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DVD Review : John Morrison – Rockstar
Reviewed by Steven Wilson of MainEventRadio.com
John Morrison is the self proclaimed Shaman of Sexy, Guru of Greatness and Your Friday Night Delight, but more importantly he is one of the quickest rising stars in the WWE today. The proof of that can be demonstrated on many levels, but one of them is the fact that he already has his very own DVD release entitled Rockstar which is out now from WWE Home Video.
Running just over two and a half hours in length, Rockstar offers a mix of documentary like clips with in ring action. In total Eight matches from WWE television are offered up, starting with Morrison vs CM Punk on a September 2007 edition of ECW. One of the immediate let downs is that instead of using the full arena footage of the matchups, they use the TV feed which means it fades in and out of black during the matchups offered on this DVD. The other matchups include Miz & Morrison vs DX from Raw’s 800th show, Morrison vs. Evan Bourne from April 2009 on ECW, Morrison vs. Jericho from Superstars in June 2009, Morrison vs Edge from Smackdown in June 2009, and finally Morrison vs. Hardy IC Title match in September 2009.
Documentary wise this release also leaves much to be desires. Don’t expect Morrison’s days in Tough Enough to be covered, nor his days as Johnny Nitro. Instead expect a lot of 5 minute markish segments.
Morrison intro’s the DVD saying he is going to give you a glimpse into his life, which is probably the best way to put it, a glimpse into his life. The first segment can be entitled the best of the dirt sheet, which was a weekly webisodic entry on WWE.com where he and The Miz made fun of fellow wrestlers. Not one full episode is featured, and it jumps around playing 10 second clips of random episodes.
Next up is “Straight from the palace of wisdom†where Morrison takes time to answer 10 markish questions submitted to WWE.com for him. From there, Morrison shows you where he trains as a Parkour expert, and later puts it into action where he runs around empty arenas doing the moves. Morrison then takes time to explain how he came up with his unique aerial attack, taking time along the way to tell you when he first used the moves in question. Next up is a segment where Morrison takes time to learn how a surfboard is made. I kid you not, then he puts the board into action and goes surfing. The documentary closes out with a Thank you for coming segment.
This DVD release will remind you more of the old school character home video releases as opposed to some of the great in-depth DVD releases we have become accustomed to from the WWE. I honestly feel that the WWE didn’t really try with this release, and have barely tried with many of their DVD releases this past year. Only a couple have offered up more than fluff while many including this one were half assed, which could partly explain why sales were down 32% in 2009.
Perhaps I had too high of an expectation for this DVD, I realize that Morrison hasn’t been around that long, but so much more could have been done with this DVD. No interviews with other stars, no discussion of any part of his career, not even discussion of the matches being shown for that matter.
I was hoping that they would start off 2010 on the right foot and head back to putting out solid DVD sets like they were in 2005-2008. Sets being worked on for release later this year show more promise such as the Hart Family DVD and a Ricky Steamboat DVD, however John Morrison Rockstar does not live up to WWE’s normal DVD package standard. Matches included this DVD check in at about 2 hours and 40 minutes, perfect for the WWE’s PPV airings of DVD’s they release and unless you’re a hardcore JoMo fan that is prob the best place to watch it, on PPV.
John Morrison – Rockstar is now available from WWE Home Video, For more information or to order your own copy check out The PWInsider.com Superstore. Tto read my previous DVD reviews check out WrestlingDVDReview.com or stalk me on twitter via @WrestlingReview
