10 Wrestling Documentaries That Accidentally Uncovered Major Scoops
In which we learn the sheer depths of Vince McMahon's cruelty - and his incompetence...
Millennial fans will remember purchasing WWE's multi-disc DVD chronicles of various megastar acts and dead territories under the proviso that much of what was said was complete bullsh*t.
It was something that those of us inquisitive future lifers just expected and traded in exchange for easily digestible footage, much of it unseen from the territories we had only read about in magazines, of beloved pro wrestling royalty. The 2006 'American Dream' documentary, for example, didn't even make one mention of the fact that Dusty Rhodes innovated the WarGames match, instead focusing on Bruce Prichard's insistence that the polka dots weren't a rib. It was fluff, but the old Florida footage was electrifying.
The most acclaimed WWE release of this era was The Rise & Fall of ECW, which was, by WWE standards, an insightful and favourable portrayal of a promotion it had stolen rather a lot from. The Rise & Fall of WCW in contrast was a smug and pissy hatchet-job that more or less reckoned the nWo was good for a month or two before it was over-exposed.
When the Network launched, WWE required a lot of new, original content, and set cameras rolling in front of virtually every act.
In a monumental self-own of a paradigm shift, WWE could no longer obscure the truth it always denied....