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Thursday 3 December 2015

DVD Review: Brothers of Destruction Greatest Matches

They recently came out on top against the Wyatt Family at the Survivor Series in what some say could be their last match together. If that’s the case then there’s no better time to take a look at WWE’s DVD tribute to the combined efforts of Kane and the Undertaker, The Brothers of Destruction Greatest Matches.

There’s only one disc with release, so let’s get things rolling with.....

April 19th, 2001
The collection begins with a no disqualification match as our boys challenge Edge & Christian for the WWE Tag Team titles on Smackdown.

Kane came into this one with his left arm heavily bandaged, courtesy of an attack from Steve Austin and Triple H earlier in the show. This was like a red rag to a bull to the champions and their back-up, newly-crowned Hardcore Champion Rhino....I mean Rhyno, as they attacked the big guy as the Undertaker rode down to the ring on his motorcycle.

From there the champs centred their attack on the injured limb, with Rhyno helping out every now and then, and although the referee was otherwise distracted when Kane tagged the Undertaker he didn’t miss the second tag to the Dead Man, who promptly cleaned house.

But while Kane was taking care of Rhyno, chokeslamming him on the ramp, Trips and Austin attacked him again. Back in the ring it looked as if Edge and Christian were about to take the Undertaker down with their con-chair-to, but when he ducked out of the way he quickly sent Edge packing before taking Christian down with the last ride powerbomb for the title-winning pin.

Sadly for the new champions there wasn’t any time for a celebration as Trips and Austin jumped into the ring and attacked the Dead Man until Kane recovered and sent the two man power trip running for the hills.

July 30th, 2001
The WCW/ECW Alliance has invaded WWE, and our boys try to play the Dudleys at their own game by taking them on in a tables match on Raw.

This was quite an eventful one. The Dudleys were in their putting women through tables phase, so it came as something of a surprise when the Undertaker’s wife Sara accompanied the Dead Man and the Demon to the ring. Mind you, she was being stalked by that crazy yoga guy Diamond Dallas Page at the time, who seemed to have forgotten that he had quite an attractive former Nitro Girl wife waiting at home for him.

Anyway, I digress. As you can imagine this was one big brawl, but when the Undertaker tried to chokeslam D-Von through the table crooked Alliance referee Nick Patrick moved the furniture out of the way.

Needless to say this didn’t sit too well with the Undertaker, but while he was arguing with the official DDP stormed the ring and connected with a low blow. He then grabbed Sara and helped Bubba set her up for a powerbomb through a table.

Luckily for the lovely blonde she was saved by Kane before the Undertaker grabbed Bubba around the neck and chokeslammed him from the second rope and through the table to win the match.

August 9th, 2001
It’s another title shot for our boys as they challenge Chuck Palumbo and Sean O’Haire for the WCW Tag Team titles on Smackdown.

Palumbo and O’Haire had sent out an open challenge in an attempt to impress the Alliance bigwigs, but they were rather surprised when Kane and the Undertaker answered their challenge.

Thus began what was more or less a squash match. The champions managed to get in a few good shots, and they even clobbered the Dead Man with a chair at one point, but it was the WWE boys who enjoyed the bulk of the offence before they took both of their opponents down with chokeslams, with Kane pinning O’Haire for the win.

August 19th, 2001
Have won the WCW Tag Team titles our boys now look to add to their collection by facing WWE Tag Team Champions Diamond Dallas Page and Chris Kanyon in a steel cage match at Summerslam.

You could make an argument that this, like the previous encounter, was more or less a squash match. The Brothers were looking to get a measure of revenge against DDP for his actions against the Undertaker’s wife Sara, and Page and Kanyon looked absolutely terrified as they made their entrance, so much so that they tried to escape the cage as soon as the match began.

The bulk of the offence came from Kane and the Undertaker. Page and Kanyon had their moments, but they just didn’t have many of them, and at one point, as Page and Kanyon tried to make their escape over the top the Undertaker told his brother to let Kanyon go.

So with Kanyon heading for the hills Page was taken to the woodshed by the Brothers as they bounced him around the ring as Sara cheered them on from ringside, and it wasn’t long before the Undertaker took Page down with the last ride for the pin, adding the WWE Tag Team titles to their collection, sending Page into a career as a motivational speaker, which was a good thing.

December 15th, 2006
Five years later and our boys are back together on Smackdown as they taken on MVP and Mr. Kennedy.

This was the teaser for their respective singles matches two days later at Armageddon, with Kane taking on MVP in an inferno match and the Undertaker facing Kennedy in a last ride encounter, hence the hearse that was parked in the aisle. But more on that later.

The match itself was a pretty decent affair. Both teams got in their fair share of offence as MVP and Kennedy enjoyed two good moments of dominance, but when the Undertaker was about to take Kennedy out with a tombstone MVP pulled his partner over the top rope, signalling the start of the all hell breaking loose segment of the match, which eventually led to the referee calling for the bell.

But as the Undertaker and MVP brawled out of the arena Kennedy took Kane down with a DDT on the floor, and as MVP made his way back out Kennedy got into the hearse and started the engine.

His plan to run Kane over was foiled though when the lights went out and the ominous bells sounded, and when the lights came back on Kennedy looked terrified when the Undertaker appeared in the seat next to him and Kane suddenly sat up in front of the car. Kennedy’s terror was shared by MVP as they headed for the hills.

February 1st, 2008
Still with Smackdown, our boys face the enormous task on taking on Matt Striker guys Mark Henry and Big Daddy V.

No technical niceties in this one. Basically it was about ten minutes of four big guys beating on each other. It was okay I suppose, but I would hardly describe it as a classic match.

Kane took the punching bag treatment for his team, which inevitably led to the Dead Man cleaning house, although he needed a little help to take Big Daddy down with a chokeslam. No help was needed when he took Henry down with the same move before he finished him off with the hold that would later become known as the hell’s gate.

April 15th, 2008
It’s the final match of the collection. Kane is now ECW Champion while the Undertaker is World Champion as they take on WWE Tag Team Champions John Morrison and the Miz during an ECW show in the UK.

The first thing that struck me about this match was just how bloody awful the commentary was. Taz was never the greatest orator in the world, but his cohort Mike Adamle was just plain awful.

As for the match it was another short ten minute affair for the boys. When it began I had the feeling that this would be little more than a squash match when Morrison and Miz were dominated, but the Tag champs took control during the commercial break and looked okay as they worked over Kane’s leg.

The Big Red Machine eventually made it back to his corner, and after a little house cleaning the Undertaker took Morrison down with a tombstone for the winning pin.

In conclusion – so how does one rate WWE’s only tribute to the combined efforts of the Phenom and the Big Red Machine?

To be honest with you I kind of have mixed feelings with this one. It has it’s good and bad points. The matches against the former WCW guys are a stark reminder of how bad they were made to look against their WWE counterparts, and while the other matches were quite a bit more competitive I don’t think I’m being too critical when I say that the majority, if not all of them, will be thought of as throwaway TV matches, and I’d hardly call them the team’s “Greatest Matches”.

But with that being said it’s an okay compilation, and a nice little stocking filler for the wrestling fan in your life, but it isn’t really on the same level as the WWE’s other collections.

So with all of that being said there’s just one more thing to do, and that’s to give this release the thumbs up, but with the added comment that if you buy this don’t expect any classics.

With thanks to Fremantle Media and Fetch Publicity for supplying a copy of this release. The Brothers of Destruction Greatest Matches can be purchased online at www.wwedvd.co.uk.

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