DVD Review: The Road is Jericho: Epic Stories and Rare Matches from Y2J
March 22, 2015
By: Darragh O’Connor of Wrestleview.com
One of the best DVDs that you can own as a wrestling fan, never mind a Chris Jericho fan, is “Breaking the Code: Behind the Walls of Chris Jericho”. This first career spanning DVD was a watershed moment for the idea of what could be done with a WWE DVD release. When the new Chris Jericho release was sent to me, I was beyond excited.
This set will be dropping is now released and all I can say is that this is another one that you HAVE to buy. The new set features “a never-before-seen sit-down interview with Y2J that breaks down his highlight reel of a career and provides an in-depth look at all of his favourite moments, matches, and stories in ECW, WCW, and WWE.” This is great and all, but the real selling point here is the match listing.
Jericho’s choice matches are pulled all the way back from his time in ECW through his WCW run and then his storied career in WWE. The WCW cuts underscore why I loved WCW. The two Cruiserweight Championship matches are simply thrilling clashes. I forgot how great Chris Jericho vs. Ultimo Dragon and his feud with Dean Malenko actually were.
For those who read his books, you’ll know Jericho’s struggle when coming to the WWE. However, if you haven’t, you’ll enjoy Jericho opening up about the transition period of learning the “WWE Style”. This section is dovetailed with two stellar matches: a great cage match with X-Pac and Kane’s best match from Armageddon 2000.
Disc 2 opens strong with a fantastic match with Kurt Angle but it span the difficult period for the WWE. The opening match is actually the best on this disc and there is a lot of filler here; much like Jericho’s second book. Although, the RAW match with Jeff Hardy from February in 2003 comes very close.
The final disc picks things up and presents some very strong matches. There is an interesting street fight dark match with John Cena. I am not a Cena fan but he is one of those guys that can have a great match but only when he works up to better talents. The Chicago street fight with CM Punk and the Cage match with Bray Wyatt are the two most recent stand out matches for me on this latter disc.
Please note that I reviewed the Blu-ray version of this release; I would always recommend that you pick up the Blu-ray version. This is due to the awesome exclusives that WWE Home Video packs into them. The outstanding ladder match that Jericho had with Christian in 2004 is one of these exclusives. This is worth the price of admission alone.
Again, this was a must buy from the get go. The matches are fantastic and there is so much here for general wrestling fans and hardcore Jericho fans that I cannot recommend this enough. Pre-order it and prepare to enjoy the corpus of work from the “best in the world at what he does”, Chris Jericho.
The Road is Jericho: Epic Stories and Rare Matches from Y2J is available for pre-order now and will be available on the Monday 16 March, 2015 at www.wwedvd.co.uk.