WWE Best Pay-Per-View Matches 2016

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 539 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: January 16 2017

(Thanks to Fetch Publicity for arranging this review.)

For the seventh year, WWE presents its top supercard matches of the year on DVD (although the original release covered the 2009/2010 season, from Backlash 2009 to WrestleMania XXVI; you can check out previous reviews within this series using the links on the right). Since the series began at the end of the 2000s, a lot of things have changed in WWE, not least the roster and its leading stars. However, what hasn't changed is that you can usually count on there being some pretty strong matches on the vast majority of Pay-Per-View events. In 2016, there were perhaps more stand-out PPV showdowns than ever before in WWE, and many of them are included in this collection.

Hosted by Lita, the set fittingly kicks off with the first PPV match of the year, that being a very good Last Man Standing clash between Dean Ambrose and Kevin Owens for the Intercontinental Championship from Royal Rumble. From there, we're shown a quick montage of every match from the Rumble event and, throughout the set, similar round-ups are shown for every featured PPV event, as was the case on the 2015 collection (which is a nice touch as it packs a lot of moments into a short, neat and tidy series of clips). After that, we head to Fast Lane for two matches: AJ Styles vs. Chris Jericho, which was a strong effort in their underrated feud, and Roman Reigns vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Brock Lesnar with the WrestleMania 32 WWE Title shot at stake. The latter is better than I remembered it being, although the result was never in doubt, and strangely enough the Reigns-Triple H feud which had begun in November 2015, and generated some excitement over the winter through various angles, was suddenly turned on by hardcore fans once it became official that the two would collide at WrestleMania (how bizarre ... wink wink).

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WWE Best Pay-Per-View Matches 2015

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 503 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: January 18 2016

And so we come to the most recent WWE PPV round-up collection, which (obviously) focuses on supershow action from 2015. The artwork is slightly generic, but the use of different wrestlers on each of the disc's menus emphasises the new talent which has risen up the WWE ranks, as well as the veterans who gave us memorable matches on PPV. And we get plenty of them here: 2015 was one of WWE's best years on Pay-Per-View ever from a match quality standpoint, and a great number of the really good encounters are here.

We have a host once again, this time being Corey Graves. There aren't any pre-match promo videos, but each PPV covered has a recap video showing most of the match highlights, which is a nice touch that should be repeated in future sets (although some don't half drag on). And whilst this DVD was released to the US market (unlike that of 2014), there was still no Blu-ray version, meaning that this collection once again exceeds the 8-hour mark, giving us more matches. Too many matches? I'll let you be the judge of that. Also, the on-screen watermarks are not present here, but strangely the frame-rates seem slower on certain DVD players for this collection, which I cannot explain.

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WWE Best Pay-Per-View Matches 2014

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 528 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: January 12 2015

The year 2014 was a turbulent one for WWE. On one hand, we had the rise of Daniel Bryan to championship glory at WrestleMania XXX, the continued ascension of The Shield members before and after their break-up, the re-establishment of Brock Lesnar an absolute monster, and the debut of Sting at Survivor Series. On the other hand, we had the initial outrage at Daniel Bryan's non-entry in the Royal Rumble match, CM Punk walking out the following day, the end of The Undertaker's Streak at WrestleMania XXX and other moments of frustration (such as the repeated delaying of the WWE Network launch in the United Kingdom). If nothing else, it was a very memorable year, and many of the year's biggest memories came on Pay-Per-View.

As we have seen previously, this DVD set brings us plenty of the best or most memorable PPV matches of the year. Like with previous sets, Survivor Series and TLC aren't touched, and one or two omissions are surprising, as I will explain. This set also has a thrown-together feel to it by the generic artwork and the lack of a host. However, because it wasn't released on Blu-ray (and wasn't released in the United States at all, strangely), the running time is longer, giving us more action and basically more bang for our buck. (Okay, "bucks" are American currency and wouldn't apply since it wasn't on sale in the US, but the expression still works, dammit!).

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WWE Best Pay-Per-View Matches 2013

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 435 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: January 13 2014

Once more, WWE has released a compilation focusing on the year's best Pay-Per-View encounters (well, those of the first ten months, anyway; and the match choices are always those of WWE, meaning some fan favourite bouts don't get a look-in). Renee Young takes over hosting duties here, with PPV posters to assist her, erm, links, and the artwork has a slightly grandiose theme highlighting WWE's biggest names ... except for Brock Lesnar. That Lesnar isn't included is unusual, and perhaps emphasises how his star doesn't shine quite as bright as it should presently. We don't get any promo videos for matches this time, which is a slight dampener.

