WWE Greatest Rivalries: Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart DVD Documentary Review

As Bleacher Report correspondent Imaan Jalali wrote earlier today, reviews in so far from Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com/WrestlingObserver.com and Daniel Bee of WWEDVDNews.com suggest that the main interview/documentary portion of the new WWE Greatest Rivalries: Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart DVD and Blu Ray release is the best main feature ever made for a WWE DVD. I'm chiming in to say that yes, it is.

The set isn't officially out until October 14th in the UK and October 25th in the US. However, review copies have gone out and some independent retailers have broken the street date to start selling it early.

While the infamous "Montreal screwjob" at Survivor Series '97 is the key event covered by the documentary and absolutely the selling point, it's not the main focus, almost to a surprising degree. Still, as Meltzer noted in his review, the detail, introspection, and emotion seen make the section covering the screwjob the highlight.

I vividly remember watching that show live with my dad. We got an eerie feeling earlier in the show when Michael Cole's backstage interview with Vince McMahon ended with Cole asking McMahon "Who's gonna win?" and getting a reply of "[Dramatic pause] I don't know."

As I mentioned in a slideshow last weekend, it's been forgotten that Hart and Michaels were having a hell of a match before the screwjob.  After an iffy undercard, the main event was saving the show. Then, it happened.

Somehow, having missed referee Earl Hebner's gesturing as if he was asking Hart to submit, we momentarily thought Michaels was disqualified for pushing him into Hart. Then, when Hart awkwardly countered the Sharpshooter, the camera zoomed in on the shocked look on his face, and Michaels' entrance music started playing, we both started asking each other "Did they just...?"

When Hart stood next to Michaels and spat directly in McMahon's face while the local French-speaking announcer declared Michaels the new champion, we realized what happened.  "They did."

Even 14 years later and having buried the hatchet with both Michaels and McMahon, this is clearly still a sore spot for Hart, especially given how much stock he put in the trust that is required for a pro wrestling match to work. He doesn't go into every detail why, but he makes sure to reinforce that there was no reason for McMahon to think that what happened was necessary.

One reason that Hart gives is something that, as far as I know, hasn't really been discussed before in the Montreal discussions along with the usual ones (he had a month left on his contract, WCW couldn't risk it due to their ongoing lawsuit with WWE, etc.). He had already fulfilled all of his required bookings for the year on his contract, so he could've no-showed and been in the clear.

Given how much Montreal haunted Hart, there's something uplifting about him actually being good friends with Michaels again. One thing that stuck out in his book was just how much being around the boys was where he felt he belonged and how much it helped him after his brother Owen's death. You can tell that going on the road with WWE from time to time and letting go of the remaining baggage he had with Michaels has been good for him emotionally.

Enough about Montreal in and of itself and onto the documentary in general.

They do a good job setting framework for the different chapters. I would have liked a discussion contrasting their training and pre-WWE careers, but otherwise I can't think of anything of note that was skipped.

Jim Ross did an excellent job as the host/moderator in this new setting. He was tremendously well prepared and steered the discussion about as well as anyone could. He's especially valuable when discussing the '96-'97 period as he had moved into the Talent Relations department at that point.

The conversation flows very naturally throughout, and nobody raises their voices, even during disagreements. In something atypical of WWE documentaries, insider wrestling jargon is used without any elaboration, so it doesn't sound like the usual artificial babbling that we often get.  It's more like the best possible "shoot interview" DVD than a WWE production.

The production staff was on top of their game here in terms of editing clips in as they're being described, sometimes with alternate camera angles.  This adds a lot to the overall presentation.

My favorite instance of this is during the discussion of their 60 minute iron man man match at Wrestlemania XII. When Hart brings up how he was amazed that he saw 4:59 left on the clock at the point in the match that he planned to be the beginning of the last five minutes, we see him quickly glancing up at the in-arena clock before he dives off the middle turnbuckle.

As for Michaels, he generally comes off well. He's humble throughout and tends to let Hart steer their conversations. At some points, when they're talking about their differences of opinion, he seems forgetful and genuinely surprised by some of the things Bret mentions, and even defers to Bret's memory over his own.

This stuck out when Hart was talking about the strip-tease aspect of Michaels' post-match dancing being inappropriate. At first, Michaels defends bringing kids into the ring to dance as being the same as Hart giving his sunglasses to kids in the front row.

Hart shuts him down by stressing that young children imitating a striptease was a very bad idea, especially since there was one pay-per-view event where Michaels ended the dance by pulling his tights to the pubic bone. He actually went further a few months later during a hiatus Hart took, stripping down to just his boots and WWF Championship belt after another pay-per-view went off the air.

Something that I thought was interesting was that, while Michaels has been open in the past on WWE DVDs about his history of drug addiction (and a video package mentions a failed drug test in 1993), he doesn't mention it at all here when talking about his erratic behavior in '96-'97.  Instead, he chalks up it all up to his underlying emotional issues, which is either oddly evasive or indicative of him taking responsibility, depending on your viewpoint.

There's a ton of ground covered, much more than I can discuss here. This is a tremendous piece of work on WWE's part, and I hope that it sells well enough to warrant "WWE Greatest Rivalries" becoming a series like they've planned.

If you have a Blu Ray player, that's the version to get, as it has a few extras not included on the DVD version. Most notably and somewhat puzzlingly, that includes the Survivor Series '97 match in Montreal.

Otherwise, the extras include just about every match between the two aired on television/pay-per-view or released on home video in the past by WWE. The only exceptions are the aborted WWF Tag Team Championship switch involving the two from 1990 and a 1992 match shot for home video, which are on the "Heartbreak and Triumph" and "My Journey" Michaels DVD sets respectively.

WWE Home Video has done an incredible job here. Highest possible recommendation, especially if you're a fan of Hart's book and/or the "Wrestling With Shadows" documentary that ended up covering the Montreal mess by virtue of sheer luck.

I will add the caveat that if you already have or aren't interested in getting the bonus matches and interviews, you may want to wait and see if the documentary portion is made available on Netflix Watch Instantly.