UPW is Ultimate Pro Wrestling, a Southern California group that has been around since at least 2000, and at one point served as a feeder system of sorts for WWE (its alumnae include John Cena, Heidenreich, Victoria and Luther Reigns), according to its website.

 

The point of this particular DVD is to show how their current talent (as of 2003, anyways) fared against established names such as Juventud Guerrera, Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer.

 

In terms of production values.... they're not the greatest. One of the overhead cameras is far too bright, creating a sense of blurriness, and a lot of the bouts appear to be taped for various Internet webcasts. 

 

The sound remix is quiet at times and louder at others.  For example, there is an eight-minute (Yes, that's right; EIGHT MINUTE) post-match promo involving Brian "Grandmaster Sexay" Lawler where you can barely hear what he's saying.

 

To its credit, UPW sets up each match beforehand with a brief voiceover. They also have quasi-shoot interviews with some of the competitors afterwards explaining what it was like to work with their opponent.

 

On commentary is some guy named Doc Marley, who hosts most of the bouts with revolving color commentators, including heel manager The Big Schwag ("Welllll, it's The Big Schwag"?) and a young "Prototype" John Cena (in a funny moment, Cena has to put over The Blue Meanie as if he's some sort of tremendous talent).

 

There's nothing overly horrible or insulting in any of the commentary, although not much is memorable, either.

 

As far as the in-ring action, it was like watching your typical indy show, without one real standout match. Rob Van Dam (this was back when he was still in ECW) and Christopher Daniels put on a good effort but part of the ring was broken when they started, limiting what they could do.

 

Beyond that, guys like Roadkill, Blue Meanie, Keiji Sakoda, and Grandmaster Sexay did very little to impress me.

 

The one reason for getting this DVD: In the extras section, there's an UNINTENIONALLY HILARIOUS interview segment with Rowdy Roddy Piper, where he rambles on incoherently for about 10 minutes; falls over his chair (for real); attempts to get up several times and makes comments and jokes that no one really understands.

 

He then attempts to interview an Afa lookalike named Skulu, with Piper trying to milk the Jimmy Snuka coconut incident yet again.

 

You can also watch a video of UPW student Jennifer Thomas learning how to wrestle, which is set to music, but the advertised bonus match of Road Warrior (Animal?) vs. The Ballard Brothers doesn't appear to be anywhere on the disc. In its place they have highlights of a three-way match involving Spanky, Frankie Kazarian and B-Boy.

 

Would I buy another UPW video? Probably not. Perhaps I just caught them on an off-event, but groups like this can't afford to give to the public anything less than their best effort…

 

Okay, maybe I'd pay to see Piper ramble on again, but just for comedy value.