the WWF, AGAIN. He was known as Stephen until the WWF decided there were way to many Steve’s on the roster so they changed his name to William. Anyway, he was debuted as a snotty Brit who tries to educate the boorish American’s of manners and higher education things like reading. In this segment, Stephen talks about table manners and how the order of forks, spoons and use of the napkin among others. Jericho thankfully interrupts and tears the table cloth complete with all the dinery off the table.
Hamlet? 09/25/00
This was the second appearance of Stephen William Regal. Regal basically reads from Hamlet only to get interrupted by Steve Austin. Austin walks in and stuns him then leaves.
No Holds Beared
Bradshaw talks about how he wrestled a bear that was 700lbs and 8 feet tall. He said the bear beat him half to death and said it was probably a lot of fun to watch but he’s just happy it wasn’t brown bear mating season.
Ice Rules!
Edge and Christian talk about how they drove across frozen lakes in Canada. One time the van fell in and Christian said he got in waist deep and as soon as he got out of the water his pants froze to him. Rhyno was on the vans too and they said he was crying and scared to death and took his boots off to put them on the dashboard to keep warm since his boots were frozen.
Spike’s Hardcore
Spike talks about how he was the only one home with his brother. Spike was watching wrestling but his brother came in and changed the channel. Spike got pissed and put his brother through a window with a cookie cutter.
I Told You So
Christian said he had a collection agency after him to pay back money and they’d call every week and one guy said he had no future in it and get a real job. After Christian made it, he called the guy back up and said he paid him in full and said he’d send him two front row seats because he worked for the WWF. He ended by saying he hopes he has fun with his Pinto and being in the cubicle while he traveled the world, then he hung up.
50 Cents
Kurt’s mother tells a story of how Kurt and his friend went up to her and said she was the prettiest women in town and then asked for 50 cents. As the two left, Kurt’s mother overheard Kurt telling his friend that it, “works every time.”
I don’t quite know what to say. The main part of the DVD features segments which for the most part were on Confidential. If you’ve seen those episodes, you’re not missing much here at all. The extras weren’t too great, just a few Raw and Heat matches, and the bonus little anecdotes weren’t anything I would jump out of my way to buy. Having said that, it’s not a bad DVD. If you can find it for cheap it’s actually an interesting look at how these superstars became wrestlers. I guess all in all, we’ll give it a 5/10 but it’s a very high five, if that makes sense. Recommendation to avoid if you’ve seen the Confidential airings, slight recommendation if you haven’t.
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