WWE: U.S. Championship - A Legacy of Greatness Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

WWE: U.S. Championship - A Legacy of Greatness Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 3, 2016

WWE Home Video returns to the match compilation well with The U.S. Championship: A Legacy of Greatness, a collection of title matches for the namesake belt that date back all the way to the beginning and on through to the match at which cover boy John Cena lost the strap he helped to revitalize at 2015's Hell in a Cell Pay-Per-View when Alberto Del Rio made a surprise return to answer his "open challenge" and wiped the floor with the West Newbury, MA native. The two-disc set, hosted by current WWE heel-favoring color commentator John Bradshaw Layfield, offers an impressive thirty full matches as part of the main program and an additional half-dozen tucked away on disc two under the "Blu-ray exclusives" tab.

A Bulgarian masquerading as a Russian defeats an Irishman for the United States Championship.

Between matches, Host John Bradshaw Layfield colors in some U.S. Championship history, looking all the way back to the first champion, Harley Race, working in Mid-Atlantic wrestling. JBL looks at some of the other men to hold the title in its early days, men like Ricky Steamboat and Ric Flair, the title's yearlong stay with Nikita Koloff and, later, his literal destruction of the title. The interludes primarily continue to simply paint a little history around various title holders and the circumstances surrounding their victories. JBL recalls legends like Lex Luger and Dusty Rhodes and continues on with the rise of the WCW and new contenders for the title, such as "Ravishing" Rick Rude, Sting, and "Stunning" Steve Austin. Disc two offers more of the same, exploring the title's availability to WWE superstars beginning in 2001, its debut at WrestleMania XX, John Cena's win and belt redesign, the Hardy vs. MVP and Miz vs. Daniel Bryan rivalries centered around the title, Rusev's title reign, and John Cena's weekly U.S. Open Challenge.

The collection runs over eight hours across both discs, a runtime dominated primarily by matches and only intermittent and relatively short interludes from JBL, who seems a little less charismatic than his normal RAW schtick, more stiff and forced than graceful and involved. Otherwise, the program runs through a fully typical WWE compilation structure. Not every match is graced with background knowledge, but most audiences should be able to piece together the broader history thanks to in-match commentary. There's a plethora of superstars and no shortage of wrestling excitement that spans styles and eras and, like many of WWE's compilation pieces, rides through a much broader history of sports entertainment even as it's focused on a singular piece of hardware.

The following matches are included:

Disc One:

• Mid-Atlantic United States Championship Match with Andre the Giant as Referee: Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat. Asheville, NC -- September 1978.
• NWA United States Championship Match: Greg "The Hammer" Valentine vs. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. Worldwide Wrestling -- March 9, 1983.
• "I Quit" Steel Cage Match for the NWA United States Championship: Tully Blanchard vs. Magnum TA. Starrcade -- November 28, 1985.
• Match #7 in Best of 7 Series for the NWA United States Championship: Magnum TA vs. Nikita Koloff. Worldwide -- August 1986.
• No Disqualification Cage Match for the NWA United States Championship: Lex Luger vs. Dusty Rhodes. Starrcade -- November 26, 1987.
• No Disqualification Match for the NWA United States Championship: Dusty Rhodes vs. "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton. Power Pro Wrestling -- February 13, 1988.
• NWA United States Championship Match: Barry Windham vs. Junkyard Dog. Main Event -- January 29, 1989.
• NWA United States Championship Match: Lex Luger vs. Sting. World Championship Wrestling -- December 23, 1989.
• WCW United States Championship Match: Sting vs. "Ravishing" Rick Rude. Clash of the Champions XVII -- November 19, 1991.
• WCW United States Championship Tournament Finals: Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat vs. "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes. WCW Saturday Night -- January 16, 1993.
• WCW United States Championship Match: "Stunning" Steve Austin vs. The Great Muta. Spring Stampede -- April 17, 1994.
• WCW United States Championship Tournament Finals: Diamond Dallas Page vs. Eddie Guerrero. Starrcade -- December 29, 1996.
• WCW United States Championship Match: Dean Malenko vs. Chris Jericho. Nitro -- April 7, 1997.
• WCW United States Championship Match: Curt Hennig vs. The Giant. Nitro -- September 29, 1997.
• Raven's Rules Match for the WCW United States Championship: Raven vs. Goldberg. Nitro -- April 20, 1998.
• WCW United States Championship Match: Bret "Hit Man" Hart vs. Diamond Dallas Page. Nitro -- October 26, 1998.
• WCW United States Championship Match: Goldberg vs. Bret "Hit Man" Hart. Nitro -- October 25, 1999.
• WCW United States Championship Match: Lance Storm vs. Mike Awesome. Nitro -- July 18, 2000.
• WCW United States Championship Match: Rick Steiner vs. Booker T. Greed -- March 18, 2001.

