‘WWE: The Kliq Rules’ Blu-ray Review
If you were a fan of wrestling in the nineties, especially WWE you would see the likes of Razor Ramon, Diesel, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, and Shawn Michaels battle each other and just saw it as the usual practice. Then you discovered the Internet and the wrestling websites that gave an often-incorrect version of what happened behind the scenes. This included stories of “The Kliq”. With WWE: The Kliq Rules, WWE finally reveals their version of the story.
I say their version; because the WWE releases are a sanitised history that works with what the company want you to know. Based on the infamous Madison Square Garden moment, which almost buried Triple H’s career, we finally get to see the shaky footage in its entirety and hear the story from the people themselves. This includes the reason it happened and the effect it had behind the scenes.
It is quite amusing to hear Shawn Michaels say that the Kliq wasn’t really like what people said they were, then skip to an interview with people like The Undertaker and have him say they were exactly the opposite of what “The Kliq” would have us believe. This of course all fits with the politics of the company. What were they really like? I guess we’ll not really know, especially from the people themselves.
What can’t be argued against though is just how important to both WCW and WWE the Kliq was. They were members of the NWO in their many forms, D-Generation X in their many forms and have went on to be Hall of Famers and even have powerful roles in WWE. That should make this something of a success story.
In terms of matches on the Blu-ray we have a good selection which start around the time Scott Hall as Razor Ramon was battling against Sean Waltman as The Kid/123 Kid. Included is the ladder match between Razor and Shawn Michaels, and this feels the biggest match of the lot, and is easily the best. A surprise hit for me was Triple H vs. Sting from Wrestlemania. What I felt was a wasted match at the time, out of context became a fun match full of nostalgia.
While there is a good selection of matches on WWE: The Kliq Rules, one thing that I couldn’t shake while watching this was how flat the actual documentary about The Kliq was. As mentioned before, this is a sanitised version of a controversial event for the company and if anything was putting out the fire of what could have been an interesting documentary. Maybe it needed to be a bit more uncensored that it seems to be. Alternatively, it could be that the people interviewed are different now and more well-behaved. Maybe the whole problem is that there doesn’t seem to be an answer for what The Kliq truly was, either now or then…other than just a group of friends having a good time.
While the documentary included on WWE: The Kliq Rules may have lacked that needed spark, the matched make up for that slight disappointment. With a mixture of older Pre-Attitude Era matches and more modern there is a good selection. I would have liked to see more WCW in the mix, but with this being a WWE release the bias towards the main company is to be expected.
For fans of the members of the Kliq this is obviously a release that will interest them, though I’m not sure if this is the history people expected to see. While some of the other historical releases do feel like they are offering some truth, this one feels very much a case of towing the company line, which may disappoint. If you don’t expect anything controversial though then WWE: The Kliq Rules is just fine.
**** 4/5
WWE: The Kliq Rules is out now on DVD and Blu-ray from FremantleMedia.
