New on DVD: WWE's The Best of Saturday Night's Main Event

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saturdaynightsmainevent

If you grew up in the 1980s, the latest DVD from World Wrestling Entertainment The Best of Saturday Night’s Main Event — is a can’t-miss release that arrived in stores today.

For those not in the now, Saturday Night’s Main Event aired occasionally on NBC (free TV!) from 1985 to 1992 — the height of pro wrestling’s recent explosion onto the pop culture landscape — and was revived briefly in 2006. These cards were mini pay-per-views of sorts, showcasing high-caliber matches in the years before wrestling became a weekly live-on-the-air staple of cable television.

piledriverSome of wrestling’s most memorable stars appear on the three-disc set, which includes more than 30 matches and highlights from the run. You want Hulk Hogan? He’s in there — a lot. How about a memorable Snake Pit Match between Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat and Jake “The Snake” Roberts? Yep. How about the “Piledriver” music video that was the title track to Piledriver: The Wrestling Album 2. Yep, it’s in there. (Koko B. Ware still wails like he used to, guys.)

For myself, the most memorable match in the set probably is from Feb. 5, 1988, when Hogan lost the world title to Andre The Giant in a rematch of their WrestleMania III bout. How did Hogan lose? Three words: Evil twin referee. I’m not going to spoil exactly how it happened or what happened next, but that was real drama for an 11-year-old.

It’s interesting to see “The Macho Man” Randy Savage on the box cover — he’s gone largely missing from the annals of WWE history (some suggest something personal happened between him and Vince McMahon, but no stories have been confirmed) — alongside The Junkyard Dog, John Cena, Hogan and Shawn Michaels.

Only a handful of matches come from the 2006 revival of the show, so anyone wanting a crash course on some of the WWE’s more interesting feuds and story lines from 1985 to 1992 has about 2 1/2 discs worth of material awaiting them.

Want to win some wrestling memorabilia?

cenaonline

We’re working on a story about wrestling cards for the April issue of Beckett Sports Card Monthly (after all WrestleMania 25 is set for April 5 in Houston, Texas) and the WWE has been gracious enough to offer up some John Cena autographed promotional photos (like the one above) for our readers. How can you win? Look for the story and details in the issue, which will hit stores next month.

Chris Olds has collected sports cards and memorabilia since 1987. Before coming to Beckett Media, he wrote about the hobby for the Orlando Sentinel on his blog, SportsStuff, and for the San Antonio Express-News and The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News. Do you have a comment, question or idea? Send e-mail to him at colds@beckett.com.

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