Disc Two:

• WCW United States Championship Match: Kurt Angle vs. Undertaker. RAW -- November 5, 2001.
• WWE Intercontinental and WCW United States Title Unification Match: Edge vs. Test. Survivor Series -- November 18, 2001.
• WWE United States Championship Match: John Cena vs. Big Show. WrestleMania XX -- March 14, 2004.
• Steel Cage Match for the WWE United States Championship: Bobby Lashley vs. King Booker. SmackDown -- June 30, 2006.
• WWE United States Championship Match: Matt Hardy vs. MVP. Backlash -- April 27, 2008.
• WWE United States Championship Match: MVP vs. Kofi Kingston. RAW -- June 1, 2009.
• Triple Threat Submissions Count Anywhere Match for the United States Championship: Daniel Bryan vs. John Morrison vs. The Miz. Hell in a Cell -- October 3, 2010.
• WWE United States Championship Match: Antonio Cesaro vs. Tyson Kidd. NXT -- October 31, 2012.
• WWE United States Championship Match: Sheamus vs. Rusev. WWE Network Exclusive -- November 3, 2014.
• WWE United States Championship Match: John Cena vs. Dean Ambrose. RAW -- March 30, 2015.
• WWE United States Championship Match: John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio. Hell in a Cell -- October 25, 2015.

WWE: U.S. Championship - A Legacy of Greatness Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The U.S. Championship: A Legacy of Greatness features a 1080i transfer that offers a mix of up-converted 4x3 SD footage (vintage matches) and HD footage (JBL segments, newer matches). The presentation is consistent with the standard WWE release. The newer interview segments are digital and lack the sort of pristine attention to detail found on the best cinematic presentations. JBL's skin appears beet red. Minor aliasing is evident, particularly on his necktie. Newer HD matches suffer from some macroblocking and light banding. All that said, it holds up very well, particularly the matches. Color and detail are both terrific, the former popping with regularity on wrestler attire, digital and handmade signs, and other elements around the ring and arena. The transfer reveals plenty of intimate costume, skin, and tattoo details. Older matches retain their native aspect ratio. The SD segments vary wildly in quality, with newer material holding up a bit better than the earliest matches. WWE's presentation is nothing special, but anyone familiar, and comfortable, with the basic WWE home video attack plan should find this to be on par.

WWE: U.S. Championship - A Legacy of Greatness Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack accompanying The U.S. Championship: A Legacy of Greatness is likewise rather standard-fare for WWE Home Video. JBL's segments offer satisfying, center-focused, and clearly delivered verbiage. Other than that, it's all match content. As expected, quality of delivery improves over time. Earlier matches are essentially front-middle focused with no range or sense of place, producing rather shallow commentary on top. As the material becomes more recent, and into the HD era in particular, the track opens up to reveal more crowd definition, more clearly defined and surround-heavy intro music, sharper crashes onto the mat and other assorted in-action sound elements, and more natural ringside commentary. This is a very straightforward sort of presentation that runs the gamut of available quality in the average WWE Home Video package. Nothing special, nothing offensive.

WWE: U.S. Championship - A Legacy of Greatness Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The U.S. Championship: A Legacy of Greatness contains the following Blu-ray exclusive matches on disc two:

• NWA United States Championship Match: Dusty Rhodes vs. Ivan Koloff. Main Event -- April 3, 1988.
• WCW United States Championship Match: "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes vs. "Ravishing" Rick Rude. WCW Pro Wrestling -- September 18, 1993.
• WWE United States Championship Match: JBL vs. William Regal. SmackDown -- April 28, 2006.
• WWE United States Championship Match: Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus. RAW -- March 14, 2011.
• WWE United States Championship Match: Dean Ambrose vs. Adrian Neville. NXT -- August 7, 2013.
• WWE United States Championship Match: John Cena vs. Cesaro. RAW -- June 19, 2015.

WWE: U.S. Championship - A Legacy of Greatness Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The U.S. Championship: A Legacy of Greatness is another well done, semi-niche collection from WWE Home Video that highlights the history of what is, today, only one of three individual titles up for grabs in the WWE. There's plenty of entertainment value to be found and a jam-packed participants roster that reads like a who's-who of sports entertainment over the past few decades. It's too bad production began before the set could include one of current champion Kalisto's matches for the title, though considering the WWE relegated his title defense at WrestleMania XXXII and 2016's Payback to the pre-show, it's not a surprise. So much for the "legacy of greatness" at the "biggest WrestleMania ever" and the pay-per-view heralded as the beginning of "a new era" for the WWE. WWE's Blu-ray offers standard-fare video and audio qualities. Bonuses are limited to a few additional matches. Recommended, and here's hoping that a similarly structured Intercontinental title release isn't far behind.