RAW: The Beginning - Best of Seasons 1 & 2 review (DVD) ★★★

As is mentioned just about every week, Monday Night RAW is the longest running weekly episodic show in television history, and for good reason. With an audience in the millions each and every week, RAW is the flagship brand of the WWE and the most successful part of its programming. With this four-disc DVD set, we go right back to where it all began on January 11, 1993 and through the first two years of Monday night wrestling action and memorable moments, although there may not be quite as many as you remember.

The Best of Seasons 1 and 2 (even though WWE TV has never actually operated in seasons) may indeed include nearly 50 matches spread across over 11 hours of footage, but that's not to say this release is as stellar as you may think. RAW began with Hulk Hogan's jump to World Championship Wrestling just around the corner and his testification against Vince McMahon during the infamous drugs trial. These incidents laid the foundations for the New Generation initiative as the rival WCW began to rally and strengthen its army for the Monday Night Wars a few years later. The '93 and '94 'seasons' of RAW took place during a very turbulent time for the company, but today we can look back at the particularly rocky period as the genesis for World Wrestling Entertainment's new direction. A direction that would reshape the landscape of professional wrestling forever. Such shaky times can go either way in quality as we have seen many times in the past: the ratings battle between WWE and WCW is widely considered to be the greatest era in wrestling history and seems a world away from what the first two years of RAW gave us.

While this set is long overdue and a must-have for collectors and nostalgia-maniacs everywhere, it rather surprisingly leaves a lot to be desired. Featuring matches and plenty of segments all divided up by Did You Know?-type facts relevant to what you're about to see, there is a distinct lack of enjoyable matches. Bouts like Ric Flair versus Mr. Perfect in a Loser Leaves WWE match and former tag team partners Shawn Michaels facing off against Marty Jannetty for the Intercontinental Title are stand-out bouts, but way too much is forgettable. It's not that this release is badly put together, because it isn't – for the most part – but when watching it'll suddenly dawn on you that the first two years of RAW just weren't that great.

The only qualms I have with the actual construction of the DVD are that there seem to be an awful lot of squash matches featuring jobbers or 'enhancement talent', as well as an overabundance of Doink the Clown. Despite his colourful exterior, Doink has to be one of the most forgettable in-ring performers in WWE history and he most certainly wasn't a pioneering Superstar of RAW, yet he has more matches on this set than anyone else. The Undertaker is more prominent than anyone on the cover art, yet he's included in a measly three contests. Perhaps a huge photo of Doink's face would be more fitting.

The best thing I can say about RAW: The Beginning – The Best of Seasons 1 and 2 is that it's been a long time coming and we can finally look forward to the release of future and far better seasons. I particularly long for when we reach the Monday Night Wars.

The entire match listing for the four discs is as follows:

Bret Hart vs. Tom Pritchard
Tag Team Championship: The Quebecers vs. Razor Ramon & The 1-2-3 Kid
Yokozuna vs. Randy Savage
Lex Luger vs. Rick Martel
IRS, Jeff Jarrett, Rick Martel & The Headshrinkers vs. Tatanka, The 1-2-3 Kid, The Smoking Gunns & Thurman Plugg
Razor Ramon vs. Jeff Jarrett
Tag Team Championship: The Quebecers vs. The Headshrinkers
Sumo Match: Yokozuna vs. Earthquake
King of the Ring Qualifier: Owen Hart vs. Doink
Duke Droese vs. Barry Horowitz
WWE Championship: Bret Hart vs. The 1-2-3 Kid
Intercontinental Championship: Diesel vs. Lex Luger
$10,000 Challenge: Tatanka vs. Nikolai Volkoff
Alundra Blaze vs. Bull Nakano
Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon
Owen Hart vs. The 1-2-3 Kid
The Undertaker vs. Kwang
Intercontinental Championship: Razor Ramon vs. Yokozuna
Jeff Jarrett vs. The British Bulldog
Bob Backlund vs. Doink
The British Bulldog vs. Tatanka
The Undertaker vs. The Brooklyn Brawler

EXTRAS ?? A selection of promos and vignettes spread across the four discs that highlight certain WWE Superstars: The Smoking Guns Ride into the WWE (April 26, 1993); That's Double J, Jeff Jarrett (December 13, 1993); Go Get Him Champ!; It's Only 9 o'clock (April 11, 1994); King Kong Bundy (September 26, 1994); IRS Taxes the Dead (October 31, 1994); Jeff Jarrett does Vegas (December 12, 1994); Christmas at the Heartbreak Hotel (December 19, 1994); and Bret Hart Wishes Everyone a Happy New Year (December 26, 1994).