WWE – John Morrison Rock Star – DVD Review

Reviews, Top Story


WWE has released compilation DVD sets for legendary superstars such as Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, and the Road Warriors. Even a few sets have made their way to store shelves for wrestlers still going strong like Triple H, Batista, Jeff Hardy, and the Undertaker. All of those guys deserve releases devoted to them and their careers because they have put in countless hours and a number of years to perfecting their craft in the ring. That leaves me kind of shocked then that the WWE would release this set focusing on John Morrison. Don’t get me wrong here because I like the guy and think he is a tremendous wrestler as well as fantastic on the mic, but it just confuses me as to how he has merited a DVD release so early on in his career. He’s only been around for about three years and this collection even only showcases eight matches, but at least they are damn good.

John Morrison started in wrestling by being the co-winner of WWE’s old reality show Tough Enough in 2002. He spent a good bit of time training in the developmental leagues for the company before finally moving up and debuting on Raw in 2004 as Johnny Blaze. He also wasn’t an actual in-ring performer at the time but more so the assistant of then general manager Eric Bischoff. The “Jonny Blaze” moniker didn’t last long though as a few names later and he became Johnny Nitro and started getting in the ring a little bit here and there. He was shortly sent back to developmental and then came back to the big time a year later as part of a tag team called MNM (with Joey Mercury and Melina). He had much success as a part of this team and it could have lasted a very long time but Mercury’s departure from the company ended up in a total split. But you won’t really learn much about any of this DVD because it really only focuses on the time since Nitro became John Morrison.

Rock Star is a nice collection of matches interlaced with comments and interviews from John Morrison himself and a few others. It essentially looks at his career ever since he became Morrison and truly made a name for himself in the WWE. The matches chosen are all top notch and give me some good flashbacks to when he was feuding with CM Punk in ECW. At the time I was getting sick of those matches because they had about fifty of them even though ninety percent of them were all pretty decent. Looking back now, it’s amazing how good they were and mostly on free television. Match-ups against DX, Chris Jericho, and Jeff Hardy fill up space as well and they are all matches that should be checked out because we’re watching a star that should break through the ceiling soon and main event.

It’s hard to say much else about this set because it isn’t even really a “set” so to speak. One disc of eight matches consuming a time period of about two years and my confusion as to why this was even released at all is still there. Everything is really good, but why already? Why now? I just can’t understand the logic behind Rock Star telling Morrison’s career story when it virtually is just beginning.

Matches

~ ECW September 4, 2007: ECW Championship Match – John Morrison Vs. CM Punk

~ Raw November 3, 2008: The Miz & John Morrison Vs. D-Generation X

~ ECW April 14, 2009: John Morrison Vs. Evan Bourne

~ WWE Superstars June 11, 2009: John Morrison Vs. Chris Jericho

~ SmackDown June 19, 2009: John Morrison Vs. Edge

~ SmackDown June 26, 2009: John Morrison Vs. CM Punk

~ SmackDown July 31, 2009: World Heavyweight Championship Match – Jeff Hardy Vs. John Morrison

~ SmackDown September 4, 2009: Intercontinental Championship Match – John Morrison Vs. Rey Mysterio

The matches are shown in 1.33:1 Full Screen format while the interviews and such are in widescreen. Everything looks great especially considering these aren’t really matches that are too old and therefore still look good. Not that the WWE couldn’t make the footage look fantastic anyway, but it’s all on tap here. Interviews and such are filmed nicely as well with some awesome video packages thrown in as well.

Rock Star is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and there are no complaints here at all either. Great work from the surrounding speakers with crowd noise and music while the center front does an awesome job delivering commentary and interviews.

ECW July 17, 2007: John Morrison Is Born – An introduction to John Morrison after he changed his name and a bit of his style from his old persona of Johnny Nitro. Not a bad feature to have on here as it was sort of unofficially his “debut.” It eventually leads to a confrontation with his soon-to-be opponent, CM Punk. (8:17)

TrailersThe Best of Raw 2009

My scores on Rock Star are true for what is presented and all that we are given, but it’s still very hard for me to recommend anyone purchasing this. With the way the WWE is churning out multiple sets for wrestlers (Hogan, Michaels, Flair, etc…); it wouldn’t surprise me if Morrison gets another set maybe four or five years down the road. By that time, there may be enough for the traditional three-disc set that we’re used to seeing. Maybe try a rental here and see if you can pick this up in a couple months on the cheap because it’s just too short and too little to merit any big spending.


WWE Home Video presents John Morrison Rock Star. Featuring: John Morrison, Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio. Running time: 180 minutes. Rating: PG. Released on DVD: February 16, 2010. Available at Amazon.com