Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

WWE: DX - One Last Stand Blu-ray Movie Review

Unreal.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 5, 2011

How much actual wrestling is there in World Wrestling Entertainment? Not half as much as there is “entertainment,” if by that word you mean showmanship. Watching One Last Stand, a two disc compilation that reviews the supposedly final comeback of the two Clown Princes of WWE stable of stars, Shawn Michaels and Triple H (otherwise known as Hunter Hearst Helmsley, otherwise known as Paul Michael Lévesque). These two characters seem to be two of the Three Stooges a lot of the time and if they’d simply cut (and/or perm) their hair, they might singlehandedly (or, duo-handedly as it were) be able to finally solve the long casting problems the long delayed Three Stooges film has suffered. One major clue as to how little actual wrestling makes it to the screen in One Night Stand is given by the fact that on the first disc alone, there’s an eighteen minute or so wait until we get any in the ring action. Instead, we’re treated to a number of skits, some of them admittedly amusing if not outright hilarious, that introduce us to the gently (and sometimes not so gently) bantering pair of ring mates. Neither really has a truly distinctive “character,” despite Triple H’s penchant for hunting with a tank (a bit that gets replayed ad infinitum over these two discs), and so the two tend to blend into each other more often than not, but the pair is undeniably charismatic and certainly are fan favorites in the often carnival like atmosphere of the WWE.

Is it even worth anyone’s time debating how “real” WWE matches are? Head honcho Vince McMahon (now known as the ostensibly more respectable “Mr. McMahon”) has never made any effort to disguise the looney-tunes sensibility he brings to his productions, and productions they undoubtedly are. Michaels and Triple H tend to enter their overwhelming arenas to massive lightshows that are more regularly reserved for touring hair bands. Of course, considering the hirsute status of both of these gentlemen, that career option is certainly still open to both of them. As lasers flare across the audience, Michaels and Triple H strut and literally dance into the ring, making it clear that their vaunted “Attitude Era” is still alive and well, if just slightly long in the tooth. Throwing fluorescent light sticks to their adoring crowd, the two strut and preen to screams of delight from men and women alike.

For anyone not conversant with the outright crazy and unapologetically hyperbolic world of WWE, One Night Stand is going to seem like a surreal, perhaps drug infused, ride to an alternate universe. In fact, it may seem like that even to those initiated in the madcap antics of WWE. But Michaels and Triple H were one of the most popular franchises more than a decade ago, and their reunion over the course of several sold out months in 2009 and 2010 is testament to the fact that their drawing power has not diminished. All of the major bouts and preliminary skits that first aired over WWE are included here and they provide a fun filled, if not exactly unpredictable, tour through the vagaries of WWE’s penchant for standup heroes and hiss worthy villains.

If you subscribe to politically correct comedy, chances are you’re going to be pretty horrified, if not outright deeply offended, by the humor of Michaels and Triple H. While some of it is fairly harmless, almost “Red Neck Tour” type stuff, especially with regard to their hunting bits, other moments, while admittedly funny, may raise an eyebrow or two. When Triple H is trying to convince Michaels to jump back in the ring after their long “retirement,” he finds Michaels working as a chef. Michaels proceeds to drop kick not only his restaurant manager but perhaps more troublingly a pesky little girl. Now I’m not saying that the bratty child didn’t deserve to be drop kicked, but even so. . . Another fake commercial has Michaels and Triple H skirting with homophobic material with regard to their nemeses The Legacy, though they couch their jokes with Seinfeld’s rubric “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” Another running gag involves their mascot, a “midget” (their words) named Hornswoggle who communicates mostly in incomprehensible babble, who is forced to suffer the slings and arrows of being duct taped to a skateboard and catapulted into an annoyingly screaming female. This isn’t Oscar Wilde or Kaufman and Hart, in other words.