Onto the action, though, and we have CM Punk vs. The Rock from Royal Rumble. Whilst a fun match to watch, that part-timer Rock was chosen to end Punk's 434-day WWE Title reign PO'd the hardcore fans to a great extent, especially with John Cena winning the Royal Rumble to set up Rock-Cena 2 as the main event for WrestleMania 29 (I personally didn't have a problem with the decision, although the fact that the People's Elbow was the move to finish Punk off ruined one's suspension of disbelief). After that, Elimination Chamber (an underrated show, in my opinion) gives us John Cena, Ryback and Sheamus vs. The Shield, a watchable yet fairly pointless match with a surprising outcome (at the time, anyway).

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WWE Best Pay-Per-View Matches 2012

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Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 385 Minutes
Certificate: 12
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: March 4 2013

The Best Pay-Per-View Matches series would continue on to cover 2012, one of the most memorable years in recent times for WWE. Two huge WrestleMania matches, the return shortly afterwards of a major star, the year-long WWE Title run of the Best In The World, the entertainment provided by Team Hell No and the arrival of The Shield were just some of the reasons why there's a lot to remember about 2012. Much of it happened on Pay-Per-View, and a lot of that is covered here. Scott Stanford is again on hosting duties, and the artwork is a nice nod to the old-school wrestling posters from the 1970s and before. What's more, some promo videos are again included to explain why certain matches are happening, which is always a good thing.

We begin as ever at Royal Rumble, with CM Punk vs. Dolph Ziggler. It's a good match, but it's overshadowed by Punk's feud with special referee/enforcer John Laurinaitis, in Big Johnny's only appearance on the DVD, incidentally. The upshot is, Ziggler looks a bit weak as Punk has him beaten several times before finally finishing him off. Next up, the World Heavyweight Title Elimination Chamber had the potential to royally suck, but it ends up greatly exceeding expectations, and momentarily makes one believe that Santino Marella could indeed become the World Heavyweight Champion. Disc one closes with the outstanding Hell In A Cell war between The Undertaker and Triple H from WrestleMania XXVIII, refereed by Shawn Michaels and containing enough drama and action to justify why most people considered this to be the best match of the entire year.

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WWE Best Pay-Per-View Matches 2011

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 422 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Clear Vision Ltd/Silver Vision
Released: March 26 2012

The Best Pay-Per-View Matches series returned to DVD to cover the big encounters of 2011. This time, the structure was more logical by focusing on the year as a whole rather than a "season". The downside is that WWE chose to release this collection at the tail end of 2011 in the U.S. (meaning, the very beginning of 2012 in the UK), all of which meant that Survivor Series and TLC, the final two supershows of the year, were held too late to be covered in this DVD. This is a trend that has continued ever since, and hopefully one which WWE will end at some point; if you're recapping the year's best matches, you can't justifiably ignore two major shows that close the annum out.

That aside, the 2011 set is a very good round-up of top-drawer matches. Disc one opens with two great Edge matches: a singles battle with Dolph Ziggler from Royal Rumble, and an Elimination Chamber scrap (at the event of the same name) against Rey Mysterio, Kane, Wade Barrett, Drew McIntyre and Big Show. The Chamber bout in particular is excellent, and an example of how this match can still provide thrills and spills in a PG environment.

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WWE Best Pay-Per-View Matches 2009/2010

Image Source: Amazon

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Running Time: 356 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Clear Vision Ltd/Silver Vision
Released: August 16 2010

Considering the importance of major supershows to the WWF/WWE, it's surprising that it took so long for them to begin a regular DVD series focusing on the top PPV battles of a given period. Nevertheless, the first such collection covered the 2009/2010 season, which means Backlash 2009 to WrestleMania XXVI in this case. Future editions of the series would take a more logical route of simply covering the year from January onwards. This meant that some events would be strangely ignored - but we'll cover that in a future review.

Anyway, on this DVD, we kick off with an outstanding Last Man Standing (that sounded weird) clash between John Cena and Edge from Backlash, which was their final major showdown against one another. After that, we go to that card's opening match, a fun Jack Swagger-Christian battle for the ECW Title. Then, we have a Judgment Day main event between Edge and Jeff Hardy which is far better than people give this credit for, and this being so different to the Cena LMS bout, yet with both still being of a high quality, illustrates just how damn good Edge really was. (By the way, many of the matches included here have their corresponding video promo packages shown beforehand, which is a nice touch.)

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