# Posted 11:29 PM by Ariel David Adesnik  

YET ANOTHER PRO-WRESTLING POST: Ninety percent of you will scroll right on down the next post. The other ten percent -- the truly open-minded part of the audience -- will treasure these reviews of some of the pro-wrestling DVD's I've been watching lately.

First up is WWE -- From the Vault: Shawn Michaels. This is a compilation of the Heartbreak Kid's greatest matches, along with some commentary from the Kid himself. And the matches are truly great. Michaels' ladder match against Razor Ramon defined the genre and still seems fresh and creative even though ladder matches are now a staple of the pay-per-view circuit.

The 60 minute Iron Man match against Bret "The Hitman" Hart also deserves its status as a legend. I'd heard that any match that lasts an hour simply gets boring at a point, but this one only gets better. As for those ignorantly deride wrestling as "fake", they should consider exactly what kind of physical conditioning it takes to put on an acrobatic show that goes for sixty minutes straight.

Next up is the re-release of an Andre the Giant retrospective originally from the mid-1980s. Like so many kids, I watched endless hours of television, hoping to see Andre wrestle, but never did. Back then, the stars performed much less often. Thus, I felt quite privileged to actually see 11 matches in a row with Andre. But...

They were terrible. The quality of most pro-wrestling 25 or 30 years ago was nothing compared to what it is today. The pace is far slower, the moves much more repetitive, the wrestlers often out of shape. And Andre dominates every match. Moreover, this disc says almost nothing about Andre as a person. Still, the disc is worth watching for its historical value alone.

Finally, we come to Rob Van Dam: One of a Kind. RVD's first title defense against Jerry Lynn will go down as one of the greatest matches in the history of ECW, if not all of pro-wrestling. There are some other first rate matches here, especially the ladder match against Christian, but Van Dam's suffers to a certain degree from having opponents who just can't match his standard of athleticism. So watch this disc, but don't feel about skipping some matches.

That is all. We now return to our usual discussion of subjects that are dreadfully intellectual. (4) opinions -- Add your opinion