‘WWE: Best PPV Matches 2013’ Blu-ray Review

Relive another historic year with THE BEST PAY-PER-VIEW MATCHES 2013, featuring over 15 of WWE’s most intense matches from its biggest events! The Rock returns to finally bring home the WWE Championship for the first time in ten years. CM Punk tries to extinguish Undertaker’s Streak in front of over 80,000 screaming fans. Triple H attempts to tame The Beast, Brock Lesnar. John Cena battles back from injury to win the World Heavyweight Championship, and much more!

The whole idea of a annual release containing hand-picked matches from pay-per-view shows throughout the course of the previous year is a good one, providing fans who might not buy the shows or collect each DVD release a chance to see what WWE consider to be the best matches they’ve promoted within a calender year.

There are bound to be strong years and weaker ones in wrestling, and 2013 was a mixed bag, which means that this release is also a mixed bag in terms of match quality and diversity. The obvious picks are here, with the mian events from the big shows of 2013 all making the cut, even though some (such as Rock/Cena from Mania 29) aren’t actually very good matches at all.

The presentation is lovely, as usual, and we have the new girl on the block, Renee Young, hosting here, and she is very good. She’s likeable and energetic and I would be happy to see her host more releases in the future. The set begins at January 2013’s Royal Rumble with the mediocre match between CM Punk and The Rock. It isn’t until the match between Punk and The Undertaker from WrestleMania is shown that we have a chance to see a truly memorable and exciting match-up, and it is certainly worth revisiting. The match stole the show at Mania 29 and is one of the best matches on this compilation too.

The hard-hitting and fun steel cage match between Triple H and Brock Lesnar from Extreme Rules 2013 is here, a good, violent little scrap that is arguably the best match that Lesnar has had since his WWE return in April 2012. Kaitlyn and AJ Lee’s encounter from Payback is here too, and upon second viewing it still shines as probably the best womens wrestling match that WWE has promoted in a long time. Kaitlyn earned her shot at being a divas roster main player with her run in the Summer so it’s a shame to see her hardly booked on television now.

CM Punk versus Lesnar and Cena against Daniel Bryan from SummerSlam are on here, and both are hot matches with good storyline builds and good crowd heat, making them a lot of fun to watch again. The pop that Bryan received when he briefly became WWE Champion after beating Cena here is one of the biggest of the year and shows that he should and maybe will be a main event player throughout the next twelve months.

The Shield members, Rollins and Reigns match against the brother tandem of Cody Rhodes and Goldust from Battleground is a fantastic, high pace match with hot tags, wonderful timing and a glorious finish, making it arguably the best tag match of the year, and that is in a year of some very fine tag action in WWE.

The set ends with the Bryan/Orton Hell in a Cell match from October, a strange one to end with considering how disappointing it was, but still almost a metaphor for 2013 as a whole, a year of promises unfulfilled and moments uncapitalised upon. The set is worth a shot for the numerous fun and engaging battles that it offers amongst the poorer picks, but if you have all the shows on separate releases then it’s kind of pointless dropping cash on this release too.

The Blu-ray has some extra matches exclusively, which will be listed below with the normal match listing.

The Matches:

• Royal Rumble 27th January 2013 – WWE Championship Match – CM Punk vs. The Rock
• Elimination Chamber 17th February 2013 – John Cena, Ryback, and Sheamus vs. The Shield
• WrestleMania 7th April 2013 – Undertaker vs. CM Punk
• WWE Championship Match – The Rock vs. John Cena
• Extreme Rules 19th May 2013 – Randy Orton vs. Big Show
• Steel Cage Match – Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar
• Payback 16 June 2013 – Triple Threat Intercontinental Championship Match – Wade Barrett vs. The Miz vs. Curtis Axel
• WWE Divas Championship Match – Kaitlyn vs. AJ Lee
• Money in the Bank 14th July 2013 – Dolph Ziggler vs. Alberto Del Rio
• World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank Ladder Match – Cody Rhodes vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Wade Barrett vs. Jack Swagger vs. Antonio Cesaro vs. Fandango vs. Damien Sandow
• SummerSlam 18th August 2013 – CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar
• WWE Championship Match with Special Guest Referee Triple H – John Cena vs. Daniel Bryan
• Night of Champions 15th September 2013 – World Heavyweight Championship Match – Alberto Del Rio vs. Rob Van Dam
• AJ Lee vs. Natalya vs. Naomi vs. Brie Bella
• Battleground 6th October 2013 – Seth Rollins / Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes / Goldust
• Hell in a Cell 27th October 2013 – World Heavyweight Championship Match – Alberto Del Rio vs. John Cena
• Steel Cage Match for WWE Championship with Special Guest Referee Shawn Michaels – Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan

Blu-Ray Exclusives Matches

• Extreme Rules 19th May 2013 – United States Championship Match – Kofi Kingston vs. Dean Ambrose
• Payback 16th June 2013 – Chris Jericho vs. CM Punk
• Money in the Bank Kick-Off 14th July 2013 – WWE Tag Team Championship Match – The Shield vs. The Usos
• SummerSlam 18th August 2013 – World Heavyweight Championship Match – Alberto Del Rio vs. Christian
• Hell in a Cell 27th October 2013 – Triple Threat Match for WWE Tag Team Championship – Cody Rhodes / Goldust vs. The Usos vs. Seth Rollins / Roman Reigns

So, if you are a completist or don’t have the separate PPV releases from 2013, this is a solid set featuring many of the great matches from PPV in the last year. WWE: Best PPV Matches 2013 is available on DVD and Blu-ray through Freemantle Media from Monday 13th January.