There’s undeniable lunacy throughout these bouts that finds our heroes interacting with a shall we say eclectic bunch of television and occasionally film personalities. Where else could you see Bob Barker and a comely miss help two wrestlers decide who their next opponents are going to be, courtesy of a The Price is Right spinning wheel? Or take in the pomp and pageantry of Ozzie Osbourne hawking his autobiography from an ornate throne (yes, throne) placed in the center of the ring? Or just for good measure, a sharkskin suited Don Johnson poking around backstage looking for his putative co-host Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite).

One of the funnier sequences involves WWE’s own Vince McMahon—oh, excuse me, Mr. McMahon, who attempts to bring on another WWE act and is instead interrupted by the boys who divulge that it’s Mr. McMahon’s birthday. They fête him with a pretty funny video montage that shows McMahon through the past several decades, doing everything from singing to dancing to hamming it up with a variety of guest stars, including Donald Trump, who shaves McMahon bald. It’s clear from the sheer lunacy of sequences like this that while the actual wrestling element of WWE may be questionable (to say the least), the entertainment value, at least if you’re in a certain frame of mind, is absolutely undeniable.

WWE: DX - One Last Stand Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

One Night Stand is culled from several months of WWE broadcasts and is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. This is fairly average looking broadcast fare, made probably softer than it actually is by the omnipresent and frequently very garish arena lighting that is utilized for the pair's bouts. Typically entering under a sort of ghoulish green glare, these opening sequences tend to suffer from haloing and blooming, more the result of the lighting scheme than any inadequacy of the transfer. Several of the outdoor "tank" bits also are on the soft side, with slightly overblown contrast. The actual matches are fairly brightly lit in something approaching "natural" lighting (natural being a decidedly relative term in this instance), and they look decently sharp with a fair amount of fine detail.

WWE: DX - One Last Stand Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

One Night Stand's Blu-ray debut doesn't include a lossless audio offering, but the standard Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is fairly bombastic and the arena sequences offer an at times overwhelming surround feeling where the screams, grunts and yells from the audience virtually eliminates any sound actually coming from the ring. In terms of immersion and surround involvement, those are undeniably the best elements of this mix. The many skit sequences are usually two character outings that are narrow by their very design. Fidelity is fine, if not spectacular, though a lossless track would have no doubt provided a much heftier low end for all those smackdowns.

WWE: DX - One Last Stand Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• DX Unfiltered (1080i; 4:22) features some unrehearsed backstage footage of our dynamic duo.
• Bonus Matches and Comedy Bits (1080i; 1:44:35) has a nice assortment of various matches with some okay comedy bits sprinkled in between. These include:
  Submissions Count Anywhere Match DX vs. Legacy, September 12, 2009
  The Biggest 2 Man Tag Team Match in Smackdown History: Undertaker & John Cena and DX vs. Randy Ortin and CM Punk and Legacy, October 2, 2009
  No Wonder Nobody Likes Us (comedy bit on tank)
  DX vs. Chris Jericho and Big Show Vs. John Cena & Undertaker, November 16, 2009
  Triple Threat Match for The WWE Championship: John Cena vs. Triple X vs. Shawn Michaels Survivor Series, November 22, 2009
  I'm Batman (another comedy bit on tank)
  Tribute to the Troops, December 11, 2010
  

WWE: DX - One Last Stand Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

WWE has prospered because it makes no bones about how completely goofy it is, and there are probably no two goofier stars in the WWE firmament than Shawn Michaels and Triple H. The two have undeniable chemistry and if their comedy isn't exactly the most sophisticated you've ever experienced, the two seem to be in on their own self-deprecating joke. The wrestling elements themselves are full of the typical overblown ridiculousness that has always been part and parcel of this putative sport, but the two are obviously athletic and are just as obviously having a lot of fun dispatching their various nemeses. WWE has done an outstanding job of blurring the line between wrestling (or at least what WWE calls wrestling) and traditional big arena entertainment. The circus like atmosphere of any WWE outing is perfectly caught on this compilation set, and any fans of Michaels and Triple H should enjoy it. For those fans, this set is Recommended.