Hey guys it’s Josh, reviewing Smart Mark Video’s Best of Chris Hero in IWA East Coast. I got this because it has multiple appealing matches and I think Chris Hero is quite possibly the best wrestler of all time so I try to watch as much as I can of him. 

Disc 1

Chris Hero vs Claudio Castagnoli 

These two obviously have tons of history and are known better as partners than opponents, but they worked very well together here. This was definitely not the cleanest match either of them have had but I wouldn’t really say it was sloppy either. Claudio (Cesaro) has always been great and he did very well here, and the same can be said for Hero. They showed their technical ability early on but throughout the match they both showed their striking ability and Hero showed lots of athleticism. They are both such great and well-rounded talents and showed that in this match. Pretty good way to start the DVD. ***1/4

Chris Hero vs Mike Quackenbush

This started off hot with some great fast paced technical exchanges and it ended up being crazy all the way through. There were so many incredible sequences in this match and it had me glued to the screen all the way through. It was cleaner than the first match and told more of a story, with Quack targeting Hero’s leg and Hero making everything Quack did look great. There was so much small stuff that added to it also, one thing that sticks out being the way Hero effortlessly and perfectly transitioned from a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker into a pin. He makes everything look so good. This was a very good match. ***1/2

Chris Hero vs Arik Cannon

I turned the commentary off within the first five minutes of this match because it was completely horrific. There was a guest commentator who was just completely horrible (I hope it was a guest…they better not be on any more of the matches on this DVD). This combined with the fact that it took them nearly ten minutes to actually do anything made this very difficult to watch, and in the process made it very difficult to review. Lighting and video problems definitely didn’t help. What I was able to pay attention to was not bad but looked pretty uninteresting. This was also the longest match on the DVD up to this point. With every kickout in the last 10 minutes I became more ready to turn it off. This was 25 minutes of my life that I’ll never get back. 0*

Chris Hero vs Billy Gunn

After the last match made me lose my will to ever watch wrestling again, hopefully this is better. However, since it’s a Billy Gunn match, I have very little expectations. It was pretty bizarre how the commentators were hyping up Billy Gunn like he was some wrestling god and this match took even longer to get going than the last one. Gunn wrestled like this was a Velocity match and it officially turned into a 1999 WWF match when Gunn randomly knocked down and started beating up the referee. There wasn’t much Hero could do to save this one. Better than the last match by default because of the commentary not being traumatizing and some minorly fun brawling but this was not good. *

Chris Hero vs El Drunko

I think this was supposed to be funny but it wasn’t. At least THE commentator wasn’t there. The next match is Tracy Smothers, oh god. Why does the person who made this DVD hate good wrestling? This DVD really did have potential, the first two matches were great and now it’s so horrible. * The commentators made a racist joke after the match, as if this DVD needed to be any more offensive.

After that last match I turned on Raw in an attempt to make me want to watch this DVD again. I turned on a Raw because I was bored with watching Chris Hero. That is not how the world works, that is not how any of this works. The match selection on this compilation is amazingly bad. 

Chris Hero vs Tracy Smothers

Tracy rambled for what felt like a year before this match and called someone in the crowd an extremely offensive word that should never be said. I figured that this DVD would have some bad wrestling but I was definitely not expecting blatant racism and homophobia. The wrestling was as bad as you would expect from a Tracy Smothers match where they try to make him look like a real threat and it felt like it went for a year. I turned to Raw during this match and saw Kevin Owens doing a chinlock. Wrestling. 0*

I never thought I could be so terribly bored and offended watching Chris Hero. None of this is his fault, but still. Save us Togo. Please. There have been 4 bad-horrific matches in a row. Lets not make it 5. This is on its’ way to being one of the worst match selections of all time, the average rating up to this point is literally less than 2. It seems like the people who made this DVD said “Lets find the worst Chris Hero matches that have ever taken place and put them together on one DVD!” Also it is probably worth noting that after the Smothers match a screen that said “End of Disc” popped up. But it wasn’t the end. There is still another match. As if we needed any more proof that the people who made this put literally no effort in. 

Chris Hero vs Dick Togo

Ladder Match

This was a pretty good ladder match with a lot of really unique and cool spots. It didn’t really have any flow and I’m not sure what it was missing but either way it was infinitely better than the last 4 matches on this DVD. Worth watching for some really good and creative spots. ***

Disc 1 Review

Yikes. 2 really good matches, 1 pretty good spotfest, and 4 straight up bad matches. I hope that I never have to watch another Tracy Smothers match for the rest of my life, and I would like to wait at least a year before being exposed to Billy Gunn again. The average match rating ended up being a 1.68. Hopefully Disc 2 is a lot better than this. It was sad because it seemed like it was going to be a good DVD after the first two matches and then it just completely died. It showed signs of life with that last match, will it be able to come back to life on Disc 2?

