Inlewd DVD Review

ECW The Best of Cactus Jack

From the back of the DVD Cover:

"Cactus Jack the most violent of Mick Foley's personalities invokes imagery of violence, bloodshed and sheer uninhabited brutality. He is a performer who went above and beyond the call of duty to achieve victory, leaving logic and sanity behind in order to accomplish his goals. When Cactus Jack competed, two things were guaranteed: all out Mayhem and a hospital ride for his unfortunate opponent.

Whether Mick Foley was ripping apart arenas or engrossing fans with his one of a kind interviews, it was impossible to deny that there may never have been a performer who exemplified the hardcore, in your face style of Extreme Championship Wrestling. This is, for the first time anywhere, the complete story of Mick Foley's Extreme Experience."

Chapters: 19

1. ECW Open
   
   
2. Cactus Jack Music Video
   
   
3. Cactus Jack vs. Sabu "Hardcore Heaven"
   
   
4. Cactus Jack/Mikey Whipwreck vs. The Public Enemy (3 matches)
   
   
5. Cactus Jack & Kevin Sullivan vs. The Public Enemy (joined in progress)
   
   
6. Cactus Jack vs. The Sandman (Feb. 1995) & D.C. Drake (Funk comes out of the box at ringside)
   
   
7. Cactus Jack & Shane Douglas vs. The Sandman & Terry Funk
   
   
8. Cactus Jack vs. Terry Funk (full match)
   
   
9. Cactus Jack's feud with Shane Douglas (Shane Douglas vs. The Sandman closing moments - ECW title)
   
   
10. Cactus Jack vs. The Sandman (2 matches including a barbwire match - full)
    
    
11. Cactus Jack teams with Raven (Dreamer/Jack v. Raven/Richards closing moments)
    
    
12. Anti-Hardcore Promo's about Tommy Dreamer
    
    
13. Cactus Jack & Raven vs. Tommy Dreamer
    
    
14. Cactus Jack & Raven vs. Tommy Dreamer & Terry Funk "November 2 Remember '95" (Full Match)
    
    
15. Cactus Jack & Mikey Whipwreck vs. The Eliminators (ECW Tag Team Titles - closing moments)
    
    
16. Shane Douglas vs. Cactus Jack (full match)
    
    
17. Cactus Jack vs. Mikey Whipwreck (full match)
    
    
18. Farewell speech
    
    
19. End credits
    
    

Interviews: Cactus Jack (9), Shane Douglas (2), Mikey Whipwreck (5), Paul E. Dangerously (1), Mick Foley (Anti-Hardcore - 1! YES!!), Tommy Dreamer (1), and Raven (1).

The best interview was Mick Foley's farewell promo after his last match ever in ECW against Mikey Whipwreck.

Announcer: Joey Styles

Thing of interest: Foley had 1/2 of the WCW Tag Team Titles in one promo and threw it down and said it meant absolutely nothing. The promo's are what "made" this DVD worth the price in my opinion. The full matches were well worth the price as well, but the airing of partial matches and partial angles on a DVD is idiotic at best. If I wanted to see material which was incomplete, I would tape trade for the television show. I do not know what Pioneer Video was thinking by airing partial versions of matches they easily could have gotten the full footage on. If it was due to time constraints, I can almost forgive them and understand it. But the cool thing about the DVD technology is the interactive features. This DVD had the chapters listed so you could skip right to the one you wanted to watch. As DVD's typically all have. Just wanted to point that out.

The saving grace of this DVD is near the end when Mick Foley emerges as the anti-hardcore icon attempting to 'clean' up ECW. This was probably one of the greatest times in ECW history and in Mick Foley's ECW career.

Violence Rating: EXTREME during some parts of the DVD. Interestingly the EVOLUTION OF Eastern Championship Wrestling in to Extreme Championship Wrestling makes you notice how the product originally wasn't "extreme" at all. With Joey Styles calling action like it was "ultra-violent" and did not really contain that much violence (outside of a few chair shots and mostly to the back of the wrestlers and not the heads). But as time goes by, the Evolution became the Revolution. The violence became very EXTREME. Barbed wire matches, lots of blood, and brutal chair shots will make you love the progression of the Eastern product in to Extreme. There is also a lot of use of fire with Terry Funk and his flaming branding Iron on this DVD which was really cool.

Wrestlers appearing on the DVD: 911, Paul E. Dangerously, Hack Myers, Tommy Dreamer, DC Drake, Bruise Brothers, Mr. Hughes, Kevin Sullivan, Woman, Mikey Whipwreck, Joel Hartgood, Terry Funk, Chuck Austin, Raven, Pitbull #2, Big Dick Dudley, Stevie Richards, Rocco Roc, Johnny Grunge, Axl Rotten, Shane Douglas, Bill Alphonso, Taz, Beulah, John Kronus, Perry Saturn, Blue Meanie, and Brian Hildebrand (RIP).

Overall outlook on 'renting' and or 'purchasing this DVD': If you are a Cactus Jack (Mick Foley) fan or an ECW Hardcore fan, Buy the f'n DVD it is worth every last penny you will spend on it. If you are a wrestling fan and lover of good clean pro wrestling with out all of the brutality and violence of "Extreme Wrestling" this probably isn't the DVD for you.

Special Bonus Video: Video of Cactus Jack's ECW career.

You can purchase the DVD online at Amazon.com.

Mark Roth, Editor in Chief/Owner LEWD Wrestling E-Zine