Going into WWE’s newest superstar DVD, John Morrison: Rock Star, I have to admit that I had a bit of the same perception that other wrestling fans have shared — already?
After all, it has really only been a couple years since John Morrison (a.k.a. Johnny Nitro, a.k.a. John Hennigan) became a major WWE name. To borrow a Seinfeldism, I wasn’t sure if he was “DVD-worthy” at this point in his career.
Yet watching the DVD — out Tuesday — you can clearly see why WWE went forward with this project — that Morrison has, in the short time he has been flying solo on Smackdown, become one of the faces of the silver and blue brand with his extreme style and daredevil moves.
If you look at his set of matches from 2009, virtually all have been highlights or match of the year candidates (in fact, I dare say had it not been for Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker at ‘Mania, his bout with Rey Mysterio would have been WWE’s match of the year), and most of them are included here. Additionally, we get the birth of the John Morrison character on ECW, just two nights after Morrison beat CM Punk for the then-vacant championship.
Could there have been a couple more matches included? Sure, but the sampling WWE fans get is pretty rich between the singles and tag bouts included. We also, thankfully, get clips from the phenomenal Dirt Sheet segments that appeared on WWE.com while The Miz and Morrison were tag team partners.
Here’s where the similarities to recent WWE DVDs end though. Rather than getting into Hennigan’s life story, we instead get an inside look at the John Morrison character. Older fans will undoubtedly remember that this was more common practice in the early 2000s, where such releases were more character than person-driven. As you’ll see in my interview with Morrison later this week, there is just cause for this.
Bearing this in mind though, I found myself still enjoying the “documentary” portions of the DVD. Morrison doesn’t do studio shots introducing each match, as we’ve seen others do. Instead, he does give fans an inside look at his unique workout routine and a look at his passion for surfing.
I would be remiss if I did say I wasn’t disappointed that some Johnny Nitro footage wasn’t included, especially the rare Mortal Kombat send-up that Morrison posted on YouTube in a bout between he and a digitized John Cena, but I can’t complain too much because this DVD does deliver on its intended purpose, which is to give the fans a great keeper set of Morrison’s incredible matches.
Overall, I’ve got to say that this was a pretty fun DVD, and whets my appetite for a larger compilation down the road.
RELATED LINK