Disc 2

Chris Hero vs Jerry Lynn

This was one of the main reasons I bought this DVD as Jerry Lynn is easily in my top 10 of all time and by the time Chris Hero is done wrestling he will be too (I don’t allow myself to say people are in my top 10 of all time before they are retired/out of their prime). This was a really good match with both men working very hard. Lots of good nearfalls and Hero did a lot of highflying moves that you don’t really ever see him do anymore. It was so cool to see these two wrestle and it was a very enjoyable match with a very surprising ending. ***1/4

Chris Hero vs KUDO

Hero was attacked by this guy after his match with Billy Gunn (I was hoping I would never have to think about that match again), so I guess that’s why this is happening. This was more similar to Hero’s current match format where he bullies his opponent but it was less interesting than most of his 2016 matches. Hero was much more vicious in this match than he was in most of the matches on this DVD, hitting lots of brutal strikes. This wasn’t even that long of a match but it felt like they were trying to do too much. It was far from bad but by the end of the match there were just too many “nearfalls” for me to really care about it. **1/2

After this match there was a bullrope match where fans were randomly selected to be handcuffed to wrestlers. Chris Hero was not involved in any of this. You’re probably wondering why this is on the DVD. So am I. This is probably the weirdest DVD of all time.

Juggulator vs Midnight Rider

“Juggulator” looked like a Headbangers cosplay and “Midnight Rider” was a man with a large bald spot in a sweater and jeans. Both men were bleeding within the first two minutes of this match. About five minutes in it cut to the next match. No, I’m not joking. This is more proof that the people who made this DVD did not even watch it before they released it. N/A

Chris Hero vs Shiima Xion

Shiima is now known as Zema Ion who is a fantastic wrestler now but I’ve never seen a match of his from this long ago. Zema actually did well here and so did Hero but these two could have a muuuuch better match than this one. Decent but limited by heel manager antics. **1/2

Chris Hero vs Jon Moxley vs Eric Darkstorm

This was a very short match which was disappointing because I wanted to see more Hero and Mox interactions. Not really long enough for anything to be said about it. N/A

Chris Hero vs Roderick Strong

Another decent match where there was just something missing. That’s how I feel about a lot of old Roddy matches for some reason. There was some good stuff but I couldn’t really get into it and it ended pretty abruptly. I wish Roddy didn’t have to leave EVOLVE in mid-2015 so we could have seen this match take place on a large-scale in a more modern time as both of them are better wrestlers now. **1/4

Chris Hero vs Jason Kincaid

I was very interested in this one as Kincaid is, in 2016, one of the top up and comers in the business and Hero is obviously in 2016 the best wrestler in the world. However I had not seen any of Kincaid from pre-2015 so I had no idea whether this would be good or not going in. While they could definitely have a better match now this was a good match with both men working hard and putting on good performances. Kincaid’s moveset didn’t seem to be as diverse as it is now but he still did well and it was very cool to see them wrestle. ***

Disc 2 Review

This disc was definitely better than Disc 1. Even though there were less good matches there were no horrible matches, no horrifyingly awful guest commentators, and there was no racism or homophobia. The average match rating for this disc was a 2.7, which is much better than the average for the first disc. However this disc was hurt by the bizarre bullrope raffle situation. 

Overall DVD Thoughts

This is probably the most bizarre DVD I own. I don’t think I have a compilation DVD with a worse string of matches than matches 3-6 on this DVD. Take those 4 matches out and fix the weird problems and this is a decent DVD. The average match rating for the DVD is a 2.1, which is not very good. Even though there are some awful matches I’d say the Claudio, Quackenbush, Togo, Lynn, and Kincaid matches are all worth watching. That means less than half of the advertised matches on the DVD are worth watching, which is again not very good. If you love Chris Hero and are willing to spend money to see 5 good but not that memorable matches then I can recommend it, but if you intend on watching the whole DVD then I am so sorry that you will have to go through what I went through. Hopefully next time I watch a Smart Mark compilation the people who made it actually watched it before they released it. It was probably pretty embarrassing for them to find out how horribly made this DVD was (I would hope that somebody told them at some point). Overall I’d give it a thumbs down unless you’re a die-hard Hero fan with lots of money that hasn’t seen any of the matches I said were good. 

Do I Regret Buying It?

No, I do not regret buying this DVD as it was so amazing to see Hero and Lynn wrestle each other because I didn’t know they ever wrestled and it did not disappoint. It was no five-star match but I will never forget it. It was also cool to see Hero wrestling Jason Kincaid and Dick Togo as those are very unique matchups and both are great talents. Hero vs Quackenbush and Claudio were also as good as I expected them to be. If you go in knowing that it won’t all be good but there will be some very enjoyable matches, you won’t regret buying it.